NYRB NEWS
New books for children ages 3-7
William McCleery’s ‘Wolf Story’ in ‘The Wall Street Journal’ and on “Weekend Edition Saturday”
In last weekend’s Wall Street Journal, Meghan Cox Gurdon wrote “The shape and feel of a book still matters, thank goodness, and there is something illimitably satisfying about the snug, matte editions produced for The New York Review Children’s Collection.” In her review of Wolf Story she applauded the elegance of original illustrations by graphic artist Warren Chappell and wrote “What sings, though, is the lively dialogue in the story by William McCleery.” Wolf Story, she concluded, “is a romp and a laugh and a nostalgic joy to read aloud.”
William McCleery, also a playwright, originally devised Wolf Story as a series of bedtime tales to amuse his son Michael. In an interview broadcast on NPR’s Weekend Edition on September 15th, host Scott Simon delves into the making of the book with Michael McCleery himself. Now 72 years old and with three sons of his own, Michael recalls what he found most striking when he revisited the book: “It really said, in a way that children could understand, the things that adults want to say to their kids, but so often cannot.”
For more about Wolf Story and other books in The New York Review Children’s Collection, click here.
NYRB Lit, a New E-book Series
New York Review Books is pleased to announce the September 4th publication of The Water Theatre by Lindsay Clarke, the first title in NYRB Lit, a new e-book series devoted to publishing contemporary literary fiction and narrative non-fiction from around the world. All of the books in the series have been published to great acclaim in their own countries and we’re happy to be able to make these titles available to US readers. NYRB Lit titles are available from most e-book retailers.
From Library Journal‘s starred review of The Water Theatre:
“Clarke’s astounding novel, set in England, Africa, and Italy, defies categories. Part political screed, part epic love story with some mystical fantasy added to the soup, his writing style is as crisp and straightforward as his subject matter is complicated and nuanced. This Whitbread Prize–winning author should find an appreciative new audience with this digital incarnation.”
Praise from the UK press:
“Lindsay Clarke’s complex, involving novel The Water Theatre is every bit as good as his stunning debut, The Chymical Wedding…. This is a richly involving and rewarding work.” —Erica Wagner, Best Books of the Year, The Times
“Bold, tenacious characters and vivid, distinct landscapes give The Water Theatre a strong hold on the imagination as Clarke skillfully draws out the betrayals searing his characters’ lives.” —The Financial Times
“It is a rare pleasure and surprise to read a new book whose prose is so rich and emotionally resonant… Lindsay Clarke has an enviable command of character, time, and place. He is almost Lawrentian in his ability to depict both the power and beauty of landscape, and tender or tragically fraught emotional relationships… This is a significant and ambitious work by a master of his craft.” —The Independent
Stefan Zweig in ‘The New Yorker’
If you’d like to know more about the great Austrian writer Stefan Zweig, read Leo Carey’s “A Critic At Large” column in the August 27 issue of The New Yorker (subscription required).
NYRB Classics is publisher of five of Zweig’s works: the novellas Chess Story, Journey Into the Past, and Confusion; his only full length novel, Beware of Pity; and his unfinished novel, The Post-Office Girl.
During the 1930s, Zweig was one of the best-selling writers in Europe, and was among the most translated German-language writers before World War II. With the rise of Nazism, he moved from Salzburg to London (taking British citizenship), to New York, and finally to Brazil, where he committed suicide with his wife.
Into the Heart of Hurricane Season
June too soon.
July stand by.
August look out you must.
September remember.
October all over.
—Old Mariner’s Rhyme
Good riddance to hurricane season, we’ll all be glad when its over and done, but in the meantime if you find yourself ill at ease, why not hunker down and pick up a novel from NYRB Classics? After stowing the masts and battening down the hatches, check out these two hurricane-infused novels, A High Wind in Jamaica and In Hazard, both by Richard Hughes. However…. Hopefully we all manage to stay dry this hurricane season.
More July literary birthdays!
The weather’s not cooling down, but neither are our celebrations of literary birthdays!
On July 19, join us in celebrating the birthday of Vladimir Mayakovsky. Hailed as the bad boy of Russian poetry in the early twentieth century, Mayakovsky was known for explosive language and new forms, which are featured in The Stray Dog Cabaret: A Book of Russian Poems, a collection of the work by those poets who made the Silver Age of Russian literature shine.
Next, on July 27, we head to Lexington, Kentucky, the birth place of Elizabeth Hardwick. The author of Sleepless Nights, a tour de force novel; Seduction and Betrayal, a virtuoso performance and reckoning of womanhood and writing; and The New York Stories of Elizabeth Hardwick, a collection of pieces that demonstrate how fully Hardwick deserves her place in twentieth-century great American literature. Hardwick, a co-founder and advisory editor of The New York Review of Books, was the recipient of a Gold Medal from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Finally, on the very next day, July 28, we hop across the pond to celebrate Malcolm Lowry, who was born in New Brighton, England to a rich Liverpool family, but who spent the better part of his life as a renowned—and notorious—author, traveling in alcohol-infused unhappiness. The Voyage That Never Ends is a collection of the remarkable writings Lowry scattered throughout his life.
Attention Francophiles: Bastille Day is (almost) here!
There is further cause to celebrate Bastille Day as NYRB now has several French history titles with another due this fall. Additionally, Richard Howard was this year’s co-recipient of the French-American Foundation & Florence Gould Foundation Translation Award for When the World Spoke French by Marc Fumaroli.
Nancy Mitford’s dazzling histories—The Sun King, Madame de Pompadour, and Voltaire In Love (October 2012)—cover the court life of Louis the 14th; unveil the personal life of Louis the 15th’s famous mistress; and yield an Enlightenment era love affair between two of France’s greatest minds. Moving into the Napoleonic era, Philippe-Paul de Ségur’s Defeat gives a firsthand account of Napoleon’s disastrous invasion of Russia. Novels in Three Lines is a scandalously witty account of everyday life in 1906 France, by critic and anarchist Félix Fénéon. And, last on the timeline, but certainly not least, Richard Cobb’s street level view of France from the mid-thirties to the early fifties in his Paris and Elsewhere.
Happy 4th of July from NYRB!
In 1830, Daniel Webster cried out, “Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!” However, by 1855, as disunion seemed imminent, there were eighty-nine places taking their name from “Union,” while “Liberty” had just thirty-seven (poor “Freedom” was the namesake of just thirteen, and those were mostly in the north). Further, “In 1862 Union touched one hundred ten. Liberty had added only seven; Freedom only one.”
If you were to add up all of the Liberty’s, Freedom’s, and Independence’s, they would not equal the Union’s.
However, there’s no Union Day, which we suspect Independence takes as some small consolation.
Whether you choose to celebrate liberty, freedom, justice (which apparently is a very unpopular choice of place name), or even union (you’d hardly be the first) tomorrow, we hope you’ll do it with Names on the Land and NYRB in mind.