The appetite for Malaysian fiction in the English-speaking world seems fixated on family sagas set in the Japanese Occupation of Malaya—stories largely irrelevant to the current sociopolitical challen…
Varia
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A triptych mural by local artist John Stephens Coppin graces the third floor of the Detroit Public Library.There are cities that get by on their good looks . . . and there are cities like… -
With a toddler to parent, WLT’s book review editor, Rob Vollmar, isn’t anticipating being able to go much of anywhere this summer, so he’s relying on his summer rea… -
Editorial assistant Sara Wilson’s summer reading picks vary in content from knotty lovers’ quarrels to narratives gathered from the aftershock of warfare. She’s added some Neruda… -
Summer weather has already arrived in Austin, and it’s the perfect excuse for WLT’s digital media editor, Jen Rickard Blair, to jump-start her annual summer reading… -
Photos by Laura HernandezLocated in bustling Johannesburg, South Africa, the Apartheid Museum traces segregation along with the diversity of its people. As they enter, visitors experience a split entr… -
Alfredo Véa Jr.The Mexican FlyboyUniversity of Oklahoma Press2016 Alfredo Véa Jr.’s The Mexican Flyboy is a novel likely to enhance its author’s reputation as a writer primed to… -
A promotional still from the 1995 film adaptation of Walter Mosley’s Devil in a Blue Dress, starring Denzel Washington as private eye Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins.Mexican crime novelist Paco Ignaci… -
With two novels and one book of literary miscellany, WLT managing editor Michelle Johnson’s summer reading list is taking shape. Though she’ll no doubt spend many early morni… -
Ibrahim MaaloufKalthoumImpulse!“Umm Kalthoum is the quintessential Arab,” Uncle Jihad said. “She’s probably the one person whom all Arabs can agree to love . . .”—Rabih Alame… -
When Random House contacted me about translating a book by Pope Francis, I did a double take. I had worked for the publisher in the past on fiction but never on nonfiction. How on earth did my name co… -
Whether spent at home, driving cross-country, or venturing abroad, summer demands its own reading list. These new books of 2016 will more than fill a backseat, suitcase, Kindle, or hammock. … -
Photos: Logan WebbBirthplace and home of poet Dylan Thomas for more than half his life, the coastal city of Swansea in southern Wales echoes with his legacy—a residual haunting by its… -
It is not unusual for those on a quest to understand Russia to plough through Dostoyevsky, Chekhov, and Tolstoy; the more adventurous add Bulgakov and Pasternak to their lists. Yet Russia of the twent… -
The “Keep Austin Weird” adage has grown to mean something unique among many Austinites—it’s long been a celebration of creative resistance, a clash between economic growth and eccentricity. In recent… -
Anna Maria Schenkel, Nina George, and Sascha Arango. Schenkel photo: Jürgen Bauer, George photo: Jakob B. Ârner, Arango photo: Frank MayAlthough the impact of German culture on America… -
Trans. Clare SullivanPhoneme Media, 2015In an essay published in the January 2012 issue of World Literature Today, Clare Sullivan notes that poets who write in Zapot… -
Vincent Segal & Ballaké SissokoMusique de NuitSix DegreesNow that a representative sample of the world’s recorded music is available at no greater cost than an hour’s worth of drill-down… -
Schodt with manga legend Osamu Tezuka in 1981.I’ve translated manga off and on for nearly forty years, and it is hard to imagine any translation process that has changed more radically in that time. I… -
Photo: Rae AllenIn 2008 global humanitarian organization UNESCO classified Melbourne, Australia, an official City of Literature. It’s one of only eleven cities to bear the title… -
Photo courtesy of the Port Eliot FestivalDeep in the Cornish countryside, in the tiny village of St Germans, sits the house and estate of Port Eliot. A plot of land Napoleon himself claimed to be the… -
Roland Glasser, tr. Deep Vellum. 2015.Tram 83 (2015) is a lively, frenetic novel filled with a motley cast of characters lustful for pleasure, prosperity, and power. It’s based… -
Photo by Stephen MurphyNew Zealand is, relatively speaking, a tiny country with a population half the size of New York City and in a location so remote, a commercial flight from Los Angeles takes over… -
Amjad Ali Khan and Rahim AlHajThe sarod is an instrument used in North Indian classical music whose origin is shrouded in mystery and no small amount of controversy. What is not in dispute is Amjad Al… -
In Among the Bieresch, the young narrator, Hans, is sent to his father’s ancestral village in the easternmost province of the “Empire” (a surreal postwar Austria). His uncle…