Readers can be unduly critical of authors for a range of reasons, from old-fashioned spite to the modern phenomenon of wokeness. But writers should not consider these people enemies, but rather guides to help dig deeper.
Tag: literature
French writer Annie Ernaux’s Nobel prize in literature took many by surprise, after a career spent largely in the shadows. A different kind of surprise comes in comparing her to another French writer, iconoclast media star Virginie Despentes.
In his early journalistic writings, the Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez showed he had an eye for factual details, in which he found the absurdity and ‘magic’ that would in time be the stuff and style of his fiction.
Nights of Plague is the latest book by the Turkish Nobel Prize winner, a fictional rendering based on historical reality that draws parallels (political and health-wise) between the past and the present.
The pandemic has changed our lives permanently and paranoid fantasies have taken root. But a remedy for the crisis of trust we’re facing might be found in an unlikely place — in J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Lord of the Rings.
Like other intellectuals of his time, the celebrated Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez admired Cuba’s Fidel Castro. What’s just been revealed, however, is also, as one text reveals, the Sandinista rebels who have stifled Nicaraguan democracy in past years.
Novelists from Africa have been receiving some of the most prestigious literary prizes. But there are still questions around who are the world’s literary gatekeepers and what role writers from the Global South can play, writes Mauritian poet and photographer Umar Timol.
There is a charming little sector of central Madrid where towering figures of Spanish literature lived, loved, wrote … and mocked each other.
Born some eight centuries ago, the famed poet and philosopher Rumi offered ideas on religion that bear little resemblance to the brand of Islam being imposed right now in Afghanistan by the Taliban regime.
The year is 2056. Decades of war have resulted in constant advances in weapon technology — including one such novelty dubbed the “hypervelocity missile.” Moving at six times the speed of sound, these weapons have changed the rules of combat. In order to protect themselves against attacks, armies have designed a sophisticated shield that can […]
The Librairie du Tiers monde, which has functioned as an important intellectual spot in Algeria since its founding in 1964, continues to have an open and critical outlook on the country, even at a time when power represses dissidents.
History, as it takes place on the local level, is more than just a precious heritage. It also reflects the multiple visions that our societies need to remain healthy and vibrant.
Beyond public support for medical workers, the French are very critical of the management of the pandemic by their leaders compared to other countries.
Contagious diseases through history have inspired authors, describing the horror, but also instances of nobility born of courage and compassion.
The Italian writer’s work is best known for his role recounting the horror of concentration camps. He was that man, and so much more.
Mateo García Elizondo’s debut novel, which explores the limits of consciousness, marks his first steps on the literary path set by his grandfathers, two eminences of modern Spanish-language literature.
BUENOS AIRES — “I’m in the literary gang and Borges is my godfather…” Serhiy Borschevsky is the “last remaining” translator in Ukraine of the works of the 20th-century Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges. Speaking to Clarin on his first-ever visit to Argentina, Borschevsky noted that “Borges is very popular in Ukraine. His books sell out […]
From Madrid to Cork to Shanghai, some of the most revered old bookshops are closing doors as they face pressure from big chains and e-readers. But our bookworm writer found some small signs of hope.
Published 300 years ago, Daniel Defoe’s classic story of shipwreck and survival still has much to teach us about human nature and the environment.
Against the omnipotence of ‘reality-show novels’ and costume fiction, a group of young French authors want to reassert the novel as a contemporary art.
Colombian novelist Héctor Abad Faciolince recounts how a man in Denmark claimed to have lived exactly as one of the writer’s characters. Eventually, the two would meet.
Abdelrahman al-Gendy, a standout student and Harry Potter aficionado, was just 17 when he was arrested in Cairo, charged with multiple crimes, and given a 15-year prison sentence.
The author of ‘Infinite Jest’ and ‘The Pale King’, who took his own life 10 years ago, saw a higher meaning in the mundane — even wrestling with the French bureaucracy.
In his most recent book, best-selling author Paulo Coelho revisits his nomadic past, when he embarked from Brazil on a voyage that took him all the way to Kathmandu.
Albert Camus’s iconic novel is a relevant today as it was when it first hit bookstores, in 1942.
Researchers at the University Of Macerata used volunteers and online bots to help translated the 19th century children’s classic.
Chile has buried Parra, the antipoet who turned to ‘impudent’ street talk for inspiration and revolutionized modern Spanish poetry.
The legendary French actor just published a very personal book. So why is he so hard to talk to?
Health and medicine were constant themes of the famed Colombian novelist. He also spent his life trying to understand how the human brain works, and why the memory breaks down…until he himself was afflicted by Alzheimer’s.
In spite of the thousands of miles and cultural distances between Colombia and Japan, Gabriel García Márquez’s masterpiece has become a national treasure among Japanese readers and artists.
PARIS — No matter where you live or what language you speak, at some point in your childhood you probably came across Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince). The 1943 poetic and illustrated novella by French adventurer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is among the best-selling books ever published. Now, reports Paris-based daily Le Figaro, the work […]
We have already been revealed, both our leaders and ourselves, by writers of the past.
Carlos Fuentes, the Mexican novelist who died in 2012, wrote more than a decade ago of a U.S. president who, through punitive measures, would almost shut Mexico down and accidentally revive the art of letter-writing.
PARIS — Bob Dylan has long inspired musicians around the world, professional and otherwise, to sing his songs — and write their own. Some have done a bit of both, translating and singing versions of his masterpieces in different languages. With the Nobel Academy awarding the 2016 Literature prize to Mr. Bob, it seemed times […]
The newspapers, they all went along for the ride …
Kaciane do Nascimento’s love of reading led to her open a library in the backyard of her house, in a low-income housing development in São Paulo state. Now she’s working on a book of her own.
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Aspiring writers who don’t have an inside track welcome the online publisher’s latest advances, such as awarding independent authors, but defenders of traditional publishing say it’s all a scam to destroy the publishing system and