media round-up Archives - Page 2 of 8

The Hollow Beast by Christophe Bernard, translated by Lazer Lederhendler (Apr 2, 2024), was reviewed in the Manhattan Book Review. The review was published online for their June issue, and is available to read here.

Reviewer Eric Smith writes,

“Bernard’s hilarious tome is a hundred-proof fever dream of bizarre scenarios and Canada’s most outlandish cast of characters . . . But readers beware. Your technicolor nightmares will be fueled by The Hollow Beast.”

Grab The Hollow Beast here!

AWARD NEWS!

The Education of Aubrey McKee by Alex Pugsley (May 7, 2024) has been longlisted for the 2024 Toronto Book Awards! The longlist was announced on July 4, and you can read it here.

Toronto Public Library has created a special reading list of the 2024 longlisted titles, here. The shortlist for the 2024 Toronto Book Awards will be announced later this summer and a winner will be named in a prize ceremony November 7.

Grab The Education of Aubrey McKee here!

Or, check out the first book, Aubrey McKee, here.

Media Hits: THE FUTURE, CROSSES IN THE SKY, THE HOLLOW BEAST, and more!

June 28, 2024/in Latest News/by biblioasis

IN THE NEWS!

THE FUTURE

The Future by Catherine Leroux, translated by Susan Ouriou (Sep 5, 2024) was featured in the Quill & Quire‘s article on “Independent booksellers’ top-selling Canadian titles of 2024”! The article was posted on June 26, and places The Future in the #2 and #3 spots on their top-sellers lists.

Check out the full article here.

Grab The Future here!

CROSSES IN THE SKY

Crosses in the Sky: Jean de Brebeuf and the Destruction of Huronia by Mark Bourrie (May 21, 2024) was reviewed by Michael Taube in the Washington Examiner. The article was published online on June 21, and you can read it here.

Taube writes,

“Crosses in the Sky provides a detailed account of the giant-framed missionary who walked among the Hurons . . . This patron saint of Canada has long been given plenty of attention by Jesuits, whether for his missionary spirit or for his extreme suffering. It is good to see his legend now given serious historical treatment.”

Crosses in the Sky was reviewed in Guelph Today in bookseller Barb Minett’s column, “On the Bookshelf.” The review was posted on June 23, and can be read here.

Minett writes,

“Bourrie’s history of the attempted colonization of Huronia by the Jesuits and French is a torrent of information. Open the first page and you will be taken down a treacherous river full of gigantic rapids and waterfalls, and around every turn there is a skirmish or drought, an epidemic or blackflies . . . [This is] a very important book in the writing of Canadian history.”

Crosses in the Sky also made an appearance on Quill & Quire‘s article on “Independent booksellers’ top-selling Canadian titles of 2024.” The article, posted on June 26, places Crosses in the #25 spot. Check out the article here.

Get Crosses in the Sky here!

The Hollow Beast by Christophe Bernard, translated by Lazer Lederhendler (Apr 2, 2024), was reviewed in the Literary Review of Canada. The review by Amanda Perry will appear in their July/August issue, and was published online on June 24 here.

Perry writes,

“It’s ambitious . . . [The reader] can tap into the author’s manic rhythm and admire the density of the world he creates . . . his technical mastery has generated all kinds of complex flavours, so long as one can stomach the initial shock of the taste.”

Grab The Hollow Beast here!

ORDINARY WONDER TALES

Barfly by Michael Lista (June 4, 2024) was reviewed in the Midwest Book Review. The review was posted in their Wisconsin Bookwatch on June 24, and can be viewed here.

The MBR writes,

“With his own distinctive style of cadence, rhythm, word driven imagery, and emotional reach, the poems comprising Michael Lista’s last volume of verse is an extraordinary, memorable, and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and college/university library Contemporary American Poetry collections and supplemental curriculum reading lists.”

Grab Barfly here!

