It’s just been announced that The Sound of Things Falling by Colombian author, Juan Gabriel Vásquez, translated from the Spanish by Canadian Anne McLean, is the winner of the 2014 International IMPAC DUBLIN Literary Award (and the €100,000 prize money). We discussed the Prize’s shortlist when it was released back in 2013, and profiled The Sound of Things Falling in our “Great Second-Half 2013 Book Preview.” Congratulations to Juan Gabriel Vásquez, and be sure to check out his prize-winning novel!
2014 IMPAC Award Announced
An Engine, An Engine
“It is a superstitious business—childish, really—the marking, or even the noticing, of anniversaries like these. Such fastening pretends that one day can be like another, pretends that every day is not, ultimately, only its own day, the only version of itself that will ever come. But 'Daddy' is itself a poem built on a bedrock of anniversaries.” At The Paris Review Daily, Belinda McKeon marks the birthday of an oft-revered poem.
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Hanging Out with Alice and Margaret
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Tuesday New Release Day: Wolfe, Attenberg, Snicket, Onion
Tom Wolfe is back with his new novel Back to Blood (our review) and Jami Attenberg's The Middlesteins is out. Lemony Snicket is kicking off a new series for kids, illustrated by artist Seth. Finally, do you want to know everything about everything? The Onion is looking out for you with its new Onion Book of Known Knowledge: A Definitive Encyclopaedia Of Existing Information.
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Rhyme Time
Now this is a headline for the ages: “‘Self-Harmers are Not Just Depressives’: Writing a Book About Cutters Who Cook.” (Incidentally, the book in question is Jessica Soffer’s Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots, which we covered last week.)
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Novels for the Ebolapocalypse
"If you want to be grateful for something today, be grateful for that: Ebola doesn’t fly," according to a 2012 NYT op-ed. (Ok, so that's not true, but you're still probably safe.) If you (like me) have been obsessively re-watching that infected American patient walk into his hospital in Atlanta, I'd like to suggest you (I) first relax, and then indulge your (my) Ebolapocalypse fears elsewhere, e.g., a roundup of the 14 best pandemic novels according to Slate, 11 from io9, 22 from Bookshop, or all 1,000+ at Goodreads.
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Writing a New Canon
Over at VICE, Karan Mahajan, Tanwi Nandini Islam, and Jenny Zhang talked about the new generation of Asian American writers. “There isn't really a canon, which means if you are Asian American and writing, you're automatically adding to it. Once I realized this, I became extremely protective of my writing," said Zhang. Pair with this Millions interview with Mahajan.
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