Media Hits: THE ART OF LIBROMANCY, THE HOLLOW BEAST, BURN MAN, and more!

IN THE NEWS!

THE ART OF LIBROMANCY

The Art of Libromancy by Josh Cook (Aug 22, 2023) was reviewed in Full Stop. The review was published online on February 18, 2024. You can read the full article here.

Rebecca Stuhr writes:

“In The Art of Libromancy, Josh Cook asks booksellers to live by their ideals. As a bookseller himself, at Porter Square Books in Massachusetts, he seeks to set an example for justice-based bookstores—justice for booksellers in their employment conditions, and justice as a motivation for bookselling.”

The Art of Libromancy was also featured in LitHub’s list of “Books for Indie Booksellers”, which was published online on February 23, 2024. You can read the full list here.

Rachel Conrad writes,

The Art of Libromancy is a candid and nuanced account of what it takes to be a part of an industry that faces a barrage of societal pressures and often finds itself at the forefront of social justice movements in a time where misinformation and fascism are on the rise.”

Get The Art of Libromancy here!

THE HOLLOW BEAST

The Hollow Beast by Christophe Bernard, trans. Lazer Lederhendler (Apr 2, 2024) was reviewed in Midwest Book Review. The review was published online on February 18, 2024, and can be read here.

The review reads:

“A master of epic storytelling, The Hollow Beast is an inherently fascinating saga of a read from start to finish.”

Order The Hollow Beast here!

BURN MAN

Burn Man by Mark Anthony Jarman (Nov 21, 2024) was reviewed in Midwest Book Review. The review was published online on February 18, 2024, and you can check it out here.

The review reads:

“A truly revelatory selection highlights from one of the most spirited and singular contemporary masters of the short story format.”

Burn Man was also reviewed by Jeremy Thomas Gilmer in the Ampersand Review. The full review is available to read online here.

Gilmer writes,

“This collection brings [Jarman’s] fiercest prose, his most vital characters, and builds an architecture against which our troubled times can be thrashed. The music of broken men, splintered lives, and the salted souls left behind echo through the pages.”

Get your copy of Burn Man here!

STANDING HEAVY

Standing Heavy by GauZ’, translated by Frank Wynne (Oct 3, 2023) was reviewed by Marcie McCauley in Buried in Print. The review was published online on February 22, 2024, and can be read here.

McCauley writes,

Standing Heavy (in translation by Frank Wynne) reads quickly, even though it’s rich and complex. I’d intended to read just a couple of chapters, but I spent a snowy afternoon reading the whole book until it was finished … the style is vivid, the dialogue taut, and the presentation is clever.”

Get Standing Heavy here!

ALL THE YEARS COMBINE

Ray Robertson, author of All the Years Combine: The Grateful Dead in Fifty Shows (Nov 7, 2023) was interviewed by Lynn Saxberg in the Ottawa Citizen. The article was published online on February 20, 2024, and you can read the full interview here.

Saxberg calls the book:

“A fascinating chronicle of the band’s history told in a series of essays.”

Get All the Years Combine here!

CROSSES IN THE SKY

Crosses in the Sky by Mark Bourrie (May 14, 2024) was featured in Quill & Quire’s Spring Preview. The article was published online on February 18, 2024, and you can check out the full preview here.

Attila Berki writes:

“Bourrie looks at how such early encounters between French colonists and missionaries and Indigenous Peoples continue to resonate in those same relationships.”

Preorder Crosses in the Sky here!

Media Hits: THE HOLLOW BEAST, THE FUTURE, LOVE NOVEL, THEY CALL ME GEORGE!

IN THE NEWS!

THE HOLLOW BEAST

The Hollow Beast by Christophe Bernard, translated by Lazer Lederhendler (Apr 2, 2024) has been reviewed in Foreword Reviews! The review was posted online on February 14, 2024 and can be read here.

Reviewer Isabella Zhou wrote,

“Mixing family history with local lore, the satirical novel The Hollow Beast is a tale of revenge and hauntings.”

Order The Hollow Beast here!

THE FUTURE

The Future by Catherine Leroux, translated by Susan Ouriou (Sep 5, 2023), was reviewed by Andrew Hood on TheBookshelf! The review was published online on February 14, and can be read here.