Ordinary Wonder Tales by Emily Urquhart was featured in Book Riot! Kendra Winchester featured the essay collection in her newsletter Read this Book on June 26, and you can read it in full here.

Winchester writes,

“Emily Urquhart knows her stuff. She holds a doctorate in folklore, and publications around the world have featured her writing. In this collection of essays, Urquhart examines the magical and the everyday side by side.”

Grab Ordinary Wonder Tales here!

OFF THE RECORD

Off the Record edited by John Metcalf was reviewed in the Literary Review of Canada! The review by Sarah Hampson was published online on June 24, and will appear in their July/August issue. Check it out here.

Hampson writes,

“[Metcalf’s] appreciation for the challenges of being a published writer is reflected in the clever approach he takes in Off the Record . . . The authors in Off the Record chart the course of their careers with stories of rejection, bad publishing decisions, punishing reviews, eventual triumph, and formative experiences. Which is the best kind of education for any wannabe writer—and a reminder for readers of the commitment involved in creating the fiction they get to enjoy.”

Grab Off the Record here!

HELLO, HORSE

Richard Kelly Kemick, author of the forthcoming story collection Hello, Horse (Aug 2024), wrote an essay for The Walrus. The essay, “I Tried to Finish a Dead Man’s Novel” was published online on June 20, and is available to read here.

Order Hello, Horse here!

Media Hits: HELLO HORSE, THE UTOPIAN GENERATION, ON COMMUNITY, and more!

June 14, 2024/in Latest News/by biblioasis

IN THE NEWS!

HELLO HORSE

Hello, Horse by Richard Kelly Kemick (Aug 6, 2024) was highlighted in the Globe and Mail‘s list of “Thirty-four books to read this summer.” The article was published online on June 13, and you can check it out here.

Critic Emily Donaldson writes,

“The animal world interacts with the human one in confounding and sometimes wondrous ways in Kemick’s first collection, which abounds with the poet’s sideways, observational writing.”

Hello, Horse was also featured in BC Bookworld! The review was published in their Summer 2024 print issue, and is available to view online here.

BC Bookworld writes,

“Part of the joy of a collection of short stories is the surprising range of characters and situations that can spring from an author’s imagination. Richard Kelly Kemick’s debut collection of character-driven stories, Hello, Horse, range from the humorous to the bizarre.”

Order Hello, Horse here!

THE UTOPIAN GENERATION

The Utopian Generation by Pepetela, translated by David Brookshaw (Aug 13, 2024), was highlighted in the Globe and Mail‘s list of “Thirty-four books to read this summer.” The article was published online on June 13, and you can check it out here.

Critic Emily Donaldson writes,

“First published in Portuguese in 1992, this decades-spanning anti-colonialist novel from the early sixties by Angola’s most prominent writer (real name: Artur Pestana dos Santos) involves a group of students in Lisbon who, faced with the prospect of being conscripted to suppress a political uprising in their native land, end up (like Pepetela himself did) as guerilla fighters in Angola’s brutal 14-year war.”

Order The Utopian Generation here!

SORRY ABOUT THE FIRE

Colleen Coco Collins, author of Sorry About the Fire (Apr 2, 2024), was interviewed on the All Write in Sin City podcast! The interview was posted online on June 9, and is available to listen to in full here.

Grab Sorry About the Fire here!

YOUR ABSENCE IS DARKNESS

Your Absence Is Darkness by Jón Kalman Stefánsson, translated by Philip Roughton (Mar 5, 2024), was reviewed in The /tƐmz/ Review! The review was published online on June 10, and you can read it here.

Reviewer Marcie McCauley writes,

“Jón Kalman Stefánsson’s writing is steeped in love and loss; his stories are sorrow-soaked, the kind that linger.”

Grab Your Absence Is Darkness here!

LOVE NOVEL

Love Novel by Ivana Sajko, translated by Mima Simic (Feb 6, 2024), was reviewed in The /tƐmz/ Review! The review was published online on June 10, and you can read it in full here.

