2009 Man Booker Prize longlist announced

The 13 longlisted titles for this year’s Man Booker Prize were announced today:

• The Children’s Book by A.S. Byatt
• Summertime by J.M. Coetzee
• The Quickening Maze by Adam Foulds
• How to Paint a Dead Man by Sarah Hall
• The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey
• Me Cheeta by James Lever
• Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
• The Glass Room by Simon Mawer
• Not Untrue & Not Unkind by Ed O’Loughlin
• Heliopolis by James Scudamore
• Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
• Love and Summer by William Trevor
• The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

James Naughtie, chair of the judges, commented on the longlist:

The five Man Booker judges have settled on thirteen novels as the longlist for this year’s prize. We believe it to be one of the strongest lists in recent memory, with two former winners, four past-shortlisted writers, three first-time novelists and a span of styles and themes that make this an outstandingly rich fictional mix.

An anti-Canadian cookbook?

Author and Q&Q contibutor Shaun Smith points out what he’s calling a “very Canadian problem” with a new cookbook coming from Phaidon Press this fall. Called COCO, the book will feature recipes from 100 emerging culinary stars chosen by 10 of the world’s leading chefs, including Gordon Ramsay and Mario Batali. The problem is that not one is from Canada. From Smith’s blog:

I have tremendous respect for all of these curators. The reason for this gap is not entirely clear. They managed to find five deserving Australians, so surely they could have found at least one Canuck.

I am told by Phaidon that there may still be one opening left. That is, they’ve confirmed only 99 chefs and there is space for one more chef.

I’ve been floating names at Phaidon – Jonathan Gushue, Jérémie Bastien, Theo Yeaman, Patrice Demers, Mark Cutrara, Michael Steh (to name just a few) – with the hopes that they will clue into the fact that their book, as it stands, has a big hole in it and may not be particularly well received in Canada.

Smith is encouraging other Canadian foodies to help push Phaidon into choosing a Canadian chef for the remaining open spot.

Sorry, who wrote this book again?: Dan Brown headlines on someone else’s book

While it may be standard practice to see book covers with blurbs that read “In the tradition of [insert best-selling author's name here],” the Internet is abuzz today about one of the most blatant abuses of this questionable technique. MarketingWeek is reporting that the cover of Deadline, a new novel by British thriller writer Simon Kernick, features The Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown’s name well above, and much more prominently than the book’s actual author.

The cover (which can be seen here) states, “If you like your thrillers as fast, furious and unputdownable as Dan Brown, then we thought you’d enjoy…,” followed by the real author’s name and book title way down at the bottom. The top half of the back cover copy lists reasons to read Dan Brown – only the bottom half mentions Deadline.

Photos of the cover indicate that this edition is exclusive to U.K. chain WH Smith. From writer Pace J. Miller’s blog:

There is no right of publicity in the U.K., but I’m sure both Brown and Kernick would be spewing if they knew about this cover (and at least a prima facie case of passing off could be made). It’s designed to mislead and deceive the careless book buyer, or at the very least cause what is commonly referred to as “initial interest confusion.” The danger is exacerbated when this book is placed right next to Dan Brown’s books, which it was when I found it in WH Smith.

The thing is, Kernick is not some crappy first time author who can’t sell a copy. His previous novel, Relentless, was the 8th best-selling paperback, and the best-selling thriller in the UK in 2007.

Andrew Nikiforuk becomes first Canadian to win prestigious environment book award

Alberta writer and environmentalist Andrew Nikiforuk has been awarded the 8th annual Rachel Carson Environment Book Award from the U.S.-based Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ). Nikiforuk, who was honoured for his book Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent (Greystone Books), becomes the first Canadian to win the $10,000 (U.S.) award. From the SEJ website:

Andrew Nikiforuk paints an alarming picture in northern Alberta, Canada: International oil companies clear cut huge swaths of boreal forest, rake off the boggy soil, scoop up giant shovelfuls of oil sands with the largest machines on earth and use copious amounts of boiling water to separate tarry bitumen from the sand so it can be turned into petroleum for your car in Kansas. The toxic residue that comes off the sands is stored behind gigantic dikes that leak, and downstream people and fish are sick.

Nikiforuk and the other winners of the SEJ’s annual awards for reporting on the environment will be honoured at a gala ceremony in Madison, Wisconsin, on October 7. Read Q&Q‘s review of Tar Sands here.

Authors challenge the idea of a national literature

Canadian authors Margaret Atwood and Anne Michaels, along with Britain’s Monica Ali and Ireland’s Joseph O’Neill, have contributed their thoughts on the idea of a national literature to The Atlantic‘s Fiction 2009 special issue, created in partnership with the Luminato Festival of Arts and Creativity held in Toronto last month. The four essays, grouped under the title “Border Crossings,” discuss how globalization, immigration, and the internet have affected the concept of a national literature, and question whether the notion that books and authors belong only to one place can still exist.

In her essay “Reading Faust in Korean,” Michaels argues that the idea of a national literature is created by the reader who relates to the book in his or her own way, rather thanby the writer’s place of birth. Atwood, for her part, thinks that it’s impossible to place an author or a book into a single category. In her essay “The Beetle and the Teacup,” she writes:

“Do you identify as a woman, or as a writer?” I’ve been asked. “A North American? A Torontonian? An environmentalist? A poet, or a novelist?” As if we were so divisible.

