“On the Radar” provides small incidental rundowns on books which I’ve discovered, but haven’t yet purchased. These are titles that I’ve either added to my wishlist or am keeping a close eye on, with a view to adding them. In addition, these are books which I feel may be of some interest to fellow readers, and I welcome feedback as always, on your own opinions and thoughts on the listed titles – especially if you’ve already had the pleasure of reading them.
My new ‘best friend’ has got to be the Conversational Reading blog. Not only is it a great literary blog, it’s also just brought two great titles on to my ‘radar screen’ for future consideration:
Rasskazy: New Fiction from a New Russia [ISBN: 978-0-9820539-0-4] – This is a anthology of 22 ‘new Russian’ stories, being published this September by Tin House Books. When it comes to new Russian literature there’s a real gap in my reading, and this new anthology, which Tin House claim contains stories written prestigious award winners, looks like it may help to plug it. The post on this at the CR blog, links to a short review on the Publisher’s Weekly website (scroll to locate), where the reviewer briefly runs through some of the included stories. Every one of the stories sounds incredibly interesting, but the one that holds the most intrigue for me is Arkady Babchenko’s The Diesel Stop, which is described as a ‘powerful and harrowing remembrance of the Chechen war.’ I remember reading a book a few years ago on the Chechen War (I can’t recall what exactly it was called now), and the brutalness of it marked me. It looks like this story alone may bring that all back to me.
Best European Fiction 2010 [ISBN: 9781564785435] – The second title of personal interest that the CR blog talks about is this anthology of European fiction which is being published in January 2010 by Dalkey (Amazon UK list W.W. Norton as the UK publishers(?)). Marketed as ‘a window onto what’s happening right now in literary scenes throughout Europe’, the most exciting thing about Best European Fiction 2010 is that it’s not a one-off publication, but rather the first of an annual anthology of the best European fiction. So a tome-like anthology of European fiction to look forward to every January? What a way to each kick off the new year.
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Last Steps: The Late Writings of Leo Tolstoy [ISBN: 9780141191195] – As the autumnal months draw ever closer there’s a distinct Tolstoyan aroma in the air. In a recent ‘On The Radar’ post I mentioned that the diaries of Sofia Tolstoy were being published by Alma Books on October 1st, and I for one can hardly wait. But more recently I’ve discovered that Penguin are also releasing a collection of Tolstoy’s autobiographical writings, diaries, and letters at the end of October, to tie in with the release of the movie The Last Station; an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Jay Parini (published by Canongate) which documents Tolstoy’s final year. Fans of Parini will be delighted to hear that Last Steps is edited, translated and introduced by Jay Parini himself, so the tie-in is all the more conjoined.
Oh and on a final note, Canongate are also re-publishing The Last Station in March next year, so the smell of freshly-baked Tolstoy looks set to continue for a long while to come.
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