Reviewer Alex Carrigan writes,

“The true love story in this novel is the love between the reader and the characters, asking the reader to sympathize with the flawed, struggling characters and to empathize with how easy it is to fall into cynicism and to forget the joy in life . . . Sajko’s novel can remind you that some relationships are too interwoven to be truly cut apart, and it’s in finding how they’re tied together that one will remember to persist regardless.”

Get Love Novel here!

ON COMMUNITY

On Community by Casey Plett (Nov 7, 2023) was feature in CBC Books’ list of “25 books for Pride Month.” The list was posted online on June 14, and is available to check out here.

CBC Books writes,

“Plett uses her firsthand experiences to eventually reach a cumulative definition of community and explore how we form bonds with one another.”

Get On Community here!

BEST CANADIAN SERIES 2024

The Best Canadian 2024 Series launch, part of TIFA’s Toronto Lit Up programme, was highlighted on their YouTube channel! The short video was posted on June 12, and you can watch it here.

Get Best Canadian Essays 2024 here!

Get Best Canadian Poetry 2024 here!

Get Best Canadian Stories 2024 here!

Get all three Best Canadian anthologies here!

Media Hits: THE FUTURE, BARFLY, COCKTAIL, and more!

June 7, 2024/in Latest News/by biblioasis

IN THE NEWS!

THE FUTURE

The Future by Catherine Leroux, translated by Susan Ouriou (Sep 5, 2024), was reviewed in Alberta Views! The review was published online on May 31, and is available to read here.

Reviewer C. S. Wiesenthal writes,

“While the setting of The Future is indeed dystopian—a ruined and toxic Fort Détroit—the story told here is one that won’t leave you despairing . . . the novel’s overall vision [is] of regenerative potential: the cycle of time and the transformation of all life forms offer possibilities for redemption and hope.”

Get The Future here!

Barfly by Michael Lista (June 4, 2024) has been reviewed in The Seaboard Review by Michael Greenstein. The review was posted online on June 3, and you can read it here.

Greenstein writes,

“With liquid refreshment, firehose, and fire escape, besotted Barfly is a sobering experience.”

Barfly was also featured in Lit Hub‘s list of ’26 new books out today’ along with an excerpt! The list was published on Jun 4 and can be viewed here, and you can read June 7’s excerpted poem, “Auld Lang Syne” here.

Grab Barfly here!

THE ART OF LIBROMANCY

The Education of Aubrey McKee by Alex Pugsley (May 7, 2024) was featured in CBC’s article “10 books you heard about on CBC Radio recently.” The article highlighted Alex Pugsley’s recent interview on CBC’s The Next Chapter. The list was posted on June 4, and you can check it out here.

Get The Education of Aubrey McKee here!

Pick up the first book, Aubrey McKee, here!

WORK TO BE DONE

Work to Be Done: Selected Essays and Reviews by Bruce Whiteman (Mar 12, 2024) was reviewed in the Winnipeg Free Press! The review was published online on June 1, and you can read it in full here.

Reviewer Ron Robinson writes,

“Poet, translator, culture historian, book reviewer and lover of language, Bruce Whiteman has sifted and scrutinized 50 years of his critical writings and selected those that still have delight to offer the curious reader.”

Grab Work to Be Done here!

Josh Cook, author of The Art of Libromancy (Aug 22, 2023), was interviewed on Lit Hub‘s podcast Write-minded: Weekly Inspiration for Writers. The interview, about the behind-the-scenes of selling books, was posted online on June 3, and you can give it a listen here.

Grab The Art of Libromancy here!

IN AWARDS

COCKTAIL

Cocktail by Lisa Alward (Sep 12, 2024) has won the New Brunswick Book Awards’ Mrs. Dunster’s Award for Fiction! The announcement was made on June 1, and you can check out the full list of award winners here. Congratulations to Lisa!

