OUT STEALING HORSES
This story, and image at left, from the New York Times Sunday Book Review.
Monday, June 25, 2007
HEY BOOKMAN BEATTIE IS BACK !!!
After four days deep in the French countryside, firstly two hours north of Bordeau in the Charente and secondly just outside Carhors in the Lot.
Now, after a seven hour drive across the south of France we are right on the coast at Le Lavendou, next town along the coast is San Tropez (!).
Now, after a seven hour drive across the south of France we are right on the coast at Le Lavendou, next town along the coast is San Tropez (!).
We are literally on the coast – Hotel Le Roc is built on the rocks right on the beach and the water, glorious sounds of waves crashing, is about 40 metres away! I’m sure pics will follow. The hotel is quite modest, like an upmarket motel really, but with the most superb location. Smallish bedroom but with balcony overlooking the ocean, tiny bathroom, large wardrobe.
And most importantly we have returned to the land of WiFi Broadband so for the rest of this week at least I'm back online.
Standby for news and views and reviews......................
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
CRIME SHORTLIST ANNOUNCED
The 6 strong shortlist was voted for by the UK public and is as follows:
Christopher Brookmyre - All Fun and Games Until Somebody Loses an Eye (Little, Brown)
Stuart MacBride - Cold Granite (HarperCollins)
Stephen Booth - The Dead Place (HarperCollins)
Allan Guthrie - Two Way Split (Birlinn),
Graham Hurley - Blood and Honey (Orion)
Michael Jecks - The Death Ship of Dartmouth (Headline).
The winner will be announced Thursday 19th July on the opening night of the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival and will receive £3,000 and a beer barrel from sponsors Theakstons Old Peculier.
The 6 strong shortlist was voted for by the UK public and is as follows:
Christopher Brookmyre - All Fun and Games Until Somebody Loses an Eye (Little, Brown)
Stuart MacBride - Cold Granite (HarperCollins)
Stephen Booth - The Dead Place (HarperCollins)
Allan Guthrie - Two Way Split (Birlinn),
Graham Hurley - Blood and Honey (Orion)
Michael Jecks - The Death Ship of Dartmouth (Headline).
The winner will be announced Thursday 19th July on the opening night of the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival and will receive £3,000 and a beer barrel from sponsors Theakstons Old Peculier.
LITERARY WORLD AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Son of Auberon Waugh, and grandson of Evelyn Waugh tells his story, warts and all.
This from The New York Times today.
Author pic from New York Times.
SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE FOR NON FICTION PRIZE WINNER ANNOUNCED
This from BBC 4 about the Baghdad green zone title.
And this from The Independent
WATERSTONES DEFENDS HIDDEN CHARGES
Following the story I posted a couple of days ago The Bookseller now advises that Waterstones have come out defending themselves from the practice.
MY FORMER COLLEAGUE BRENDA BOWEN TO GET HER OWN IMPRINT
At my very first Bologna Book Fair after joing Scholastic NZ in 1988 I was schooled in the mysteries of the Fair and the selling of foreign language rights by my New York colleague Brenda Bowen. I was extremely grateful to her for ever after and so it was with great delight that I read this story here in Bayonne, France this morning. Congratulations Brenda.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
MORE ON PORTO
There are five bridges spanning the River Duoro but the most famous is the Dom Luis 1 part of which you can see in this pic.
It consists of two levels, the top level is 392 metres long and the lower level 174 metres, the main feature being its huge iron arch.
The lower level is for vehicles and pedestrians while the upper level is for trains and pedestrians (if you can handle the vertigo!) It was was opened in 1877.
The Das Almas Chapel was just along the road from our hotel and displays the traditional exterior tile work which is seen on all the churches around Porto.
Annie and I have really fallen in love with the Majestic Cafe in Santa Catarina Street very close to our hotel and have broken one of our travel rules by returning on several occasions, sometimes for meals and other times for coffee.
Features include beautiful mirrors (they cover the walls) and lamps, a quite limited menu, and the superb service by highly trained, skilled and personable wait staff.
Monday, June 18, 2007
AND FOR THOSE WITH MORE INTEREST IN THE VISUAL ARTS WILL FIND THESE TWO FEATURES FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES OF GREAT INTEREST
1.David Hockney on smoking, the Turner Prize and much else!
And here is Hockney's website.
2.The Venice Biennale - Bigger but not better.
THE SUNDAY TIMES CULTURE SUPPLEMENT June 17, 2007
Monday morning in Porto and the International Herald Tribune was late in arriving so instead I bought the Sunday Times (NZ$10) which proved to be a good decision as the 96 page (!) Culture section was full of fascinating stuff from the wider arts world including 19 book reviews.
