BTZ September Newsletter
Hi all,
After a couple of months off here is your September newsletter. In this edition I am featuring some of the books I am most excited for over the next couple of months and some of the recent releases you may have missed. As always if have a book you would like to feature here get in touch.
First of all And Other Stories have two books from Michele Mari - You, Bleeding Childhood which came out in August and Verdigris which will be out in Jan 2024 Both are translated by Brian Robert Moore and both are books I can’t wait to read. Here is the blurb for Verdigris : At the tail end of the 1960s, the thirteen-year-old Michelino spends his summers at his grandparents’ modest estate in Nasca, near Lake Maggiore, losing himself in the tales of horror, adventure, and mystery shelved in his grandfather’s library. The greatest mystery he’s ever encountered, however, doesn’t come from a book—it's the groundskeeper, Felice, a sometimes frightening, sometimes gentle, always colorful man of uncertain age who speaks an enchanting dialect and whose memory gets worse with each passing day. When Michelino volunteers to help the old man by providing him with clever mnemonic devices to keep his memory alive, the boy soon finds himself obsessed with piecing together the eerie hodgepodge of Felice’s biography . . . a quest that leads to the uncovering of skeletons in Nazi uniforms in the attic, to Felice’s admission that he can hear the voices of the dead, and to a new perspective on Felice’s endless war against the insatiable local slugs, who are by no means merely a horticultural threat.
Previous guest, treasure hunter and Waste Management Consultant, Mark. A. Henry has a the follow up to his hit novel, Lacking Evidence to the Contrary - The Honolulu Situation is out in October. I have started it and it is hilarious.
Gerald Murnane is one of the most fascinating figures in contemporary literature and whether you like him or not or are just curious Emmett Stinson’s new essay collection on Murnane is a great way to better understand one of Australia’s greatest writers. Grab it from Amazon or from Melbourne University Publishing.
One of the best Sydney novels I have read in recent years was The Magpie Wing by Max Easton. The sequel is out in October from Giramondo. It is called Paradise Estate and I am loving it. Also great cover.
Coffee House Press have two of the most exciting books of the Fall season - Nefando by Mónica Ojeda translated by Sarah Booker and Devil in the Provinces by Juan Cárdenas translated by Lizzie Davis.
Australian author, James Morrison (not the jazz musician) has Gibbons out from https://orbistertiuspress.ca You might know him better as unwise_trousers on Twitter.
Over at Sagging Meniscus they have M.J. Nicholls’ The Fall and Fall of Derek Haffman Tomoé Hill’s Songs for Olympia and Marvin Cohen’s How, Upon Reflection, To Be Amorous
Fum D’estampa have Empordan Scafarlata by ADRIÀ PUJOL translated by Douglas Suttle - here is the blurb: Empordan Scafarlata is a mirage of memories written with intelligence, irony, courage and tenderness; linking tradition, modernity, resentment and nostalgia for a mythical country and for that part of the river in which: ‘he will never swim again.’ In a mixture of prose and poetry, Adrià Pujol brings us snippets of Empordà, a region of northern Catalonia wedged between the mountains and the sea, and invites us onto its sweaty, well-trodden, exalted paths
Also if you have not picked up Summa Kaotica by VENTURA AMETLLER also translated by Doug I highly recommend it.
Charco have Forgotten Manuscript by the late Sergio Chejfec translated by Jeffery Lawrence.
Open Letter have Un amor by Sara Mesa Translated by Katie Whittemore which I am really looking forward to.
Over at Pushkin they have The Wolf Hunt by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen translated by Sondra Silverstonand they also have a reprint of The Spectre of Alexander Wolf by Gaito Gazdanov translated by Bryan Karetnyk
New Directions have The Love of Singular Men by Victor Heringer Translated from Portuguese by James Young
At Transit Lounge, Late by Michael Fitzgerald is out in October.
I am also currently reading Prophet Song by Paul Lynch and really enjoying it and lastly a recommendation for next year - THE EXTINCTION OF IRENA REY by Jenny Croft - here is the blurb; Eight translators arrive at a house in a primeval Polish forest on the border of Belarus. It belongs to the world-renowned author Irena Rey, and they are there to translate her magnum opus, Gray Eminence. But within days of their arrival, Irena disappears without a trace.
The translators, who hail from eight different countries but share the same reverence for their beloved author, begin to investigate where she may have gone while proceeding with work on her masterpiece. They explore this ancient wooded refuge with its intoxicating slime molds and lichens and study her exotic belongings and layered texts for clues. But doing so reveals secrets-and deceptions-of Irena Rey's that they are utterly unprepared for. Forced to face their differences as they grow increasingly paranoid in this fever dream of isolation and obsession, soon the translators are tangled up in a web of rivalries and desire, threatening not only their work but the fate of their beloved author herself.
This hilarious, thought-provoking debut novel by award-winning translator and author Jennifer Croft is a brilliant examination of art, celebrity, the natural world, and the power of language. It is an unforgettable, unputdownable adventure with a small but global cast of characters shaken by the shocks of love, destruction, and creation in one of Europe's last great wildernesses.
In other news there is a new film out in October about Ingeborg Bachmann. here is the press brief - Though still young, the rebellious poet is at the peak of her career when she meets the famous Swiss playwright Max Frisch in Paris in the summer of 1958. Over the next four years across Zurich, Rome and Berlin their love is passionate, but professional and personal friction begins to disrupt the harmony.
When Ingeborg struggles, her friends are there to help, including composer Hans Werner Henze and the young Adolf Opel, a Viennese journalist and man of literature. So, when Adolf invites her to join his upcoming journey to Egypt, she happily accepts. It is on this journey that she reignites her spirit and finds the way back to her writing.
https://germanfilmfestival.com.au/films/ingeborg-bachmann-journey-into-the-desert
That’s it for now. Contributions are always welcome and get in touch via social media or email beyondthezeropod@gmail.com