Monthly archive - October 2022

Thomas Keneally, one of Australia's most acclaimed novelists, says he will share a $50,000 literary prize with his fellow nominees.

The 87-year-old novelist, who has previously won the Man Booker prize and the Miles Franklin, was announced on Thursday as the winner of the ARA Historical Novel prize for his latest novel Corporal Hitler's Pistol.  Read more

The remarkable thing about this violence-soaked novel narrated by a dead man is how full of life it is. Shehan Karunatilaka's The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida comes a decade after his rollicking debut Chinaman, which combined the love of cricket with the horror of Sri Lanka's civil war.  Read more

What's new in the translation sector? What have we achieved, apart, together? As I think about this, I am sitting in the back of Conway Hall in London, at English PENSupported by eminent writers, this is the English branch of International Pen, which has centres in nearly 100 countries. It fights for freedom of expression and against political censorship. It campaigns for writers harassed, imprisoned and sometimes murdered for their views. http://www.englishpen.org/'s annual International Translation Day conference for literary translation professionals.  Read more

As it has for so many people, the pandemic has prompted some changes in my life, and one change in particular may prove surprising to some of my librarian friends and colleagues: I've resolved to only read the books I really want to read.