But the story that really caught my attention was headed The New Anne Frank.
Monday morning in Porto and the International Herald Tribune was late in arriving so instead I bought the Sunday Times (NZ$10) which proved to be a good decision as the 96 page (!) Culture section was full of fascinating stuff from the wider arts world including 19 book reviews.
But the story that really caught my attention was headed The New Anne Frank.
A journal written by a young Holocaust victim, Rutka Laskier, is being hailed as the new Anne Frank's diary. The Times publishes excerpts from the diary which has been hidden for 62 years, and Rutka Laskier's half sister, Zahava Scherz, reveals how she disovered it.
The diary, Rutka's Notebook , has been published in English by Yad Vashem Publications and more information is available from http://www.yadvashem.org/
Pic from the Sunday Times.
THE HIDDEN COSTS BEHIND THAT BESTSELLER
The Times Online (Monday 18 June) reveals the way a book chain pushes up the price of a heavily promoted title. Be sure to read this !
US AND ENGLISH WRITING
A Guardian blogger makes a comparison and finds in favour of the Americans when it comes to narrative.
BOOKS SUPPLIED BY THE POOL - SAVE ROOM IN YOUR LUGGAGE !
Amusing story from the Sunday Observer travel section.
SIR SALMAN RUSHDIE
The Guardian reports on the literary world's delight at knighthood.
Author pic from Wikipedia website
On the other hand Pakistan demand withdrawal of knighthood. This report from the Globe and Mail.
PORTO ON SUNDAY
The rain here in Porto stopped in the morning thank goodness because we were starting to suffer from cabin fever.
So Sunday we were able to get out to explore more of the city and it was fantastic. We started at the contemporary art museum, Museu Serralves, the biggest in the country.
There were several large exhibitions featuring contemporary Portugese artist and while not to our taste we did love the simplicity of the building…modern art museums always seem so calm!
And we completely fell in love with the massive park-like grounds, acres & acres. Boxed hedging, symmetry, 4 inch high lawn, fountains, white magnolia trees, ghinkos, sculpture,(see pic), gravel pathways through avenues of tall trees, it was breathtaking, ordered yet unexpected somehow.
Then by cab down to the Duoro River and the medieval part of town, Ribeira, wtih all its bars and restaurants, and the Port Houses (Taylors, Sandemann, Graham etc) in gorgeous old whitewashed buildings. We took a tour of one of them, Calem, then sampled the wares, 22% alcohol, so what with that and the red wine at lunch we were both feeling a little jaded by nightfall.
Then by cab down to the Duoro River and the medieval part of town, Ribeira, wtih all its bars and restaurants, and the Port Houses (Taylors, Sandemann, Graham etc) in gorgeous old whitewashed buildings. We took a tour of one of them, Calem, then sampled the wares, 22% alcohol, so what with that and the red wine at lunch we were both feeling a little jaded by nightfall.
It was a fantastic landscape of river and cathedrals and houses all perched and jammed in together and the beautiful port boats with their old oak barrels….... once used to bring the grape juice down the river from the vineyards but now decorative, bobbing on the river.
Then a long leisurely and steep meander back to the Hotel Grande do Porto.
HARRY POTTER MANIA STRIKES NEW JERSEY
The New York Times reports that midnight parties and more are planned....
ART AUCTION
AT BOWEN GALLERIES, WELLINGTON on Saturday 23 June 2007
Works in the exhibition, Endangered Species, currently showing in the Ghuznee Room at Bowen Galleries, will be sold by auction on Saturday.
The auctioneer is Lynn Freeman, well-known for her Radio New Zealand Arts on Sunday programmes.
THE CENTRAL PRINT COUNCIL OF AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND collaborated with leading contemporary New Zealand poets to produce this exhibition of prints. Two sets of the works, signed by poets and printmakers,
will be auctioned individually and one complete set will be sold in a beautiful hand-made box – a real collector’s piece.
In this exciting project, the poets wrote to the general theme Endangered Species and their poems were printed in letterpress onto beautiful Italian paper. The printmakers then responded to these poems with images hand- printed alongside. An edition of 25 was printed –five kept as sets of individual pages and the rest were bound into handmade books by the printmakers.
The poets and printmakers involved are from all around New Zealand – and Wellington is well represented! They are:
Poets
Michele Amas Angela Andrew Jenny Bornholdt
James Brown Paula Green Bernadette Hall
Dinah Hawken Anne Kennedy Bill Manhire
Gregory O’Brien C.K.Stead Robert Sullivan.