Hood writes of the book,

“In The Future, old things are dying and new things are growing. That the new things come at the cost of the loss of the old can’t help but tint our feelings towards them. It’s this grey area that Leroux manages to break light through.”

Catherine Leroux was also interviewed alongside a review of The Future, in the McGill Daily! The feature was posted online on February 12, 2024. You can read and listen to the review and interview here.

Caley Fifield writes,

The Future is as factual as it is fictional, and the strength, creativity, and humour with which her characters weather each storm that comes their way are truly inspiring.”

Get The Future here!

LOVE NOVEL

Love Novel by Ivana Sajko, translated by Mima Simić (Feb 6, 2024), was featured in a ‘Book of the Day Roundup’ from Foreword Reviews! The roundup for the week of Feb 12-16 was posted online on February 15. Check out the full roundup here.

Love Novel was also reviewed by Tom Bowden in The Book Beat! The review was posted February 10, 2024. Read the full review here.

Bowden writes,

“Ivana Sajko’s narrative—rendered in English by Mima Simić with seeming effortlessness—is told in the third-person with an omniscience transparent enough to be led by the rhythms of each character’s thoughts and speech.”

Order Love Novel here!

THEY CALL ME GEORGE

They Call Me George by Cecil Foster was featured in All Lit Up‘s ‘Black History Month Series: Non-Fiction’ list! The list was posted on February 8, and you can check out the full article here.

Get They Call Me George here!

Media Hits: BURN MAN, THE FUTURE, LOVE NOVEL, and more!

IN THE NEWS!

THE FUTURE

Catherine Leroux, author of The Future (trans. by Susan Ouriou) (Sep 5, 2024) was interviewed alongside Heather O’Neill on CBC The Next Chapter by Ali Hassan, as part of their promotion of The Future for CBC Canada Reads, our nationwide literary competition. The interview aired on February 2, 204. You can listen to the full episode here.

Catherine Leroux was also interviewed for CBC Syndication which includes dozens of shows across the country. The interviews were conducted live on February 7, 2024. You can find links to all of her recent CBC interviews and features for Canada Reads here.

Get The Future here!

BURN MAN

Burn Man: Selected Stories by Mark Anthony Jarman (Nov 21, 2023) has been reviewed in the Wall Street Journal by Sam Sacks. The review was published online on February 8, 2024 and can be read here.

Fiction critic Sam Sacks writes:

“The stories in Burn Man, by the Canadian writer Mark Anthony Jarman, derive from the … raucous lineage of Barry Hannah, Thomas McGuane and Denis Johnson … He gives us a gallery of antiheroes—some of them bona fide criminals but many just screwups—who are helpless in the grip of their worst impulses.”

Get Burn Man here!

LOVE NOVEL

Love Novel by Ivana Sajko, translated by Mima Simić (Feb 6, 2024) was reviewed by Andrew Hood on The Bookshelf. The review was published online on February 5, 2024, and can be read in full here.

Hood writes:

“In its depiction of a contemporary relationship submitted to the meatgrinder of contemporary demands and expectations, Love Novel is unafraid and unsparing in its honesty.”

Love Novel was also listed in Library Journal as recommended by booksellers. The article was published online on February 5, 2024 and can be seen here.

Get Love Novel here!

THE HOLLOW BEAST

The Hollow Beast by Christophe Bernard, translated by Lazer Lederhendler (Apr 2, 2024) was reviewed in Publishers Weekly. The review was published online on February 2, 2024, and you can read the full review here.

The review reads:

“Quebecois writer Bernard debuts with a feverish burlesque about a one-time hockey player’s decades-long dispute with a referee and his grandson’s attempts to reverse the family curse … Bernard’s bawdiness and mania credibly evoke Thomas Pynchon’s flights of invention.”

Order The Hollow Beast here!

THE FULL-MOON WHALING CHRONICLES

Jason Guriel, author of The Full-Moon Whaling Chronicles (Aug 1, 2023) has written a piece for The Millions, in which he discusses his journey from lyric poetry to a novel in verse. The article was published online on February 6, 2024. Check out the full essay here.

Grab The Full-Moon Whaling Chronicles here!

THE ART OF LIBROMANCY

The Art of Libromancy by Josh Cook (Aug 22, 2023) was reviewed in the Chicago Tribune by John Warner as part of his “Top 5 Favorite Books About Bookstores.” The review was published online on January 27, 2024. You can read the full article here.

