Tag Archives: Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature

The Jerusalem Book Fair’s Midlife Crisis: Taking Stock at 50

In the fiftieth year since its founding, the 26th biannual Jerusalem International Book Fair (JIBF) hosted 5 days of exhibits, panels, and literary events from February 10-February 15, 2013. More than 400 publishers from 30 countries exhibited, and the visitor head-count for the week exceeded 45,000. Amid jubilee celebration, though, a growing contingent of long-time participants…Continue Reading

International Bestsellers: Murders & Miracles

Tannöd, Germany’s current number one fiction title, overcame two obstacles to win the prestigious 2007 Krimipreis for the best crime novel: the protagonist is not an investigator or super sleuth as is typical in crime fiction, and it is Andrea Maria Schenkel’s debut. She based the genre-bending novel on actual unsolved murders that took place…Continue Reading

International Fiction Bestsellers

Goodness, Gracious Do-Gooders in Denmark, Laughing Last in France, and Oz Goes Feral in Israel A wave of irrational exuberance crashes over Denmark this month as the nation just can’t stop reading a novel in which the citizens of a small Danish town become pathologically obsessed with doing good deeds for their neighbors. Hitting the…Continue Reading

International Fiction Bestsellers

It’s a Wonderful Double Life Hot-Buttered in Finland, Dreyfus Redux in Israel, and Watusi on the Brain in Spain Nouveau-riche restaurateur Brede Ziegler is murdered not once, but twice in No Echo, the sixth in a series of shrewdly executed detective novels from megastar Norwegian author Anne Holt. After Ziegler turns up hot-buttered and trussed,…Continue Reading

International Fiction Bestsellers

Women’s Work Poland Gets the Menses, Millás Sizzles Spain, And Hareven Labors for Love in Israel Serotonin levels are plunging this month all over Poland, where the delightfully demented author Janusz Wisniewski comes down with Tense Syndromes (otherwise translated as Premenstrual Syndrome; the original title was Menstruation, but the Warsaw publisher deemed it “too shocking”),…Continue Reading

International Fiction Bestsellers

Blowin’ in the Wind Grandes Gusts in Spain, Bewitchery in Greece, And Crazy Birds Flutter Aloft in Israel Breezes, gales, gusts, and tempests swirl like suspicious characters through this month’s bestselling Spanish novel Difficult Airs, the latest effort from well-known erotica queen Almudena Grandes. The author’s fifth novel sets out to map the meaning of…Continue Reading