Printmakers
Jacqueline Aust Beth Charles Ruth Davey
Yoka van Dyk Andrew Edwards Julia Ellery
Virginia Jamieson Jay Linden Catherine Macdonald
Janice Meadows Stephanie Parkyn Heather Partel
Campbell Smith Faith Thomas Marty Vreede
For further information contact:
Libby Gray, Secretary, Central Print Council of Aotearoa New Zealand
Phone 06 345 4893 or l.gray@ucol.ac.nz or libbygray4@yahoo.co.nz
IT IS OK JUST TO LIKE BOOKS, YOU DON'T HAVE TO LOVE THEM
This view from the Chicago Tribune..............
This view from the Chicago Tribune..............
NEW ORLEANS ON THE ROAD TO RECOVERY
In David Remnick's wonderful book, Reporting, which I read coming over on the plane and which I have blogged about there is a very detailed and moving account of New Orleans and the disaster that befell it when hit by Hurricane Katrina.
In this report today there one blogger observes encouraging signs.
In David Remnick's wonderful book, Reporting, which I read coming over on the plane and which I have blogged about there is a very detailed and moving account of New Orleans and the disaster that befell it when hit by Hurricane Katrina.
In this report today there one blogger observes encouraging signs.
BOOK AWARDS - AN AUSTRALIAN VIEWPOINTAhead of the Miles Franklin Award this Thursday comes this thoughtful piece from The Weekend Australian.
Pic shows a number of previous Miles Franklin Award winners.
RICHARD & JUDY PICK THEIR BESTSELLERS
These guys have a huge influence in the UK.
This report from The Bookseller.
NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW DEPARTMENT
An interesting look inside the office that produces arguably the most influential book reviews in the English speaking world.
Sunday, June 17, 2007
FROM DUTTON'S BRENTWOOD NEWS THIS WEEK
Every two years……………the Man Booker International Prize is awarded. Unlike the annual Man Booker Prize, which recognizes a specific novel, the International Prize is bequeathed upon a living author for their body of work. The winner of the 2007 award is Chinua Achebe, the Nigerian novelist probably best known for Things Fall Apart. In addition to that novel (first published in 1958) Mr. Achebe has penned several other works of fiction, books of essays, poetry and even children’s books. He is the second recipient of the prize – the inaugural prize going to Ismail Kadare in 2005.
Dutton’s Brentwood
11975 San Vicente Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90049
310-476-6263
Duttons@earthlink.net
www.duttonsbrentwood.com
Happy Bloomsday………..Saturday, June 16, marks Bloomsday – the most important day in any James Joyce fan’s calendar. It is on this day that Joyce’s masterwork, Ulysses, takes place. Those lucky enough to be in Dublin can follow the wanderings of the novel’s hero, Leopold Bloom, through the city – at least through the parts of it that have not been redeveloped in the years since 1904, the year the novel is set. Fans further afield have to settle for other ways of commemorating the occasion, such as public readings of the novel (such as was conducted at Dutton’s Brentwood a number of years back). So, on Saturday, be sure to treat yourself to a pint of some fine Irish stout and as much of Ulysses as you can manage before the pint begins to take effect.
Every two years……………the Man Booker International Prize is awarded. Unlike the annual Man Booker Prize, which recognizes a specific novel, the International Prize is bequeathed upon a living author for their body of work. The winner of the 2007 award is Chinua Achebe, the Nigerian novelist probably best known for Things Fall Apart. In addition to that novel (first published in 1958) Mr. Achebe has penned several other works of fiction, books of essays, poetry and even children’s books. He is the second recipient of the prize – the inaugural prize going to Ismail Kadare in 2005.
Dutton’s Brentwood
11975 San Vicente Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90049
310-476-6263
Duttons@earthlink.net
www.duttonsbrentwood.com
Happy Bloomsday………..Saturday, June 16, marks Bloomsday – the most important day in any James Joyce fan’s calendar. It is on this day that Joyce’s masterwork, Ulysses, takes place. Those lucky enough to be in Dublin can follow the wanderings of the novel’s hero, Leopold Bloom, through the city – at least through the parts of it that have not been redeveloped in the years since 1904, the year the novel is set. Fans further afield have to settle for other ways of commemorating the occasion, such as public readings of the novel (such as was conducted at Dutton’s Brentwood a number of years back). So, on Saturday, be sure to treat yourself to a pint of some fine Irish stout and as much of Ulysses as you can manage before the pint begins to take effect.
HARRY POTTER & AMAZON - A SAD STORY
Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO, told the AGM on Thursday that although more than a million pre-orders had been taken for the last Harry Potter the company would make no profit from the sales.
To me this is an utterly ridiculous situation.
