The shortlist for the biennial Man Booker International Prize has been announced and it’s notably less Anglocentric than previous years with only three of the 10 listed authors writing in English, and one of those was born and raised to the age of 20 in the former Yugoslavia, that being Josip Novakovich (Canada). The other […]
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The Laboratory: Reading the Eastern Bloc
When I went to see Jiří Hájíček talk about his novel Rustic Baroque (Selský baroko) at Prague’s American Center in mid-January he made an obvious but still very interesting point about what distinguishes the English-language translation of the book from the other translations that have come out so far. He said that not only for […]
Literary roundup: Sándor Márai isn’t hungry and fraught relations
At Project Forum’s Salon German writer Michael Krüger has a fascinating account of the numerous bonds that exist between Hungary’s great contemporary writers and Germany, of how virtually all of them speak excellent German (while, in my experience, many speak little or no English at all), and are extremely well-read in German literature. These connections, […]
‘The Bridge Over the Neroch: And Other Works’ by Leonid Tsypkin
The two novellas and five short stories that make up The Bridge Over the Neroch: And Other Works comprise the rest of the writing left to us by the author of Summer in Baden-Baden, Leonid Tsypkin. New Directions is bringing the book out in February 2013 and you can read my review in the 2nd […]
Deaths of the Artists: Anton Webern in Twelve Tones
An essay on the death, music and aesthetic of the composer Anton Webern at Prague’s B O D Y. “Anton Webern was killed on September 15, 1945 in Mittersill, Austria. For a long time no one knew the exact circumstances of the great composer’s death and the musical world more or less accepted the mystery. […]
Talking collectivization
On Wednesday January 16, the American Center in Prague will be hosting an event (PDF) exploring the themes of the recently translated Czech novel Rustic Baroque by Jiří Hájíček. Titled “Collectivization – Restitution – Literature”, the panel discussion will feature the author as well as the novel’s translator Gale A. Kirking and collectivization historian Jiří […]
Literary roundup: Anxious, dark and scary
The ongoing Anxiety series at The New York Times features a contribution from László Krasznahorkai that might be described as a bit beyond anxious. “I’ve been living in complete silence for months, I might say for years …” it starts out, and gets worse (or better) from there. Russian Vampires Russian Life’s Chtenia 21 is […]
Literary roundup: Reliving the 1930s
British novelist Hari Kunzru has an excellent and chilling article at the New Yorker’s Page Turner on the extreme lengths the current authoritarian right-wing government in Hungary is going to consolidate its hold not only on the country’s political life but on its cultural life, ensuring that theater, film, art and the rest remain Christian, […]
Central/Eastern European novels 2013
The Millions has put out a long and translation-heavy list of books to be published in 2013 in the US. There are quite a few Central and Eastern European novels to look forward to, including a few I have already read, either because they came out in the UK last year or because I took […]
Literary roundup: The Auschwitz Volunteer and Best European Fiction
On January 9, historian Timothy Snyder and director of the Museum of Jewish Heritage David Marwell will meet at the museum in New York to discuss the unbelievable story of Witold Pilecki. Known as the only man to voluntarily go to Auschwitz to be able to provide a first-hand account of the atrocities taking place […]
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