I have always had a morbid attraction to psychologically unstable characters- a penchant which I guess says more about me than the author/character in question, however, I can’t help wondering what it is that keeps us interested in the insane. It’s probably the mystery or the idea that there must be a kind of cipher […]
While Irish and Italian citizens participated in the protests against the US SOPA / PIPA bills, it seems that their own Governments are in the process of introducing very similar measures – perhaps even harsher. The Irish government is acting in the wake of a court case (EMI and Others Vs UPC) where record companies […]
WordPress has mushroomed in size over the last couple of years, and its estimated that 22 in every 100 new domains registered in the States are running wordpress. And it’s not only small bloggers and internet marketers running the software – they claim that 14.7% of the top million websites are using their free open […]
The prize-winning Spanish novelist Lucía Etxebarria has, apparently, decided to pack in her career writing books after having discovered that more copies of it had been illegally downloaded than had actually been sold. Etxebarria, whose first book was a biography of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, and who has won both the Premio Nadal and the […]
Per Petterson and the notion of contemporary existentialism – http://t.co/vql31bV # A.L Kennedy )@writerer) on inspiration http://t.co/kLNOR9c # On reading the opening of Peter Handke's The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick http://t.co/dx3XbW2 # great article on the success of one of our favourite publishing houses -@EuropaEditions http://t.co/M3PwyHi # RT @boduweb how the crowd is […]
Great (audio) interview with John Banville/Benjamin Black – http://t.co/CnLxO2d # the novel is one of Europe’s greatest gifts… America and Africa gave the world jazz. We’ll call it even. http://t.co/YVD2ZVm # "E-books do involve lower costs, but only in manufacturing and distribution" – Jamie Byng interviewed by GQ http://t.co/jybH0kp # Here's what I hate about […]
There’s a moment, about 80 pages into Roberto Bolaño’s 2666, when what appears to be a reasonably conventional novel takes a disorientating twist (an anecdote about a visit to a Swiss mental asylum), before returning on track. Thereafter, throughout that lengthy novel gaps continously appear where it seems that if you but scratch the realism […]
RT @LaurenElkin everyone's saying the Goncourt is in the bag for Houellebecq… we'll find out today at 13h! http://bit.ly/cOPCaG # Powered by Twitter Tools.
The Lady Chatterley's Lover obscenity case – http://bit.ly/jrMmH # Harry Mulisch, the Dutch novelist, has died http://nyti.ms/ag9G9r # RT @groveatlantic Congratulations to Sofi Oksanen! The PURGE author won the prestigious French Prix Femina award! http://bit.ly/drBHtL # Re: Sofi Oksanen's The Purge – looks very interesting http://bit.ly/d2m8Ge # Paul Auster interviewed over at the official Chuck […]
The publication of Umberto Eco’s latest novel (in Italian), Il cimitero di Praga(The Cemetery of Prague), has created no small amount of controversy in Italy, thanks largely to very public criticisms voiced by the Vatican backed Osservatore Romano newspaper, and the Chief Rabbi of Rome, Riccardo Di Segni . Eco, who made his literary debut […]
