Having the pleasure and the privilege to travel with this group of US non fiction editors to see a number of German publishers in Munich and Frankfurt – C.H. Beck, C. Hanser, Campus, Suhrkamp, S. Fischer, Random House  – the most interesting insight was at how many levels these markets have drifted apart: Selling a [...]

In only one day, I came across two just hilarious examples of how books and minds, across time and space, mock our funny lives as book worms. I currently tour German publishers with a group of US editors, courtesy to the German Book Office of the Frankfurt Book Fair. This morning, after a nice meeting [...]

This week’s NYTimes Sunday Book Review focuses on new books from Chinese authors, including: ‘The Vagrants‘, by YIYUN LI Reviewed by PICO IYER ‘China Witness: Voices From a Silent Generation’ By XINRAN Reviewed by JOSHUA HAMMER ‘Brothers‘ By YU HUA Reviewed by JESS ROW (with a portrait of the writer in the Sunday Magazine. Tweet

“Wanted: The global bestseller. A new study shows: Only a few writers are successful on a global scale. Yet national bookmarkets are diverse (not homogenized).”

It is just amazing how a really big organization like Amazon in less then 2 weeks makes an about face in their strategy for their arguably most ambitious strategic project, the Kindle. After doing everything and a bit to roll out a radically proprietary machine, closing it like a can of Campell’s tomato soup to [...]

2 events on translation are forthcoming – one local, one European – an I have the privilege to participate: (a) “Literary Translation and Culture” is a one day conference, initiated and hosted by Manuel Baroso, the President of the European Commission, on April 20, 2009, in Brussels. The early alert reads: “In the context of [...]