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/ 26 February 2008

Whatever happened to literary love?

”I am alone next to the pool at Le Prince Maurice Hotel in Mauritius. In contrast, all the people around me are paired off. Every coupling is a story pitted with conflict, resolution, stalemates, passions, misunderstandings, wars and truces. A pity, then, how little hope they have of picking up a good modern novel and finding some reflection of, or consolation for, or explication of, their private experiences,” writes Tim Lott.

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/ 5 December 2007

Can Obama depend on the Oprah magic?

Celebrity political endorsements do not get much bigger than Oprah Winfrey’s. But political experts say it is doubtful the popular United States talk-show host can sway votes to fellow Chicagoan and first-term Illinois Senator Barack Obama in the way she persuades viewers to turn books into instant bestsellers.

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/ 22 October 2007

Publishers weigh into War and Peace battle

”Tell me, why this nasty war?” asks a character in Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Almost 140 years after first publication of the epic novel, a nasty duel has broken out between rival versions of the weighty tome published in the United States. The argument between the two new translations is, fittingly, one of weight.