News and opinion on the changing world of book publishing
April 2006
Not So Foreign Family Problems Fill the Lists The bright blue and red cover of YOU’RE JOKING, MONSIEUR TANNER (l’Olivier), French author Jean-Paul Dubois‘ most recent bestseller, shows a man on hands and knees who’s painted himself into a corner. This is Paul Tanner, a wildlife documentary filmmaker who suddenly inherits the grand family manse, [...]
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Jealousy, Hope, Love, Frustration, Pinochet & the PLO Craftsman, plumber, brick-layer, ironware merchant, script writer, filmmaker, and now novelist, Nan Aurousseau has hewed his vast trove of on-the-job tales into a thrilling novel called Overalls. Like so many beleaguered artists, the adroit Frenchman wrote the autobiographical bestseller (not a memoir, mind you) while down and [...]
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February 2005
Curvings of a Self-Help Author,Imaginary Friends in France Rated-R in Taiwan Eva Agull ó has become famous after writing a successful book about addiction in Luc ía Etxebarria’s new novel A Miracle in Balance, which has charged to number 4 on the list in Spain. However, in Rush Limbaugh-like fashion, she herself has become a [...]
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October 2004
Italians Battle Reclusive Tenants, Food Taster Plays With Fire, Tony Soprano Takes Normandy Like an episode of House Hunters gone terribly awry, the latest offering of Italy’s Andrea De Carlo, Wind Shear, sets two well-acquainted couples (along with their trusty real estate agent) off from Milan to visit some country houses which they hope to [...]
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July 2004
Plagiarist Wallops Germany, Big Brother Is Watching in Italy, Dutch Golden Noose Nominee Smothers the Competition Hold on to your Warranties and Indemnities clause and prepare for a ride through the fraudulent world of a young waiter who feigns authorship to impress one of his regular customers, in Swiss author Martin Suter’s latest book, Lila, [...]
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February 2001
Time Regained Eco Back in Italy, Dahl Redux in Spain, and Harry Potter Everywhere Else Umberto Eco is at it again. Romance, that is. His fourth such novel to date — featuring the picaresque adventures of the title character, Baudolino — has hit the stands in Italy, and we’re told its pages are bursting with [...]
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June 2000
Dictators’ Desserts Trujillo’s Dominican Feast and Franco’s Fall in Spain, Plus Cremer Redux in Holland Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa conquers lists in both Spain and Argentina with The Goat’s Feast, a novel that’s captivated critics (it “makes one’s flesh creep,” one wrote admiringly) and has been hailed as a revival of Vargas Llosa’s best [...]
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