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A new sensational novel has come out, but it is in French. It will take over a year before we get it in English. That works for Monk, who is still working down a stack of books. I kid the French, but they are way ahead of us when it comes to decadence:
And those English rights could go for a million dollars, "a staggering sum for a book by an unknown writer that plumbs untold misery and depravity at the length of Tolstoy."
Although Mr. Littell is an American, he was mostly raised in France, and French is the language of his literary icons. I wonder whether he will do the English translation, himself. But that's an aside.
Interestingly, for those who would like to stay close to the historical record, and who find Nazism sensational enough, Gunter Grass's memoirs of having been a real-life Nazi, albeit briefly, is also coming out next year in America. But it is noted that the non-fiction book is not causing as much of a stir as the fictionalized account of a sexually deviant Nazi. You know you're jaded when just plain old Nazism no longer does it for you.
(source: Mark Landler for The NY Times)
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A new sensational novel has come out, but it is in French. It will take over a year before we get it in English. That works for Monk, who is still working down a stack of books. I kid the French, but they are way ahead of us when it comes to decadence:
With 903 pages of densely packed text, themes that range from incest to genocide, and an unrepentant Nazi SS officer as the hero, a new book by the American author Jonathan Littell does not seem an obvious candidate to be the toast of the Frankfurt Book Fair.
... Yet “Les Bienveillantes,” which translates as “The Kindly Ones,” has taken the Frankfurt fair, the world’s largest booksellers’ convention, by storm. Publishing executives said they could not recall a book in recent memory that so dominated the chatter in the sprawling convention center or smoky restaurants, where authors, publishers, editors and literary agents gather each October.
“It’s certainly the main topic of conversation,” said Sonny Mehta, the editor in chief of Alfred A. Knopf, who was plowing through the book before deciding how much to bid for the English-language rights.
And those English rights could go for a million dollars, "a staggering sum for a book by an unknown writer that plumbs untold misery and depravity at the length of Tolstoy."
Although Mr. Littell is an American, he was mostly raised in France, and French is the language of his literary icons. I wonder whether he will do the English translation, himself. But that's an aside.
Interestingly, for those who would like to stay close to the historical record, and who find Nazism sensational enough, Gunter Grass's memoirs of having been a real-life Nazi, albeit briefly, is also coming out next year in America. But it is noted that the non-fiction book is not causing as much of a stir as the fictionalized account of a sexually deviant Nazi. You know you're jaded when just plain old Nazism no longer does it for you.
(source: Mark Landler for The NY Times)