Grab a Cocktail to celebrate here!

PRESS SPOTLIGHT

Photo Credit: Joanna Gigliotti

Biblioasis Press made the news this week, featured in the Globe and Mail! The article by Ira Wells focused on Biblioasis’ place and recognition in the publishing trade.

The article was published online on June 3, and you can check it out here.

Media Hits: HELLO HORSE, THE EDUCATION OF AUBREY MCKEE, YOUR ABSENCE IS DARKNESS, and more!

May 31, 2024/in Latest News/by biblioasis

IN THE NEWS!

YOUR ABSENCE IS DARKNESS

Your Absence Is Darkness by Jón Kalman Stefánsson, translated by Philip Roughton (Mar 5, 2024) was reviewed in the Globe and Mail! The review was posted online on May 31, and you can read the full piece here.

Critic Emily Donaldson writes,

“‘It’s always more important to feel things than to understand them,’ our priest-cum-devil says to the narrator at one point. That’s useful advice for approaching Your Absence Is Darkness, which feels, in a sense, like it teaches us to read it as we move along—if you’ll indulge me—as an earthworm might: blindly burrowing and occasionally moving toward the light.”

Get Your Absence Is Darkness here!

HELLO, HORSE

Hello, Horse by Richard Kelly Kemick (Aug 6, 2024) received a starred review in Kirkus Reviews! The review, which will be in their July print issue, was published online on May 31 and can be read here.

Kirkus writes,

“The tales here mix whimsy, weirdness, lust, and Canadian politics, bringing to mind George Saunders and the slackers from Wayne’s World . . . He has a penchant for alternating between things familiar and bizarre . . . Provocative, entertaining short fiction.”

Order Hello, Horse here!

Barfly by Michael Lista (June 4, 2024) was reviewed in The Walrus, in a critical essay by Nicholas Bradley. The review was published on May 31, and you can read it here.

Bradley writes,

“Lista’s poems . . . are fun, completely miserable, and almost certainly bad for you. Barfly should be affixed with a Health Canada warning. You must be nineteen or older to purchase this product. Not safe in any amount. Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.”

Order Barfly here!

Alex Pugsley, author of The Education of Aubrey McKee (May 7, 2024), was interviewed on the Across the Pond Podcast. The interview was posted online on May 30, and you can listen to it in full here.

Host Lori Feathers states,

“This book captures the youthful impatient desire for excitement and experience and also the disillusionment that encroaches on this desire over time.”

Pugsley was also interviewed on CBC Here and Now‘s Tuesday Afternoon Book Club, which aired on May 28. You can listen to the segment here.

Ramraajh Sharvendiran calls the book,

“A love story inspired by the author’s own lived experience that takes us back to the city of Toronto at a time (the 90’s) when it felt more supportive of artists.”

Get The Education of Aubrey McKee here!

Check out the first book, Aubrey McKee, here!

The Hollow Beast by Christophe Bernard, translated by Lazer Lederhendler (Apr 2, 2024), was reviewed in the Winnipeg Free Press! The review was published online on May 25, and you can check it out here.

Critic Sheldon Birnie writes:

“While The Hollow Beast itself is a beast of a novel, despite its hefty page count it moves along at a leisurely clip, as though the reader is hearing the tall tale around the table at the local pub or late at night in the kitchen during a house party, with the lilt and cadence of an eloquent and well-soused Francophone, peppered throughout with allusions to Quebec history, Metallica’s Kill ‘Em All and the Montreal Canadiens, among others.”

Grab The Hollow Beast here!

Media Hits: CROSSES IN THE SKY, THE EDUCATION OF AUBREY MCKEE, and COCKTAIL!

May 24, 2024/in Latest News/by biblioasis

IN THE NEWS!

CROSSES IN THE SKY

Crosses in the Sky: Jean de Brébeuf and the Destruction of Huronia by Mark Bourrie (May 21, 2024) was reviewed in the Globe and Mail! The review was published online on May 24, and you can read the full piece here.

