In the mail: nice pre-Christmas university press duo: the very promising-sounding 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑓𝑢𝑐𝑖𝑢𝑠 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑐𝑙𝑒𝑠: "A Guide to the Texts That Made the Legend", ed. Wai-yee Li, coming from @columbiaup.bsky.social cup.columbia.edu/book/the-con... and ...

New review: Ivan Franko's 𝐵𝑜𝑟𝑦𝑠𝑙𝑎𝑣 𝑖𝑛 𝐹𝑙𝑎𝑚𝑒𝑠 www.complete-review.com/reviews/ukra...

Revisiting Henry Miller's 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐵𝑜𝑜𝑘𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑀𝑦 𝐿𝑖𝑓𝑒 (www.ndbooks.com/book/the-boo...) and this good point:

Some tentative reading plans for 2026, subject as always to caprice: timesflowstemmed.com/2025/12/20/r...

In the mail: ARC of Emma Tholozan's 𝑆𝑒𝑙𝑓-𝑊𝑜𝑟𝑡ℎ (tr. Emma Ramadan), coming 5/2026 from @scribepub.bsky.social Certainly an ... interesting premise. scribepublications.com/books/self-w...

More conkers coverage ! www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/de...

Der Traditionsverlag muss seine Buchhandlung in der Innenstadt schließen. Das erzählt auch viel über eine Gesellschaft, die sich ganz am Handy orientiert. @angoldna.bsky.social​ berichtet ↓

*Prediction* markets now basically just a sports-gambling racket. www.ft.com/content/1ac0... Who could have predicted that ?

New review: Friedrich Torberg's 1943 novella, 𝑉𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑀𝑖𝑛𝑒, now (well, 3/2026) finally in English www.complete-review.com/reviews/aust...

In the mail: Kurahashi Yumiko's 𝑆𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑝𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 — always great to see something from @wakefieldpress.bsky.social wakefieldpress.com/products/sco...

National Book Critics Circle 2025 longlist for Barrios book in translation prize announced - www.bookcritics.org/2025/12/18/2...

New review: Monique Wittig's 𝐴𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐴𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑜𝑛 www.complete-review.com/reviews/modf...

New review: Lee Child's 2009 Jack Reacher-novel (nr.13), 𝐺𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑇𝑜𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑤 www.complete-review.com/reviews/thri...

National Book Critics Circle 2025 longlist for fiction announced - www.bookcritics.org/2025/12/15/2...

Wild. 𝑂𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑠 𝑆𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑎𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝐿𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑢𝑚 𝑉𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑎𝑒 by Vladimiri Putini. antigonejournal.com/2025/12/caes...

New review: Nishizawa Yasuhiko's 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑀𝑎𝑛 𝑊ℎ𝑜 𝐷𝑖𝑒𝑑 𝑆𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑠 www.complete-review.com/reviews/trcr...

So much in @nytimes.com article on "Kids Rarely Read Whole Books Anymore. Even in English Class." horrifying ("A 2024 survey of English teachers [...] found they assigned an average of 2.7 whole books per year" etc.) www.nytimes.com/2025/12/12/u... but also this:

Astonishing in so many ways:

Krasznahorkai thanks multitudes in his Nobel banquet speech www.nobelprize.org/prizes/liter... but there's a transcription fail when he gets to W.G., sigh.

OFFS www.bbc.com/news/article...

Krasznahorkai's 'Nobel diploma'. www.nobelprize.org/prizes/liter...

New review: 𝐴𝑑𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑀𝑎𝑥 𝑆𝑝𝑖𝑡𝑧𝑘𝑜𝑝𝑓: 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑌𝑖𝑑𝑑𝑖𝑠ℎ 𝑆ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑘 𝐻𝑜𝑙𝑚𝑒𝑠, by Jonas Kreppel www.complete-review.com/reviews/yidd...

Open Letters Review editor Steve Donoghue kicks off his Worst Books of 2025 with this year's Worst Fiction - see them now at his Substack, Stevereads: stevedonoghue.substack.com/p/the-worst-...

75 Notable Translations of 2025, per @worldlittoday.bsky.social worldliteraturetoday.org/blog/lit-lis...

In the mail: an Amit Chaudhuri triple-pack from @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social : a collection of: "New and Selected Essays 1999-2023", 𝐼𝑛𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠 www.nyrb.com/products/inc... as well as re-issues of the novels 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐼𝑚𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑠 www.nyrb.com/products/the... and 𝐴 𝑁𝑒𝑤 𝑊𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑑 www.nyrb.com/products/a-n...

