France’s Prix Goncourt has gone to Atiq Rahimi’s STONE OF PATIENCE (Syngue Sabour), “the story of a woman whose husband suffers brain damage from a bullet wound” according to publisher Editions P.O.L. Born in Afghanistan in 1962, Rahimi fled to Pakistan in his 20s and then received asylum in France before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 after the ejection of the Taliban. The author (also a filmmaker) told French television, “All I can say is: I’m so happy that I’ll need many dictionaries, many encyclopedias to find the word or words, the expressions, to express this reaction.” In the US, […]
Awards
December 2008 Indie Next List
The Hour I First Believed: A Novel by Wally LambBlindspot: A Novel by Jane Kremensky and Jill LeporeAmerican Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon by Steven RinellaA House in Fez: Building a Life in the Ancient Heart of Morocco by Suzanna ClarkeMade From Scratch: Discovering the Pleasures of a Handmade Life by Jenna Prince of Stories: The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman by Hank Winger, Christopher Golden, Stephen R. BissetteThe Private Patient: An Adam Dalgleish Mystery by P. D. JamesThe Elfish Gene: Dungeons, Dragons and Growing Up Strange by Mark BarrowcliffeTribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth […]
Amazon's Best of 2008
Amazon has picked their top 100 books for the year. Here’s the first part of the list: 1. The Northern Clemency, Philip Hensher 2. Hurry Down Sunshine, Michael Greenberg3. Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America, Rick Perlstein 4. The Forever War, Dexter Filkins5. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle: A Novel, David Wroblewski 6. The Likeness: A Novel, Tana French 7. Serena: A Novel, Ron Rash 8. So Brave, Young and Handsome: A Novel, Leif Enger 9. The Lazarus Project, Aleksandar Hemon 10. […]
Graywolf's NBA Paperback Sale
The Observer looks at why Graywolf decided to sell paperback rights to Salvatore Scibona’s National Book Award-nominated novel THE END to Riverhead (as reported on our Deals page last week). Director of publicity Mary Matze says, “We felt like if he doesn’t win, then Riverhead is probably going to be the best home for him and for this book in the long term, and if he does win, we still have a good deal worked out with Riverhead, though of course it would have been more beneficial for us to keep the paperback rights. Even in that case, a publisher […]
NBCC Lists Again
About a year ago the NBCC started what was going to be a monthly Best Recommended List, which shortly thereafter turned into a seasonal list of Good Reads and then went dormant after spring recommendations. Now they return with a revamped NBCC Reads for fall. The new plan is not so much recommendations about new books as an online English class: “Three times a year, we will pose a question to this group. The results will be posted here at Critical Mass. We will no longer tabulate votes or rank the titles under discussion. Instead, we will simply give an […]
Whiting Winners
This year’s Whiting Awards, worth $50,000 each, for “writers of exceptional talent and promise in early career,” have gone to: Mischa Berlinski, fictionRick Hilles, poetryDonovan Hohn, nonfictionDouglas Kearney, poetryLaleh Khadivi, fictionManuel Munoz, fictionDael Orlandersmith, playsBenjamin Percy, fictionJulie Sheehan, poetryLysley Tenorio, fiction