Reviewer Charlotte Gray writes,

“Crosses in the Sky is dramatic and enthralling . . . Bourrie has done more than any other Canadian historian writing for a general audience to disinter the root causes of degenerating settler-Indigenous relations and disrupted Indigenous societies in the 400 years since Brébeuf’s death. And he has done it with attention-grabbing panache.”

Crosses in the Sky was also reviewed in the Ottawa Review of Books. The review was posted online on May 22, and you can read the full review here.

Grab Crosses in the Sky here!

The Education of Aubrey McKee by Alex Pugsley (May 7, 2024) was reviewed in the Midwest Book Review. The review was published online on May 21, and you can read it in full here.

“A fun and fascinating read from start to finish, The Education of Aubrey McKee continues to showcase author Alex Pugsley’s genuine flair for original, distinctive, and narrative driven storytelling style.”

The Education of Aubrey McKee was also excerpted in Lit Hub, on May 20. You can check out the full excerpt here.

Get The Education of Aubrey McKee here!

Check out the first book, Aubrey McKee, here!

COCKTAIL

Cocktail by Lisa Alward (Sep 12, 2023) was reviewed in FreeFall. The review was posted online on May 19, and is available to read here.

Reviewer Skylar Kay writes,

“Lisa Alward’s Cocktail is a memorable collection for its characters, settings, and artistic prowess. From the macro aspects of storytelling like character and setting development to the micro levels of writing poignant lines to capture allegories in unexpected ways, Alward shows off her talent at every turn.”

Grab Cocktail here!

Media Hits: WORK TO BE DONE, EDUCATION OF AUBREY MCKEE, CROSSES IN THE SKY, and more!

May 17, 2024/in Latest News/by biblioasis

IN THE NEWS!

WORK TO BE DONE

Work to Be Done: Selected Essays and Reviews by Bruce Whiteman (Mar 12, 2024) was reviewed in The Miramichi Reader. The review was published online on May 15, and you can read it in full here.

Reviewer John Oughton writes,

“Whiteman is an erudite and very well-read lover of books in general, and literature in particular. He brings a finely honed critical perspective, a fine prose style of his own, and a sturdy sense of humour to the various essays and reviews collected here. “

Work to Be Done was also reviewed by Catherine Owen in FreeFall! The review was published online on May 13, and you can check out the full review here.

Catherine praises,

“Whiteman’s scholarship is prodigious and his style engaging as he addresses subjects that might be viewed as archaic or passé in a unique way, his tone intelligently conversational, quirky and eminently readable . . . His attention to the crucial choice of diction for translators and the essential sensitivity to sonority for the poet is relentlessly compelling. And he can be quite funny.”

Get Work to Be Done here!

CROSSES IN THE SKY

Crosses in the Sky: Jean de Brébeuf and the Destruction of Huronia by Mark Bourrie (May 21, 2024) was featured in the Toronto Star! The review was published online on May 15, and you can read it here.

Reviewer Ken McGoogan writes,

“In 2019, Mark Bourrie published Bush Runner, a biography of the adventurer Pierre-Esprit Radisson that was ‘compelling, authoritative, not a little disturbing—and a significant contribution to the history of 17th-century North America,’ as I wrote at the time. The same can be said about Bourrie’s latest, Crosses in the Sky: Jean de Brébeuf and the Destruction of Huronia . . . In reinterpreting the Jesuit’s martyrdom against the backdrop of Huronia’s destruction, Bourrie presents a revisionist history.”

Mark Bourrie was also interviewed about the book on The Andrew Carter Morning Show! The interview was posted online on May 17, and is available to listen to here.

Order Crosses in the Sky here!

SLEEP IS NOW A FOREIGN COUNTRY

The Education of Aubrey McKee by Alex Pugsley (May 7, 2024) was reviewed in the Literary Review of Canada alongside the first book in the Aubrey McKee Novels, Aubrey McKee! The review was published online on May 17, and will be printed in their June 2024 issue. You can read the full review here.

