News and opinion on the changing world of book publishing
December 2007
After a four year sabbatical from novel-writing, the prolific and provocative Juan José Millás returns this month to sweep the Spanish bestseller lists. A slim novel at just 135 pages, Laura and Julio takes place in the author’s unusual world of the Borgesian double, exploring the idea of the original versus the copy with the [...]
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December 2006
One + one = three in Dutch author and Libris Prize winner Tomas Lieske‘s new novel My Sovereign Love about an artisan of arithmetic, his love interest, and a meddling monarch. Born in The Hague in 1528, Marnix de Veer is a mathematician, architect, and instrument-maker extraordinaire. Also a dabbler in foreign languages, he catches [...]
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Copyright Conundrums in Iran, Swedish Suburbs & Chilean Death Publishing in Iran is a tough business. Just last year, Publishing Trends reported on the international stir caused by the Iranian government’s banning of Coelho‘s THE ZAHIR (PT June 2005). Eventually, the ban was lifted and Coelho turned up on Iranian bookshelves all over the country. [...]
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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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May 2004
Road Rage Hits Spain, the Devil Deals in Sweden, and a Burglary Stumps Denmark A minor fender bender on a Monday morning leads a frazzled female executive named Sonsoles to hop out of her convertible and let loose with a string of insults and profanities that would make even the most grizzled truck driver blush [...]
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April 2004
Youths Kick-Start Japanese Market, China Makes the Grade, French Teacher Explores Afterlife When 19-year-old Hitomi Kanehara and 20-year-old Risa Wataya recently became the youngest authors ever to win the coveted Akutagawa Prize (which helped launch the careers of greats like Kenzaburo Oe and Ryu Murakami), the Japanese literary scene received just the spark it needed [...]
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November 2003
She’s Got Game Gablé’s Bold Move in Germany, Forest Fling in Holland, And Spain’s Answer to Umberto Eco Move over, Monopoly. Board game junkies worldwide are in for a surprise this month as author and former university lecturer in Medieval Studies Rebecca Gablé’s quirky novel The Settlers of Catan hits stores and the German bestseller [...]
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June 2003
Walk on the Wild Side Sophie’s Choice in Sweden, Saddam Does Denmark, And Russia’s Crime Babe Rides Again The co-creator of the longest-running Swedish soap opera in history sends white-hot sparks of sensuality shooting over Scandinavia this month with “a clearly political manifesto disguised as an entertaining literary soap.” In Stars Without Vertigo, now bounding [...]
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May 2003
Cuckoo Cavaliers Three Pests in Gavron’s Mess, Down and Out in Gdansk, And Gala Rings Twice in Spain John Belushi meets the Coen brothers — or maybe the three stooges — this month as a trio of young Israelis land in New York to strike it fabulously rich but soon put the pedal to the [...]
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February 2003
Realpolitik Redux Aguinis in Argentina, King’s Ransom in Denmark, and Slobo’s Serbian Adventures With the world reeling from the 1994 bombings of the Israeli embassy and the Argentine Jewish Mutual Aid Association in Buenos Aires, a Moslem scholar and a young and impulsive journalist join forces to prevent future attacks in Argentine author Marcos Aguinis’ [...]
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