We are busy, busy, busy around here. The contracts for our novel have arrived, along with our editor's very thoughtful notes, so we're diving into rewrite land. (The publication date has been moved up to May 2008, though we're told that could still change.) We've also got some book review deadlines and, after all that, a film adaptation of our book to consider, to get in ahead of a predicted WGA strike.
The biggest downside of being this busy is that so many extraordinarily interesting titles have shown up here (and continue to arrive every day), that we've got little hope of getting to any time soon. But here are some of the things that we're most excited to check out:
The Indian Clerk - David Leavitt's latest novel concerns itself with the famous story of the relationship between British mathematician G.H. Hardy and Srinivasa Ramanujan, the Indian clerk of the title. We're longtime admirers of Leavitt's so we're dying to crack this one open. No matter what happens, it's next up.
The Novel - Franco Moretti's epic, two-volume collection of essays on the history of the novel. Culled from the five-volume Italian original, Moretti invited more than a hundred critics from all over the world to contribute essays. There are numerous essays based on readings of specific works, as well as wide-ranging essays with titles like "Narrative Literature in the Turing Universe." Not light summer reading, but promises to be deeply rewarding.
The Lost Estate - This is Penguin Classics's latest translation of Alain-Fournier's wonderful novel Le Grand Meaulnes. The book is a favorite of everyone from Tobias Wolff to David Mitchell (alluded to in Cloud Atlas and Black Swan Green), and appears in a new translation by Robin Buss, with an introduction by Adam Gopnik.
Home Products - The debut novel by Amitava Kumar, whose excellent blog we frequent, and whose company we had the great pleasure of during the recent PEN festival. The book, from Picador India, is a tale of cousins, crime and Bollywood dreams, something we're especially interested in as BEA approaches.
Varieties of Disturbances - Lydia Davis's latest collection fifty-seven of short stories. Our near total ignorance of Davis's work is one of our guilty secrets, a wrong we hope to right at least.
Lost Son - Mark Cunningham was one of TEV's first guest bloggers, eons ago, and his new novel from Unbridled draws on the life of Rainer Maria Rilke during his Paris days, which means it's right up our alley in so many ways. (He's got a myspace site set up for the book.)
And, and, and ... An intern. Maybe we need an intern.
I would look to The Indian Clerk for a new perspective on Ramanujan from what is already out before.
Posted by: Anil | May 14, 2007 at 06:49 PM
Dear Mr. Variation, Also try Ms. Davis's book BREAK IT DOWN. The title says it all. She breaks it down, baby! (I apologize for calling you baby.)
Posted by: Jack Pendarvis | May 14, 2007 at 07:05 PM
I'd possibly be interested in interning for/helping you, though it would have to be after May is over.
Unless you were just jesting. :-)
Oh yes, and I'm the person who wrote the Chris Abani article, in case you didn't recognize my name.
Posted by: Kate Durbin | May 14, 2007 at 09:15 PM
Thanks for the alert on THE INDIAN CLERK. I love books (fiction and nonfiction) on mathematics and mathematicians. Matter of fact, I'd rather be a world class mathematician then a major award winning author. I'd be discovering theorems never before known, and for as long as there is mathematics I'd forever known as the discoverer of them, whereas in writing, there's nothing new under the sun, and it's such a crap shoot, you know?
Posted by: Richard Lewis | May 16, 2007 at 01:33 AM
The Indian Clerk does look interesting. Thanks. I only wonder -- It is published by Bloomsbury also the publishers of your debut novel. At the risk of sounding like a school principal, shouldn't you therefore recuse yourself from reviewing the book?
Posted by: Poornima | May 20, 2007 at 07:11 PM
You're quite right - I could never review it for a newspaper or in any formal capacity. But my connection to the publisher - which actually goes deeper; we share an editor - doesn't prevent me from being enthusiastic about it here, provided I'm up front about the connections when/if I take it up here.
Posted by: TEV | May 20, 2007 at 08:45 PM