Reviewer Liam Rockall raves,

“Bold and dynamic, Pugsley’s novels are lively and vivid, filled with individuals who are benevolent and cruel and with scenes that are captivating and terrifying. Aubrey McKee and The Education of Aubrey McKee are the first two acts of a sweeping personal drama, and any remaining volumes cannot come fast enough.”

Alex Pugsley was interviewed about The Education of Aubrey McKee, on CBC Main Street NS with Jeff Douglas! The interview was posted online on May 14, and you can give it a listen here.

Grab The Education of Aubrey McKee here!

Check out the first book, Aubrey McKee, here!

Sleep is Now a Foreign Country by Mike Barnes was featured in articles from Windsor News Today and The Windsor Star about its Trillium Award nomination! The Windsor News Today article was posted online on May 11, and can be read in full here, and The Windsor Star article was posted on May 17, and can be read here.

Get Sleep is Now a Foreign Country here!

BIBLIOASIS SPRING SEASON LAUNCH

Biblioasis’s own publisher Dan Wells was interviewed on AM 800’s The Shift with Patty Handsides on May 16, about our upcoming Spring Season Launch! The launch, which will take place in Windsor on May 23, will celebrate five of our newest titles: Crosses in the Sky by Mark Bourrie, The Education of Aubrey McKee by Alex Pugsley, Sorry About the Fire by Colleen Coco Collins, Barfly by Michael Lista, and Work to Be Done by Bruce Whiteman.

Listen to the full interview here!

More details about next week’s launch here.

Media Hits: EDUCATION OF AUBREY MCKEE, HOLLOW BEAST, COCKTAIL, and more!

May 10, 2024/in Latest News/by biblioasis

IN THE NEWS!

Happy pub week! Alex Pugsley, author of The Education of Aubrey McKee (May 7, 2024) was interviewed by Jason Jeffries for the Bookin podcast. The interview was published on May 6, 2024. You can listen to the full episode here.

In the interview, Jason Jeffries called Education:

“The best book of 2024 period.”

Get The Education of Aubrey McKee here!

Check out the first book, Aubrey McKee, here!

The Hollow Beast by Christophe Bernard, translated by Lazer Lederhendler (Apr 2, 2024) received a starred review in Quill & Quire! The review was published online on May 8, 2024. Check out the review here.

Critic Cassandra Drudi writes:

“Bernard weaves a multicoloured, shimmering tapestry of the Gaspé . . . The many threads aren’t necessarily gathered into a neatly finished selvage by the time the reader gets to the end of the book, but the journey they have been taken on is so immersive, so grounded in a place and the characters that inhabit it, that it hardly matters.”

Author Christophe Bernard was interviewed on CBC All in a Weekend. The interview aired on May 5, 2024 and can be heard in full here.

Grab The Hollow Beast here!

COCKTAIL

Lisa Alward, author of Cocktail (Sep 12, 2023) was interviewed on CBC Information Morning for Fredericton! The interview aired on May 7, 2024, and you can listen to the full interview here.

Lisa Alward was also interviewed in The New Quarterly. The interview was published on May 9, 2024, and you can read the full interview here.

Cocktail was featured on CBC Books’ list of “14 Canadian short story collections to read for Short Story Month” on May 10, 2024! Check out the full list here.

Grab a Cocktail here!

CASE STUDY & DUCKS NEWBURYPORT

It’s a blast from the past: Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet and Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann were both featured on the Book Review’s Best Books Since 2000 in the New York Times! Check out the full list here.

Pick up Ducks Newburyport here!

Get Case Study here!

Media Hits: HOLLOW BEAST, EDUCATION OF AUBREY MCKEE, SORRY ABOUT THE FIRE, and more!

May 3, 2024/in Latest News/by biblioasis

IN THE NEWS!