Worldwide, led by Amazon and other chain bookstores, Whitcoulls and Paper Plus in NZ, millions of copies of this book are going to be sold and bookselers will make nothing from these vast sales. If ever there was a case against unecessary discounting this must surely be it.
INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE
This is my newspaper of choice when in Europe or Asia. It is owned by the New York Times, one of the world’s great newspapers, and has a good coverage of news from around the world as well as an arts section sometimes including book reviews and an excellent sports section.
Here are a couple of excerpts from the People section of today’s issue (Saturday 16 June):
*The former Czech president Vaclav Havel has finished a new play that he says could be his last. Havel, 70, was a prominent dissident playwright when he led the 1989 revolution that peacefully toppled communism. He became leader of Czechoslovakia in 1989, and served as president of the Czech Republic after it split with Slovakia in 1993. His new play refelects on the 18 years he spent in politics.
“I have not written a single play over the last 18 years”, Havel told the Respekt weekly. “Living in the world of politicallanguage was quite an inspiration” he said. In the play “I try to reflect the automatic political language, where you say one word to which other words are immediately added and the cluster then travels from one speech to another”.
I was particularly interested in this report as in David Remnick’s book, Reporting, which I read on the plane on the way over and wrote about on my blog yesterday, one of the pieces was a fascinating account of his interviews with Havel’s at the time he was stepping down from office. Called Exit the Castle: Vaclav Havel, Remnick’s story also included a look back at his Havel’s rise to power and his time as President.
*Per Petterson of Norway and his translator Anne Born have been named the winners of the 12th International Impac Dublin Literary Award. The US$133,000 prize, billed as the world’s richest literary award for a single work of fiction in Englsih, honored Petterson’s novel, “Out Stealing Horses”, about an isolated Norwegian widower whose chance encounter with a character from his youth revives painful memories, Reuters reported.
Petterson, 54, a bookseller before becoming an author, said, “With money like this, it can buy a lot of time to write and no hunger for some time”.
Born will receive a quarter of the prize money.
Petterson’s competition included seven books by JM Coetzee, Salman Rushdie, Jonathan Safran Foer, Cormac McCarthy, Peter Hobbs and Sebastian Barry.
There was also a longish and entertaining story by Tyler Brule (editor-in-chief Monocle magazine) on a small coastal town in Tuscany called Forte dei Marmi which he has been visiting for 10 years.
Here is a para from his story:
On Tuesday I watched a pair of Russian women, say mid-20’s, getting bicycle lessons. After 10 minutes of trying on two wheels, they ended up settling for tricycles with big baskets set between the back wheels.
It struck me that these young women had probably gone straight from their prams to the back seat of an armored BMW 7 series and had never grown up with that wonderful feeling of being able to navigate a town on your own with the wind rushing up your arms and behind your neck.
Since then I’ve noticed a lot of young Russian women on tricycles that are usually favored by Italian grandmothers (none). I’ve been wondering whether its become a status thing to have three wheels instead of two, or if its simply more practical because you can get more shopping bags in the back of your trike rather than in a front basket.
This is my newspaper of choice when in Europe or Asia. It is owned by the New York Times, one of the world’s great newspapers, and has a good coverage of news from around the world as well as an arts section sometimes including book reviews and an excellent sports section.
Here are a couple of excerpts from the People section of today’s issue (Saturday 16 June):
*The former Czech president Vaclav Havel has finished a new play that he says could be his last. Havel, 70, was a prominent dissident playwright when he led the 1989 revolution that peacefully toppled communism. He became leader of Czechoslovakia in 1989, and served as president of the Czech Republic after it split with Slovakia in 1993. His new play refelects on the 18 years he spent in politics.
“I have not written a single play over the last 18 years”, Havel told the Respekt weekly. “Living in the world of politicallanguage was quite an inspiration” he said. In the play “I try to reflect the automatic political language, where you say one word to which other words are immediately added and the cluster then travels from one speech to another”.
I was particularly interested in this report as in David Remnick’s book, Reporting, which I read on the plane on the way over and wrote about on my blog yesterday, one of the pieces was a fascinating account of his interviews with Havel’s at the time he was stepping down from office. Called Exit the Castle: Vaclav Havel, Remnick’s story also included a look back at his Havel’s rise to power and his time as President.
*Per Petterson of Norway and his translator Anne Born have been named the winners of the 12th International Impac Dublin Literary Award. The US$133,000 prize, billed as the world’s richest literary award for a single work of fiction in Englsih, honored Petterson’s novel, “Out Stealing Horses”, about an isolated Norwegian widower whose chance encounter with a character from his youth revives painful memories, Reuters reported.
