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Hello!
I realize it's been a while since we sent out an e-newsletter . . . But now that fall's here and classes have started, we're going to get back onto a regular schedule . . . Anyway, there are a few interesting things we want to share with you:
Bragi Ólafsson's Reading Tour
To support the publication of The Ambassador, we're bringing Bragi to the States for three events:
Book Talk with Bragi Ólafsson
Thursday, September 30th @ 6:30pm
Scandinavian House, 58 Park Ave. (@38th St.), NYC
The World on Our Bookshelves: The Import of Literature in Translation
Saturday, October 2nd @ 9am
Pages & Places Festival
ArtWorks, 503 Lackawanna Avenue, Scranton, PA
Reading and Discussion at 192 Books
Tuesday, October 5th @ 7pm
192 Books, 192 Tenth Ave. (@21st St.), NYC
(please RSVP by calling 212.255.4022)
The Ambassadors Giveaway
Additionally, we're giving away 10 copies of The Ambassador to fans of our Open Letter Books Facebook Page. To get entered in the giveaway, simply visit our Facebook page and either "like" or comment on the "giveaway post."
New Winter 2010 Catalog
The Ambassador happens to be the first book from our Winter catalog, which is available in its entirety here.
Lots of great books this season, including Mathias Enard's Zone (more on that in a few weeks), Juan José Saer's The Sixty-Five Years of Washington (first of three Saer books we're doing), Selected Stories of Merce Rodoreda (which follows on the publication of Death in Spring last year), and Andrzej Sosnowski's Lodgings (the first book in our poetry series, more on that later as well).
More info about all these books are available on http//www.openletterbooks.org, where you can also subscribe and receive all of these books for $60.
Praise for To Hell with Cronjé by Ingrid Winterbach
Our most recent publication has been receiving some rave reviews, including:
"To Hell with Cronjé nevertheless strikes a live nerve, capturing a defining moment that forever affected the Boer view of the world. . . . To Hell with Cronjé is a grim, dark, unrelenting book—an exhaustive survey of the sensations of war, from headlice and crippling thirst to grief, suffering, and madness."
—Anderson Tepper, Words Without Borders
"Few would ever defend terse, guttural Afrikaans as a poetic language, but Elsa Silke's remarkable translation catches its lyricism. What makes this novel and its fresh English-language publication so timely is that its themes have become uncomfortably familiar. A camp-side discussion of geology and biology by two of the travelers sparks a ferocious defense of the anti-scientific and inherently racist beliefs of some of their brothers-in-arms. It is those conservative values that would drive South Africa into brutal segregation and its long cultural isolation, and it serves here as a timely political warning."
—Richard Whittaker, Austin Chronicle
"There are many reasons to read this book. Winterbach's writing sets the mood brilliantly, and she pitches her blend of characters perfectly to create an uneasy, occasionally frightening feel to her narrative. The camp in the wilderness occasionally feels like an outer circle of Dante's hell, but she achieves this without being over-dramatic in her prose. Her story explores an aspect of South African history that has been largely forgotten. I have read novels by several South African writers, but To Hell with Cronjéfelt removed both in chronology and style from all of them, and felt all the more special because of it. It is a novel that will stay in my memory for a long time."
—Andy Barnes, Belletrista
Best,
Chad
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