New review: Eduardo Halfon's 𝑇𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑢𝑙𝑎 www.complete-review.com/reviews/guat...

Pleased to see Shahrnush Parsipur's excellent 𝑊𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑛 𝑊𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑀𝑒𝑛 ( www.complete-review.com/reviews/iran... ) longlisted for Int'l Booker Prize, and presumably the Feminist Press ed. never 'came out' in the UK, hence eligible, but isn't it a 2012 (©2011) translation ? feministpress.org/products/978...

New review: Nobel laureate Halldór Laxness' 𝐴 𝑃𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑠ℎ 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑐𝑙𝑒 www.complete-review.com/reviews/hall... (US ed. just out; UK ed. coming 7/2026)

Today's @nytimes.com Book Review table of contents sure suggests they have a lot of questions:

In the mail: "A History of Classical China, from Confucius to the First Emperor" by Andrew Seth Meyer, 𝑇𝑜 𝑅𝑢𝑙𝑒 𝐴𝑙𝑙 𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑛 global.oup.com/academic/pro...

"Bestselling Women Writers in Japan Defy Cliché" reports @publisherswkly.bsky.social www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

New review: Choi Jin-young's 𝐻𝑢𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟 www.complete-review.com/reviews/kore...

"Written between 1995 and 2018, each novel is written in paragraph-free stream-of-consciousness prose consisting of long-running sentences (the longest stretching to about 150 pages) broken up mainly by commas." www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/arti... Have to admit, mostly struggled some with these.

Cees Nooteboom obit @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/02/19/b... Noting also: "Only a fraction of his complete works has appeared in English", *sigh*.

In the mail: most exciting arrival of the day, however, definitely the three-volume set of Yoshikawa Eiji's 𝑀𝑢𝑠𝑎𝑠ℎ𝑖, "translated for the first time in its entirety" (!), from Tuttle. tuttlepublishing.com/japan/musash...

In the mail: a duo from Dedalus — the latest 'Take Six'-collection www.dedalusbooks.com/our-books/bo... and Anna Albinus' 𝑅𝑒𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖 www.dedalusbooks.com/our-books/bo... — and yet more Antoine Volodine, 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑀𝑜𝑛𝑟𝑜𝑒 𝐺𝑖𝑟𝑙𝑠, from @archipelagobooks.bsky.social archipelagobooks.org/book/the-mon...

Alberto Manguel reviews "An allegory of a declining empire" by Gonçalo M. Tavares, 𝑂 𝐹𝑖𝑚 𝑑𝑜𝑠 𝐸𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑑𝑜𝑠 𝑈𝑛𝑖𝑑𝑜𝑠 𝑑𝑎 𝐴𝑚𝑒́𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑎, @thetls.bsky.social www.the-tls.com/literature/f... [£] A 900 pp. "epopeia, satírica e distópica" ! www.relogiodagua.pt/produto/o-fi...

Package was zipping along through the system — Iowa to Jersey City in little more than 24 hours — but those last fifty miles have taken ten days (and counting ....).

New review: Ian McEwan's latest, 𝑊ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑊𝑒 𝐶𝑎𝑛 𝐾𝑛𝑜𝑤 www.complete-review.com/reviews/mcew...

Longlist for @dublinlitaward.bsky.social announced dublinliteraryaward.ie/features/new... Twenty novels !

Am 20. Oktober 2026 wird Elfriede #Jelinek 80 Jahre alt. Aus diesem Anlass findet an der @univie.ac.at schon am 12. März eine Auftaktveranstaltung unter dem Motto WELT.AUTORIN.JELINEK statt. Eintritt frei! #LitWiss ifvjelinek.at/veranstaltun...

The awfulness of the first sentence here is obvious. As for the second sentence, I don't think they do and I don't think they do.

In the mail: more Tove Ditlevsen ! ARC of 𝑉𝑖𝑙ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑚'𝑠 𝑅𝑜𝑜𝑚, coming from @fsgbooks.bsky.social 5/2026 us.macmillan.com/books/978037... (Yes, this already came out in the UK last fall: www.penguin.co.uk/books/455368... )

as good an excuse as any to show some Wakefield Press appreciation. Post your Wakefields!

New review: Sacha Bronwasser's 𝐿𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑛 www.complete-review.com/reviews/nied...

Schattenfroh (Johannes Mario Simmel)

Not sure this is a good dare. en.ara.cat/culture/albe...

Cool new essay that analyzes data from @post45data.bsky.social to argue for the rise of literary nationalism in parallel with political nationalism substack.com/home/post/p-...