Warner calls the book:

“A treatise on the way commerce shapes what and how we read.”

Grab The Art of Libromancy here!

ALL THINGS MOVE

All Things Move by Jeannie Marshall (Apr 4, 2023) has been featured in Canadian Architect. The review was published online on February 1, 2024. Read the full review here.

Reviewer Adele Weber writes:

All Things Move: Learning to Look at the Sistine Chapel … makes a unique case for considering the Chapel as something other than a religious enclave, scholarly artifact, or checklist tourist attraction. It’s all those, of course, but its otherworldly qualities transcend religious, academic, or tour-bus affiliations.”

Get All Things Move here!

STANDING HEAVY translator FRANK WYNNE wins the SCOTT MONCRIEFF TRANSLATION PRIZE

We’re thrilled to share that the Society of Authors announced the winners of their prestigious translation prizes with a combined prize fund of $47,000 CAD, and among them is Frank Wynne, who has been awarded the Scott Moncrieff Prize for his translation from the French of Standing Heavy by GauZ’, which was published in North America by Biblioasis on October 3rd, 2023 and by MacLehose Press in the UK.

Scott Moncrieff Prize for Translation judge Jane MacKenzie says of Standing Heavy,

“The writing is searingly witty, incisive, full of vivid imagery, and has been superbly translated by Frank Wynne, losing none of the humour, the energy, the authentic street view. This is a true tour-de-force in both languages, and reads as joyfully and sharply in English as it does in French.”

The novel follows three generations of African security guards as they contend with a society growing more and more hostile to immigration. It offers a funny, fast-paced, and poignant take on the legacy of Franco-African history, and has received many excellent reviews from the New York Times, Financial Times, Elle Magazine, The Walrus, Kirkus Reviews and Publishers Weekly.

Biblioasis publisher Dan Wells says,

“Frank Wynne is a marvel, one of the best translators at work in any language: in this translation of Standing Heavy he’s given us monoglots the next best thing to reading him in the original: a sharp-eared, playful, elegant work of fiction. We’re very happy for him, and for GauZ’: may this bring him a few more readers in English.”

The Society of Authors awards prizes for translations from seven languages including the Scott Moncrieff Prize, an annual award for translations into English of full-length French works of literary merit and general interest. The winner is awarded £3,000 and a runner-up is awarded £1,000. This year’s judges were Constance Bantman, Jane MacKenzie and David Mills.

Get your copy of Standing Heavy here!

ABOUT STANDING HEAVY

Shortlisted for the 2023 International Booker Prize • One of The Walrus‘ Best Fall Books of 2023

A funny, fast-paced, and poignant take on Franco-African history, as told through the eyes of three African security guards in Paris.

All over the city, they are watching: Black men paid to stand guard, invisible among the wealthy flâneurs and yet the only ones who truly see. From Les Grands Moulins to a Sephora on the Champs-Élysées, Ferdinand, Ossiri, and Kassoum find their way as undocumented workers amidst political infighting and the ever-changing landscape of immigration policy. Fast-paced and funny, poignant and sharply satirical, Standing Heavy is a searing deconstruction of colonial legacies and capitalist consumption and an unforgettable account of everything that passes under the security guards’ all-seeing eyes.

ABOUT FRANK WYNNE

Frank Wynne, the translator of Standing Heavy, is an award-winning Irish writer and translator from French and Spanish. Over a career spanning more than twenty years, Wynne has translated a wide variety of authors, including GauZ’, Michel Houellebecq, Patrick Modiano, and Emiliano Monge. This is the third time he has been awarded both the Scott Moncrieff Prize for Translation from the French and he has twice won the Premio Valle Inclán for translation from Spanish. His translation of Animalia by Jean-Baptiste Del Amo won the 2020 Republic of Consciousness Prize.

ABOUT GAUZ’

GauZ’ is an Ivorian author, journalist and screenwriter. After studying biochemistry, he moved to Paris as an undocumented student, working as a security guard before returning to the Côte d’Ivoire. His debut novel, Standing Heavy, won the Prix des libraires Gibert Joseph and the English translation was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize. It was followed by Comrade Papa, which won the 2019 Prix Éthiophile, and Black Manoo. GauZ’ is the editor-in-chief of the satirical economic newspaper News & co, and has written screenplays and documentary films.