Petterson, 54, a bookseller before becoming an author, said, “With money like this, it can buy a lot of time to write and no hunger for some time”.
Born will receive a quarter of the prize money.
Petterson’s competition included seven books by JM Coetzee, Salman Rushdie, Jonathan Safran Foer, Cormac McCarthy, Peter Hobbs and Sebastian Barry.
There was also a longish and entertaining story by Tyler Brule (editor-in-chief Monocle magazine) on a small coastal town in Tuscany called Forte dei Marmi which he has been visiting for 10 years.
Here is a para from his story:
On Tuesday I watched a pair of Russian women, say mid-20’s, getting bicycle lessons. After 10 minutes of trying on two wheels, they ended up settling for tricycles with big baskets set between the back wheels.
It struck me that these young women had probably gone straight from their prams to the back seat of an armored BMW 7 series and had never grown up with that wonderful feeling of being able to navigate a town on your own with the wind rushing up your arms and behind your neck.
Since then I’ve noticed a lot of young Russian women on tricycles that are usually favored by Italian grandmothers (none). I’ve been wondering whether its become a status thing to have three wheels instead of two, or if its simply more practical because you can get more shopping bags in the back of your trike rather than in a front basket.
The International Herald Tribune is a great newspaper which some days can keep me quiet for an hour!
LELLO BOOKSHOP, PORTO, PORTUGALAfter travelling 39 hours (door-to-door) and checking in to Hotel Grande do Porto, which proved indeed to be rather grand, but also rather faded, a shave and shower was in order for me and then we headed off to seek out the famous booskhop which I had blogged earlier in the week.
Well what a treasure it proved to be with its neo-gothic façade featuring an arched entrance and spires above. It was opened in January 1906 and in 1994 underwent a total restoration so that today you see it pretty much in its original glory. It is now one of the major tourist attractions in Porto and while we were there many people came in to take photos. I think the owners should be charging some sort of levy which is waived if you buy a book!
Impressively stocked with a good selection of books in English, French, German and Spanish but of course with the majority being in Portugese. On the upper level there is a small bar/café where Annie had a coffee while I had my first glass of port in this the capital of the port wine industry.
Friday, June 15, 2007
Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson, translated by Anne Born (Harvill Secker/Vintage) has won the 12th International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2007.
The prize money of 100,000 Euros will be divided between author and translator (Petterson receiving 75,000 and Born 25,000). The other authors on this year’s shortlist included Julian Barnes, Salman Rushdie, JM Coetzee, Peter Hobbs, Jonathan Safran Foer, Sebastian Barry, and Cormac McCarthy. The 8 shortlisted titles were selected from a longlist of 138, nominated by 169 libraries from 49 countries and from 129 cities; 28 titles were in translation, covering 15 non-English languages.
The following rather lengthy press release from IMPAC has more details regarding today’s announcement:
PRAISE FOR OUT STEALING HORSES
Winner of the Norwegian Critics Award
Winner of the Booksellers’ Best Book of the Year Award (Norway)
Winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize (UK)
‘Lyrical, deceptively clever...the way the story folds together like the petals of a rose is one of the novel's pleasurable surprises...an intelligent journey from boyhood into manhood’
Daily Telegraph, UK
‘Petterson catches so effectively the thing that haunts all of us, the knowledge of how fragile life is...He captures the essence of a man's existence with a clean-lined freshness that hits you like a burst of winter air – surprising and breathtaking... the narrative is beautifully balanced... Petterson writes with robust unpretentiousness. His story gathers pace like growing up, and stimulates heart and mind like a brisk country walk’.
Daily Express, UK
‘Limpid prose...an impressive novel of rare and exemplary moral courage… a true gem, compact yet radiant’
Independent on Sunday, UK
‘a minor masterpiece of death and delusion’
The Guardian, UK
‘A luminous story...a genuine work of art...wonderfully resonant and rhythmic translation…a novel of consistent beauty, subtlety and wisdom, but one that creeps up on the reader and gets unforgettably under your skin rather than announcing its virtues and its visions with a loud fanfare. A lyrical coming-of-age tale…widens and deepens into a dramatic meditation on the end of childhood, the choice of a destiny, the gains and losses of age, and the burdens of freedom. Translated with unfailing grace and flair by Anne Born, Out Stealing Horses will stay with you like a friend, a guide and a witness.’
The Independent, UK
‘Deeply atmospheric...concise beauty of his prose movingly captures the Norwegian landscape and rural way of life...This stunning novel will tell you more about the Norwegian countryside and psyche than the most enthusiastically well-informed guide book'
Sunday Telegraph, UK
‘Remarkable...The genius of this beautiful, candid work lies in its tone of gentle reflection...A very special miracle of a book.’