Great to hear a new edition/translation of this coming out. (Andrew Bromfield's translation came out from much-missed Glas in 1991 web.archive.org/web/20120512... )

In the mail: great to see more Ángel Bonomini coming: ARC of 𝑆𝑙𝑜𝑤 𝐸𝑙𝑒𝑝ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑀𝑖𝑙𝑎𝑛 ( @transitbooks.bsky.social 8/2026) www.transitbooks.org/books/slowel...

New review: Karl Ove Knausgaard's 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑜𝑙 𝑜𝑓 𝑁𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 www.complete-review.com/reviews/norg...

Ah, the deep, hard questions I forget to ask myself when reading: "Can literature be tasted ?" Almost have to admire this level of nonsense www.fashion-headline.com/en/article/4... Almost. ("Freely inspired by Yukio Mishima’s “Strawberry”" ! (But: "not officially affiliated with any rights holder"))

In the mail: very pleased to see a very nice-looking stack of four William Golding-novels, from @penguinclassicsusa.bsky.social !

New review: Alessandro Robecchi's (multiple-)mystery novel, 𝐵𝑟𝑜𝑘𝑒𝑛 𝑇𝑟𝑢𝑡ℎ𝑠 www.complete-review.com/reviews/trcr...

Books page @washingtonpost.com still up www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen... , for now; fitting lead/top review-title

This is horrible. The WaPo's Books section has a brilliant band of critics and editors and has developed a genuine identity in the book world. I'm heartbroken for a staff that has done such consistently great and dedicated work.

pretty cool (albeit Paris-centric) sounding literary prize here were the winner gets one free drink every night for a year

So apparently when they announced the longlist for this year's prix Jésus Paradis yesterday they didn't have a finished display copy for one of the titles, so somebody drew the cover. Not quite the Éditions de Minuit colophon but, hey, B+ for effort www.livreshebdo.fr/sites/defaul...

In the mail: more Can Xue ! 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐸𝑛𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐿𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑂𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑠, from @yalepress.bsky.social yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300... Over 400 pp, so just to make sure they try to reässure readers by promising: "This is the most accessible work yet from the celebrated writer" ☺️

Good to see this getting some early *buzz*/attention.

New review: Viktor Domontovych's 1928 novel 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐺𝑖𝑟𝑙 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑇𝑒𝑑𝑑𝑦 𝐵𝑒𝑎𝑟 www.complete-review.com/reviews/ukra...

Pamela Paul on Lionel Shriver is quite the combination www.wsj.com/arts-culture... [$ ?] Still, can't really disagree that: "The only real limitations she’s experienced, she said, are those of her own talent." Either one.

The world we live in now: not really surprised by this www.chosun.com/english/trav... and the small-print note at the end is perfect: "This article has been translated by Upstage Solar AI."

New review: Philip Owens' 1936 novel of a modern-day 'Will Shakespere', 𝑃𝑖𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑁𝑜𝑏𝑜𝑑𝑦 www.complete-review.com/reviews/gb19... , a neat little rediscovery coming from @mcnallyeditions.com

In the mail: very nice end-of-week trio, incl. the eagerly anticipated early Soviet-era (1928) Ukrainian novel 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐺𝑖𝑟𝑙 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑇𝑒𝑑𝑑𝑦 𝐵𝑒𝑎𝑟 by Viktor Domontovych from Dedalus www.dedalusbooks.com/our-books/bo...

Béla Tarr country: readings from Krasznahorkai's works: "have been condensed by the organisers into a seven-hour film" hlo.hu/news/seven-h... Condensed 🙂!

The Dukaj ( www.complete-review.com/reviews/pols... ) is now the third novel with this title under review at the CR; I think that's a first at the site. (They're all about the cold kind; don't think I'll be getting to any books about the currently-more-in-the-news kind .....)

New review: Jacek Dukaj's colossal slab of 𝐼𝑐𝑒 www.complete-review.com/reviews/pols...

now I see why American books are often floppier

This is from a great new essay by @emmettstinson.bsky.social www.erudit.org/en/journals/...

Good to see more reviews of this rolling in.

Google ever-helpful in dishing up unasked for additional suggestions to queries (that leave me wondering: who on earth asked 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡). (However, *either* way, that is definitely Schneefall outside my window right now.)

Bookshop ‘browsing’ is an intricate, multi-dimensional activity that engages with covers, spines, ‘bookseller notes’, table layouts, opening the books and reading bits, recalling long-buried reviews/mentions. All your previous reading experience pours into the process of selecting your next book!

In the mail: very pleased to see ARC of Birgitta Trotzig's 𝑄𝑢𝑒𝑒𝑛 ( @archipelagobooks.bsky.social 2/2026) archipelagobooks.org/book/queen/ as well as Richard Hell's 𝐺𝑜𝑑𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 from @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social www.nyrb.com/products/god...