Am Sonntag wäre der 98. Geburtstag des großen deutsch-georgischen Autors & Philosophen Giwi Margwelaschwili - der 2025 Literaturkalender der Edition Momente würdigt dies, indem er Margwelaschwili zum Autor der Woche kürt. Das freut uns! Mehr Margwelaschwili: www.verbrecherverlag.de/autor_innen/...

Good to see this reviewed; surprised/disappointed it hasn't gotten more attention. (My review: www.complete-review.com/reviews/deut...)

New review: Felix Platter's journal of "Coming of Age in the Renaissance", 𝐵𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑑 𝑆𝑜𝑛 𝐹𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑥 www.complete-review.com/reviews/divb...

This will go over well ..... www.bbc.com/news/article... ("We as booksellers would certainly naturally and instinctively disdain it," he also says, but .....)

Die Lektorin der Reihe hat jeden Band mindestens dreimal gelesen – ihr schafft das auch!

New review: Touhfat Mouhtare's 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐹𝑖𝑟𝑒 𝑊𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛 www.complete-review.com/reviews/fraf...

Sam can't answer this but which current NYTBR reviewer would we least like to see use this title?

Good to see coverage of these — especially the Ismailov ("This is a thronged, esoteric, besottedly allusive novel, one of the most niche things I have ever reviewed").

My 𝑆𝑎𝑙𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝐺𝑟𝑎𝑧 (and apparently everything else at Lulu.com) 30% off with code BOOKGIFT30 at checkout today www.lulu.com/shop/ma-orth...

In the mail: huge pile (11 titles) to nicely end the month (more than doubling the total number of review copies received in November ...). OK, I had already reviewed the Serner www.complete-review.com/reviews/aust... but great to see it now in translation.

New review: Lee Child's 𝑁𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑆𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑜𝑙 www.complete-review.com/reviews/thri...

We are delighted to announce that the winner of the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation 2025 is ‘And the Walls Became the World All Around’ by Johanna Ekström and Sigrid Rausing, translated from Swedish (Sweden) by Sigrid Rausing and published by @grantabooks.bsky.social !

OK, age-wise I am in the demographic that still recognizes what that is, but this seems like a very strange marketing gambit. Even my ancient desktop doesn't have a drive for it. And how much could you load off that anyway, 1 MB? 1.4? That's nothing, in this day and age of oversize files & programs.

New review: Zoran Živković does Dostoevsky x4, in 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐹𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝐷𝑒𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑂𝑛𝑒 𝑅𝑒𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝐹𝑦𝑜𝑑𝑜𝑟 𝑀𝑖𝑘ℎ𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑖𝑐ℎ www.complete-review.com/reviews/zivk...

Translation support: Austria awards two state prizes for translation — one into German, one from German. €15,000 each. And 51 (!) more translators get some cash (Prämien), totaling €84,000. www.bmwkms.gv.at/themen/aktue...

New review: Nathalie Quintane's 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐶𝑎𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑟 www.complete-review.com/reviews/modf...

Good to see more Brigitte Reimann available in English (at least in the UK ...) www.penguin.co.uk/books/464075... — and review coverage ( @thetimes.com : www.thetimes.com/culture/book...). "Brigitte Reimann proves she’s a writer who deserves to be remembered" indeed.

"This question of the meaning of words took him two days. He might come back to it." (Georges Simenon, in 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑊𝑎𝑠 𝐷𝑖𝑟𝑡𝑦 www.complete-review.com/reviews/sime... )

In the mail: Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida's 𝑇ℎ𝑟𝑒𝑒 𝑆𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝐹𝑜𝑟𝑔𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔, from @fsgbooks.bsky.social us.macmillan.com/books/978037...

New review: Georges Simenon's dark, dark 1948 novel, 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑊𝑎𝑠 𝐷𝑖𝑟𝑡𝑦 www.complete-review.com/reviews/sime...

(US) National Book Awards announced www.nationalbook.org/winners-of-t...

Sounds about right www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

In the mail: a solid trio (though all non-fiction ...). Very curious about Wilde-grandson Merlin Holland on "The Legacy of a Scandal", in 𝐴𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑂𝑠𝑐𝑎𝑟. Fat ARC; coming from @europaeditions.bsky.social 4/2026 (already out in the UK: www.europaeditions.co.uk/book/9781787... )