The Irish Times
‘Per Petterson’s novel Out Stealing Horses is a novel which implants itself in the soul, as darkly entrancing as the Norwegian forest in which it is set – a boy on the cusp of adulthood, a transformative summer of tragedy, the air and light of Norway captured in clean, spare prose’ Sunday Herald, Scotland
‘a sustained and penetrating novel which catches the reader particularly through its intense prose.’ Dagbladet, Norway
‘Petterson writes so perfectly that one can see the landscape, feel the wind, smell the soil and he does it so undemonstratively that one feels one has a place in the story… This is the mundane transformed into something magical … like Dickens, Petterson paints people and milieux so accurately and in such detail that a great deal of the time one feels like reading selected paragraphs out loud…a rare book, a book one looks forward to coming home to.’
Fyens Stiftstidende, Denmark
‘The intimate sensation of life…sticks in one’s heart…[one] can feel it throughout the book as if one were reading a Hemingway…There is a colossal peace to the narration.’
Politiken, Denmark
‘Per Petterson is master of the fragmented, backward glances of memory. He if anyone can coax forth the blue tones of melancholia and nuance them, tones one hardly knew existed. This is superb’ Jyllands-Posten, Denmark
‘Petterson writes beautiful prose which clusters around sensual depictions of nature and animals, the harsh and hazardous adventures by the river. And not least the dramas of the war … His juicy rendering of a masculine world consisting of hay-making, lumberjacking and chain saw massacres on a blown-down birch is terrific.’
Aftonbladet, Sweden
‘Beautiful about male drudgery in pre-modern Scandinavia. Like a Norwegian cowboy movie’
Dagens Nyheter, Sweden
‘Petterson is an author in full control of his tools, both in the description of the animated and sensual landscape which serves as the stage for this human comedy, and in his description of the overwhelming feelings his characters experience.’
Pages des Librairies, France
‘an amazing novel about the various phases of life, about the moments that change you forever’
Lire, France
‘Petterson manages to reach the tragic just through simple, beautiful sentences that reflect the gloomy surface of the main character’s spiritual life. They are like little, cautious stabs of pain.’
Le Nouvel Observateur, France
‘by virtue of his peaceful, powerful and utterly unstrained prose, one feels that Per Petterson has imbued life with new balance’
Die Zeit, Germany
‘The broad expanse of nature, its brutality, beauty and ambivalence have been described by Petterson in rhythmic, breathing, partly plaintive and almost painfully concrete prose.’
Süddeutsche Zeitung, Germany
‘The novel not only deals with the great existential questions about love and betrayal, truth and death, it also radiates a fascinating poetry about creation and perishability…. a lyrical tribute to the Nordic nature’
Neue Züricher Zeitung, Switzerland
BACKGROUND
The International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award was the initiative of Gay Mitchell, then Lord Mayor of Dublin and Dr. James B Irwin, Chairman of IMPAC in 1992.
The Award is a partnership between IMPAC and Dublin City Council. The first Award was presented in 1996 to Australian author David Malouf for Remembering Babylon. The Lord Mayor of Dublin today continues to act as its patron.
Presented annually, with the objective of promoting excellence in world literature, the award is open to novels written in any language and by authors of any nationality, provided the work has been published in English or English translation in the specified time period as outlined in the rules and conditions for the year.
Since its inception, IMPAC has worked with Dublin City Council to develop the award which has become one of the most prestigious in the world.
IMPAC
IMPAC (Improved Management Productivity and Control) is an international company with its headquarters based in Florida, USA. Founded in 1954 and headed up since 1972 by Dr. James B Irwin, Snr, IMPAC is a global leader in the productivity enhancement field, working on projects for major corporations and institutions in 65 countries around the world. IMPAC’s Dublin offices were established in 1988 with the development of its European regional training centre.
Dublin City Council
Dublin City Council is the municipal authority providing local government services for Dublin, the capital city of Ireland. First established in the year 1192, Dublin City Council provides a range of diverse services such as libraries, arts, planning, housing and fire services for the citizens of Dublin - to the highest international standards. Dublin City Public Libraries co-ordinates and steers the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award administrative processes involving more than 150 libraries worldwide.