The Hollow Beast by Christophe Bernard, translated by Lazer Lederhendler (Apr 2, 2024) was featured in Words Without Borders‘ April Watchlist! The article was posted online on April 29, and can be read here.

Tobias Carroll writes,

“The Hollow Beast is a sprawling story of generational feuds and old hostilities that refuse to die . . . the novel also unfurls like a knowing parody of such epics, blending hallucinatory moments and possibly nonexistent cryptids with a decades-spanning narrative.”

Christophe Bernard, author of The Hollow Beast, was interviewed in Open Book online on May 3. You can read the full interview here.

Open Book writes,

“[Bernard] aims to leave a mark on the broader landscape of CanLit. The author travelled far and wide before diving into novel writing, and absorbed important lessons from modern literary greats, channelling his experiences and influences into a singular voice.”

Get The Hollow Beast here!

THE FULL-MOON WHALING CHRONICLES

Alex Pugsley, author of The Education of Aubrey McKee wrote an article for The New Quarterly, “What’s Alex Pugsley Reading?” The article was posted online on May 1, and can be read here.

The New Quarterly also published an excerpt from Pugsley’s The Education of Aubrey McKee, “The Calvin Dover Show.” The excerpt can be read online here, and is also published in their Spring 170 print issue.

The Education of Aubrey McKee was also reviewed in Publisher’s Weekly on May 2, and you can read the full review here.

Publishers Weekly writes,

“The novel has an inventive structure, beginning with a short story set sometime in the future about Aubrey working as a writer on a sketch-comedy show and ending with a play by Aubrey.”

Get The Education of Aubrey McKee here!

And check out the first book, Aubrey McKee, here!

SORRY ABOUT THE FIRE

Colleen Coco Collins, author of Sorry About the Fire, was interviewed in Open Book! The interview was published online on April 26, and can be read here.

When asked what the best and worst parts of being a poet is, Coco answered,

“I think the work of poetry is the best about being a poet. The weaving of the mesh that draws disparates into proximity and through their ensuing reciprocal rubs, enlightens, delights, unveils, enrages, and begets meaning, and question, and reckon..”

Get Sorry About the Fire here!

The Full-Moon Whaling Chronicles by Jason Guriel has been nominated for the 2024 Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association’s Elgin Award! The full list of nominees can be found here.

Get The Full-Moon Whaling Chronicles here!

Media Hits: YOUR ABSENCE IS DARKNESS, BARFLY, THE FUTURE, and more!

April 26, 2024/in Latest News/by biblioasis

IN THE NEWS!

YOUR ABSENCE IS DARKNESS

Your Absence Is Darkness by Jon Kalman Stefánsson, translated by Philip Roughton (Mar 5, 2024), has been reviewed in the Financial Times! The review was published online on April 24, and is available to read in full here.

Reviewer Boyd Tonkin writes,

“Roughton’s radiant English versions of Stefánsson’s novels about the Icelandic encounter with modernity have built into one of the glories of 21st-century literary translation. Craggily gorgeous yet fluid and tender, sometimes comic, they capture the books’ balance between the powers of nature and the passions of humanity with consummate skill . . . This novel with a colloquial, intimate, up-to-date voice boasts sturdy epic bones . . . Throughout, the rhythmic, idiomatic prose gives pulsing reality to people and place, as Stefánsson both cherishes his ramifying clan and warns that only imagination makes them live.”

Your Absence Is Darkness was also reviewed in World Literature Today. The review was published online on April 26 here, and will appear in their May print issue.

Reviewer Daniel Haeusser writes,

“Your Absence Is Darkness posits that we find happiness together even in that melancholy, using arts like music or literature to assert and explore our human connections, to forgive imperfection, and to thumb our noses at inevitability . . . its insights and gorgeously haunting prose make it a novel that fans of philosophic or metaphysical literature should experience.”

Get Your Absence Is Darkness here!