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The Italian Renaissance epic “Orlando Furioso,” was once a hot volume, at least among the literati, such as Shakespeare, and musicians, such as Scarlotti and Haydn. But Ludovico Ariosto’s long tale of knights and monsters duking it out largely dropped off the radar screen in the 20th century, though it was Italo Calvino’s favorite work of literature. Translator David R. Slavitt wants to rectify that with his English translation of the poem, the first in 30 years. World Books Editor Bill Marx talks to Slavitt, a veteran translator of over eighty volumes of poetry and fiction, about how his playful version reflects the giggly, surrealist mischievousness of the original.
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One of literature’s greatest living authors, J. M. Coetzee, writes his own posthumous fictionalized biography, in which he airs his deepest fears that no number of awards or marriages or friends can ever fully dispel the universal human certitude that one is a talentless fraud and an unlovable misanthrope.
This novel about a young woman who wakes up to find that her big toe has become a penis was a major bestseller in Japan, and it’s easy to see why. The book is titillating, disturbing without being disgusting, and reads like a self-help guide on the subjects of sex and love.
Perhaps this latest, and possibly last book, from the amazing Czech writer Joseph Skvorecky will make the Nobel prize committee take notice of an author who proffers the wisdom that comes with living long enough to sort out so many of the mysteries which plague us when we are young.
The contest between French and Russian mathematicians who sought new answers to one of the oldest puzzles in math, the nature of infinity, inspired this intriguing book. The French school chased rationalist solutions, while the Russian mathematicians were reportedly inspired by mystical insights attained through their religious practice, visions into the infinite that led to the founding of descriptive set theory.
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Five years ago, one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded occurred off the coast of Indonesia’s Aceh Province. The quake triggered a tsunami in the Indian Ocean with waves up to a hundred feet tall. More than a quarter of a million people died, most of them in Indonesia. India was also hit. Now a publishing company based in the Southern city of Chennai is remembering what happened five years ago with a beautiful new handmade book. We speak with the founder and director of Tara Books.
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“American Writers in Istanbul” should have been a fascinating example of multicultural literary analysis, but academic jargon and heavy-handed politicizing get in the way.
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Hailed by Milan Kundera as one of the greatest novelists of the 20th century, Polish novelist and playwright Witold Gombrowicz (1904-1969) has not garnered the readership in English he deserves. That may change with the efforts of Danuta Borchardt, who has translated three of Gombrowicz’s novels. Her latest translation is of his 1966 novel “Pornografia.” (She won a National Translation Award for her version of “Ferdydurke,” Gombrowicz’s classic black comedy about the virtues of immaturity.) World Books editor Bill Marx talks to Borchardt about the erotic gamesmanship in “Pornografia,” the hazards of translating from the Polish, and why she decided to translate Gombrowicz in the first place.
In his superb biography, Benjamin Moser has done an amazing amount of research on the life of Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector, particularly on how powerfully her Jewish background influenced her fiction, so that the enigmatic writer emerges as a complete yet complex figure.
An interview with Aleksander Hemon, editor of “Best European Fiction 2010,” the inaugural volume in an annual series dedicated to international writing. He believes that European short story writers are “not afraid of intellectually engaging the reader, of making the reader work.”
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You’ve gotten gifts for pretty much everyone on your list…or at least you’ve thought about what to get them. But here’s the problem…what about the kids? You’ve ruled out the zhu-zhu pet … Elmo Live … and anything to do with “High School Musical.” Well, you can’t go wrong with a good book. The World’s Carol Zall has been talking with writers and getting suggestions.
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Chanukah has begun. Christmas will be here before you know it. And we’ve got four gift ideas for the readers on your list. Our book critic Christopher Merrill is at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. Marco Werman speaks with him.
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“Your Face Tomorrow, Volume Three: Poison, Shadow, and Farewell”: the final volume in Javier Marías’s trio of spy novels extraordinaire is part of World Book’s idiosyncratic round-up of first-rate international literary stocking stuffers.
Overall, this debut volume in an annual anthology series dedicated to new fiction from Europe proves to be interesting and strong, featuring a range of voices from 35 countries including such celebrated writers as Alasdair Gray, Viktor Pelevin, and David Albahari.
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Marco Werman talks with “
Tokyo Vice” author Jake Adelstein. Adelstein’s new book chronicles his years covering Japanese organized crime and vice as a reporter for Japan’s
Yomiuri Shinbun newspaper.
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Jake Adelstein reads an excerpt:
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