For further information please contact
IMPAC Dublin Award Co-ordinator: Yvonne Conaty ++353 1 6752460
Email Yvonne Conaty: literaryaward@impac-ie.com
IMPAC Dublin Award Press Office: Mary Murphy ++353 872336415
IMPAC Dublin Award Libraries Office: Cathy McKenna ++353 1 6744802
USA Press Office: Andy Thibault: ++ 1 860 5678492
http://www.impacdublinaward.ie/
PRAISE FOR THE INTERNATIONAL IMPAC DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD 12th YEAR
“In the brief period since 1996 the IMPAC (Dublin) Award has achieved an unassailable reputation among the world's great literary prizes, for the quality of its judges, its shortlist, its winners. As the first of those winners I am happy to find myself, after ten years, in such shining company.”
David Malouf – winner 1996
“Literature is a worldwide endeavour that has little to do with national boundaries. The Dublin IMPAC has been pre-eminent in recognising this. Little by little the importance of this award is coming to be understood by writers, readers, publishers, critics and booksellers because no other prize, with the exception of the Nobel, draws on such a range of work. In another ten years IMPAC will be as closely watched as the Pulitzer or the Booker or the Goncourt - perhaps more so.”
Andrew Miller – winner 1999
“At a time when artistic timidity so often reaps the biggest rewards, both commercially and critically, there is something immensely heartening about the IMPAC (Dublin) Award. It's wonderful that the world's richest prize for a single work of fiction should be judged solely on the criterion of literary merit – eschewing the political considerations which sometimes predominate in more highly-publicised book awards.”
Nicola Barker – winner 2000
“The IMPAC Dublin Award was a tremendous ‘gift’ to me in more ways than one. Its financial largesse and the attendant publicity literally changed my life. It was wonderful to have my work recognized by a jury of international peers and, subsequently, to have it read by so many new and appreciative readers. It is a splendid award.”
Alistair MacLeod – winner 2001
“It was a great honor to receive the IMPAC Dublin Prize and a great joy to go to Dublin to get it.”
Orhan Pamuk – winner 2003
“la particularité de ce prix est qu'il est unique ; son mode de sélection et d'attribution est très judicieux et juste. L'écrivain qui remporte l'Impac est doublement heureux ; il est distingué et surtout il est reconnu de manière internationale et objective. Ce prix est vraiment exceptionnel. Non seulement il m'a honoré mais aussi il m'a apporté une belle confiance en mon travail.”
Tahar Ben Jelloun Lauréat 2004
READING ON THE PLANE
What a wonderful read to pass all those hours away on two 12 hour flights one after the other. This is some of the finest non-fiction writing I have ever read. Remnick is Editor of The New Yorker and this is his fifth work of non-fiction. Reading it I am not at all surprised to learn that he is a Pulitzer Prize winner, (for one of his earlier titles, Lenin's Tomb).
This book features some of Remick's finest columns from The New Yorker over the post 10 years and I cannot recommend it strongly enough. It is published by Vintage US and costs $30 in NZ.
LOVE THE VIDEO? READ THE BOOK
This from Yahoo News.
And this posted from Orly Airport in Paris where Wi-Fi is available and free!
This from Yahoo News.
And this posted from Orly Airport in Paris where Wi-Fi is available and free!
Thursday, June 14, 2007
two books in post this morning
Sadly I will have to leave reading thesE until I return from Europe. I say sadly because they both come from highly promising NZ ex-pat writers, Natasha Judd who lives in London and Lousie Wareham who is Sydney-based, and both look enticing.
LESSONS TO LEARN by Natsha Judd is published by Cole Catley and is priced NZ $27.95.
We know that the author won the Katherine Mansfiled Short Story Award in 2003, that she is a graduate of the MA Creative Writing programme at Victoria University and that this is her first novel which the blub describes as tender, funny, fresh and enchanting.The book was launched at Takapuna Public Library on Tuesday night this week
The author has her own website.
MISS ME A LOT OF by Louise Wareham is published by VUP at NZ$30.
This is Warehams's second novel, her first, Since You Ask won the James Jones Literary Society Award for Best First Novel in 1999 and was published in New York.
The publishers describe this new work, publication 6 July, as a sexy and compelling literary novel.
The Listener ran this excerpt back in February.........
Author pic from NZ Book Council website.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
BOOKS THAT I WAS TO HAVE READ AND BLOGGED BEFORE HEADING TO PORTUGAL :
(See two previous blogs re beattiesbookblog going offshore)
The Shadow World by P.C. Laird Fraser Books
Ocean Roads by James George Huia (shortlisted for Montana NZ Book Awards)
Extremely Pale Rose - a very French adventure by Jamie Ivey Vintage
The Secret of Lost Things by Sheridan Hay 4th Estate
From my cold, dead hands by David McGill Silver Owl Press
Sadly I have run out of time. Some of the above are purchases while others have been sent in for review by their publishers to whom I apologise. Hopefully I can get to them on my return.
