Afterthoughts: Burning Secret by Stefan Zweig

In a Nutshell: Written with pin sharp perception and translated by one of best in the business (Anthea Bell), Burning Secret is likely to give you one of your most incredible reading experiences ever.
*****
A few years ago Vienna-born Stefan Zweig was largely unknown (the fact that he tragically took his own life [...]

Reading Journal: Monday 3rd May 2010

And so with great pleasure fellow reader, I return once more to scribing the virtual pages of my online reading journal. Adamant that I would not return to posting journal entries until I was completely happy with the format I was using for this feature, I realised the futility in having such a mindset; [...]

Forethoughts: Fists by Pietro Grossi

And so my reading journey through this year’s Independent Foreign Fiction Prize shortlist brings me to smallest of the offerings in the final six, Fists by Pietro Grossi (Pushkin Press). And if my expectations were soaring ahead of the last shortlist title that I read (Brodeck’s Report by Philippe Claudel (MacLehose Press)) , then [...]

Daily Bookshot: The Foreign Fiction Prize Six

Foreign Fiction Prize Six, originally uploaded by Robert Burdock.

This if a shot (if you didn’t know already), of the six novels shortlisted for this year’s Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. I’ve set myself the task of reading all of them before the overall winner is announced on Thursday May 13th, and I thought I [...]

Rob’s tackling the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2010 shortlist

You may remember a few days ago that I posted the shortlist for this year’s Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, and remarked that the greatest source of the excitement for me was discovering that all but one of the titles on the shortlist was the product of a smaller ‘indy’ [...]

Shortlist for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2010 revealed

It was an exciting start to a dreary morning, as the shortlist for this year’s Independent Foreign Fiction Prize was announced earlier today. Taken from the original longlist of 15, which included big ‘hitter’s such as Jonathan Littell’s The Kindly Ones (Chatto & Windus) and Yoko Ogawa’s The Housekeeper [...]

Daily Bookshot: Anatomy of a 1940s Zweig

Anatomy of a 1940s Zweig, originally uploaded by Robert Burdock.

While I’m sure many Stefan Zweig fans will be acquainted with the recently published Pushkin Press edition of his autobiography, The World of Yesterday, I wonder how many will have seen a 1947 edition from Cassell and Company, published only five short years after Zweig’s [...]

Daily Bookshot: A Trio of Zweig

A Trio of Zweig, originally uploaded by Robert Burdock.

While I’ve been on a blogging break during these past couple of weeks I’ve also taken the opportunity to get a bit ‘freestyle’ with my reading – dipping in and out of whatever bookish delights have taken my fancy. And one of the authors who has [...]

‘Book Bites’ for Monday 15th February 2010

Hemon discusses European literature – Fans of short stories, European literature and Aleksandar Hemon would definitely be interested in the latest Guardian Book podcast. In it Hemon talks about the tough job he had selecting shorts for Dalkey’s Best European Fiction 2010 anthology (a book I mentioned briefly in an On The Radar [...]

Rob’s Reader of the Week: Stewart McAbney

This week’s reader in the spotlight is a real ‘brain bank’ on world literature, and a real nice guy to boot.