Barnes & Noble launches world’s biggest e-book store

U.S. mega-chain Barnes & Noble announced in a press release yesterday the creation of the world’s biggest e-book store comprising “more than 700,000 titles, including hundreds of new releases and bestsellers at only $9.99.” Unlike Amazon’s Kindle-only e-books, e-books purchased through B&N’s store will be compatible with a number of platforms (aside from the Kindle, of course): iPhone, BlackBerry, and most Windows and Mac computers. Through a partnership with Google Books, the B&N e-book store will also offer more than 500,000 free and downloadable public domain e-books.

B&N als announced an exclusive agreement to provide e-books for the forthcoming Plastic Logic e-reader, a device that is geared toward business professionals. From Fortune:

Plastic Logic vice president of business development Daren Benzi says his device is geared for business travelers, and as such will support the display of PDF files, Microsoft’s MS Word, Powerpoint, and Excel, as well as newspapers and magazines. But e-books are a big part of the game plan. “Will we carry every single one of those 700,000-plus titles? I don’t know. We’ll announce that as we get further along,” said Benzi. “But we will have access to them all.

Elsewhere in the blogosphere, The Book Oven analyzes how B&N’s move will affect the e-book market.

Author Frank McCourt may have only weeks to live

The Independent in the U.K. is reporting that Angela’s Ashes author Frank McCourt may be near death. It was publicly announced in May that McCourt, who turns 79 next month, had been battling melanoma and that following a course of chemotherapy the cancer had gone into remission. Reports now claim that McCourt’s condition has deteriorated. From The Independent:

After receiving treatment at the world-famous Memorial Sloan Kettering hospital in New York, the writer was declared well enough to return home to Connecticut.

However, a friend said yesterday that Mr. McCourt’s condition has deteriorated dramatically since then and that he is seriously ill.

It is understood he became unwell while on a cruise in the Pacific and was transferred to a hospital in Tahiti.

McCourt’s first book, the memoir Angela’s Ashes, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1997. He followed up on this success with two other bestselling memoirs, ‘Tis and Teacher Man. The author published his first children’s book, Angela and the Baby Jesus, in 2007, and The Independent reports that he has been working on his first novel and is planning a YA book.

Territorial copyright for Australian books at risk

Australia’s Productivity Commission has recommended to the federal government that it lift all restrictions on parallel importation of books, according to an article in The Sydney Morning Herald. Quillblog linked to this story back in March, at which point the commission had suggested that restrictions preventing competing editions of books from being imported into the country be limited to 12 months after publication. After those 12 months, parallel importation would be permitted – much to the horror of Australian publishers, booksellers, and authors. From the commission’s summary document:

Australia’s restrictions on the parallel importation of books result in higher local book prices, according to a report released today by the Productivity Commission. While this is a cost to consumers, the benefits to publishers and authors are not well-targeted. The Commission undertook extensive analysis of international book prices and concluded that the current restrictions create material upward pressure on book prices in Australia. The size of this effect will vary over time and across book genres, and can be substantial. By removing the restrictions, local booksellers would have the option of accessing better value books from overseas. Local publishers would have a strong incentive to make their prices more competitive and to look for greater efficiencies in their operations, the report said.

The new document is unclear on whether or not the earlier suggestion of a 12 month grace period is still being considered. It does, however, recommend that if the suggestions regarding parallel importation are followed, then “three years notice should be given to facilitate industry adjustment.”

Harry Potter and the Fickle Pope

With the latest film adaptation of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, set to hit theatres at midnight tonight, a review in L’Osservatore Romano, the official Vatican newspaper, has given the movie two thumbs up. This stance is a complete about face from previous comments made by the Pope (then Cardinal Ratzinger) in 2003, in which he criticized the series’ “subtle seductions” that could “corrupt the Christian faith” in young children. Additionally, an article in the Vatican paper last year further condemned the series’ emphasis on the occult, calling Harry himself “the wrong kind of hero.” From The Telegraph:

L’Osservatore Romano said the movie was the best adaptation yet of the J.K. Rowling books, describing it as “a mixture of supernatural suspense and romance which reaches the right balance.”

“There is a clear line of demarcation between good and evil and [the film] makes clear that good is right. One understands as well that sometimes this requires hard work and sacrifice,” the newspaper judged.

She’ll be seein’ ya: Julie Wilson ends Seen Reading

After almost three years, Julie Wilson, creator of the blog Seen Reading, has decided to end the popular literary voyeur project. For those unfamiliar with Seen Reading, Wilson spots people reading in public, notes the book and approximate page number, visits a bookstore to copy a short excerpt from the book, and then writes a blog entry with this information and a small piece of fiction about the reader’s life. Wilson announced yesterday that the site will continue as a personal blog, and as the home for her other lit projects.

During what she’s calling an “extended hiatus,” Wilson will work on a collection of microfiction loosely based on the more than 300 sightings she has collected on the site. The blog’s final entries will be posted on the week of August 3. Visit the blog for her full explanation on ending the project, and a story about her how her sightings have affected her views on reading.