Ocean Roads by James George Huia (shortlisted for Montana NZ Book Awards)
Extremely Pale Rose - a very French adventure by Jamie Ivey Vintage
The Secret of Lost Things by Sheridan Hay 4th Estate
From my cold, dead hands by David McGill Silver Owl Press
Sadly I have run out of time. Some of the above are purchases while others have been sent in for review by their publishers to whom I apologise. Hopefully I can get to them on my return.
Good luck to James George for his Montana NZ Book Award fiction bid. I guess he is an outsider coming up against the likes of Lloyd Jones with his Commonwealth Writers Prize winning Mr.Pip, (the red-hot favourite), and the brilliant My Name Was Judas by C.K.Stead. not to mention the late Nigel Cox’s The Cowboy Dog, his third consecutive shortlisting.
But book awards judging is a funny old business so you just never know.
I am greatly looking forward to attending the Awards Dinner in Auckland on Monday 30 July when all will be revealed.
AA 2007 Road Atlas Europe
In preparation for driving from Porto to coastal Provence, via northern Portugal and Spain, I bought a copy of this handsome atlas yesterday. I spent about half an hour trying to decide whether to buy this one or the Michelin version but in the end decided this one had a slight edge.
It is a large scale road atlas in A3 format, mapping 45 countries covering Europe as far east as Moscow. This work is in English, French, Spanish, Italian and German with the index including 34 principle city route maps. It includes information on road distances, mountain passes, frontier crossing, national parks, scenic routes, and more.
Much more information than I need of course but to get one book with the three countries we are visiting included it became necessary to buy one covering the whole of Europe. Hopefully there will be future visits to Europe when the Atlas can get further use!
In preparation for driving from Porto to coastal Provence, via northern Portugal and Spain, I bought a copy of this handsome atlas yesterday. I spent about half an hour trying to decide whether to buy this one or the Michelin version but in the end decided this one had a slight edge.
It is a large scale road atlas in A3 format, mapping 45 countries covering Europe as far east as Moscow. This work is in English, French, Spanish, Italian and German with the index including 34 principle city route maps. It includes information on road distances, mountain passes, frontier crossing, national parks, scenic routes, and more.
Much more information than I need of course but to get one book with the three countries we are visiting included it became necessary to buy one covering the whole of Europe. Hopefully there will be future visits to Europe when the Atlas can get further use!
See more about our travels on post before this one..
LELLO & IRMAO BOOKSHOP,
144 Carmelitas Street, Oporto.
I have a slender volume about this remarkable bookshop which carries the following inscription on the inside front cover:
7 October, 1999
Purchased for Graham Beattie as an inspiration for him to visit Porto some day and visit this amazing bookshop.
It should definitely be on the world itinerary of bookshops to visit when Beattie & King organize their inaugural world tours of the world’s best bookshops and vineyards……..
And it is signed by well-known Christchurch bookseller Philip King.
Philip & I have never managed to find the time when we were both free to attempt such a world tour although both of us have independently visited many fine bookstores around the world over the past three decades, and been to some pretty damn fine vineyards too!
The book about Lello & Irmao Bookshop has been kept on my desk ever since Philip gave it to me to keep reminding me that one day I must visit as it clearly made a big impact on him.
Well the time has come.
144 Carmelitas Street, Oporto.
I have a slender volume about this remarkable bookshop which carries the following inscription on the inside front cover:
7 October, 1999
Purchased for Graham Beattie as an inspiration for him to visit Porto some day and visit this amazing bookshop.
It should definitely be on the world itinerary of bookshops to visit when Beattie & King organize their inaugural world tours of the world’s best bookshops and vineyards……..
And it is signed by well-known Christchurch bookseller Philip King.
Philip & I have never managed to find the time when we were both free to attempt such a world tour although both of us have independently visited many fine bookstores around the world over the past three decades, and been to some pretty damn fine vineyards too!
The book about Lello & Irmao Bookshop has been kept on my desk ever since Philip gave it to me to keep reminding me that one day I must visit as it clearly made a big impact on him.
Well the time has come.
Tomorrow, Thursday 14 June Annie and I fly out – Auckland/Bangkok/Paris/Oporto – it will probably take around 36 hours door-to-door but the tiredness and jet-lag will soon be forgotten if Oporto proves to be as beautiful as I have been led to believe and this bookshop is as wonderful as Philip promises.
So it may be a day or two before the European postings appear here on beattiesbookblog but when it does it will most likely be a report about a certain bookshop in Oporto, Portugal.
So it may be a day or two before the European postings appear here on beattiesbookblog but when it does it will most likely be a report about a certain bookshop in Oporto, Portugal.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)