Shelf Awareness for Friday, October 7, 2022


Del Rey Books: The Seventh Veil of Salome by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Dial Press: Whoever You Are, Honey by Olivia Gatwood

Pantheon Books: The Volcano Daughters by Gina María Balibrera

Peachtree Publishers: Leo and the Pink Marker by Mariyka Foster

Wednesday Books: Castle of the Cursed by Romina Garber

Overlook Press: How It Works Out by Myriam LaCroix

Charlesbridge Publishing: If Lin Can: How Jeremy Lin Inspired Asian Americans to Shoot for the Stars by Richard Ho, illustrated by Huynh Kim Liên and Phùng Nguyên Quang

Shadow Mountain: The Orchids of Ashthorne Hall (Proper Romance Victorian) by Rebecca Anderson

Editors' Note

Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples Day

Because of the Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples Day holiday, this is the last issue of Shelf Awareness until Tuesday, October 11. See you then!


HarperOne: Amphibious Soul: Finding the Wild in a Tame World by Craig Foster


News

For Sale: Encore Books, Yakima, Wash.

Encore Books, a new and used bookstore in Yakima, Wash., that has been in business for more than 30 years, is up for sale. 

Sharon and Loren Lamb, along with their son Brett Lamb, have owned and operated the bookstore for more than 22 years. They've moved the store twice, expanding it each time, brought in more inventory and new sidelines offerings and, most recently, added a coffee shop.

For the last five years, however, Sharon and Loren Lamb have been unable to take part in the store's day-to-day operations for medical reasons, leaving Brett Lamb to run the store on his own. He has decided it is time to move on.

"There are definitely opportunities we are missing out on simply because I don't have the bandwidth by myself," he said. "I honestly believe with a stronger social media presence, and a stronger focus on online sales, the potential for larger profits is real."

Interested parties can contact Loren Lamb at loren@encorebooksyakima.com for more information.


Park Street Press: An Autobiography of Trauma: A Healing Journey by Peter A Levine


Ian-damaged Macintosh Books in Sanibel, Fla., Launches Fundraiser

Macintosh Books, pre-Ian

Macintosh Books + Paper, Sanibel, Fla., which suffered a "devastating blow" from Hurricane Ian last week, has launched a $30,000 Gofundme "relocation fund" campaign so the bookshop can reopen in an interim location for "the year or two that it takes for Sanibel to heal, rebuild and welcome us home," owner Rebecca Binkowski wrote on the fundraising page.

"Last week our long-standing community bookshop suffered a devastating blow by Hurricane Ian. With a massive storm surge and all access to the island cut-off, everything inside our beloved shop is lost. It's not just the merchandise, but equipment, fixtures and memorabilia," Binkowski noted. "We are rebuilding our shop from scratch.... MacIntosh has been a Sanibel tradition since 1960 and we will not say goodbye this way! If we can gather a small nest egg, to be used for relocation expenses, we will reopen nearby in November and save our family business. There is so much devastation and so much need, it's overwhelming, but our family is committed to the community we've built and the island we call home. Please help if you can and know that your messages and comments are the bursts of joy that light our new path. Thank you, friends and stay tuned for the next chapter of MacIntosh Books!"

In an Instagram post yesterday, Binkowski observed: "If there's one thing that I've learned in this business and in life, we all have stories to tell. And more importantly, we NEED to tell our stories. It's how we connect, move forward and heal. It's what makes us human. Hearing other peoples stories, as many and as different from ours as we can makes us ultimately more compassionate and kind people. It's primitive. It's in our DNA. 

"Yesterday the bulk of my day was spent finding my mail. I hadn't driven into Fort Myers yet and neither had my friend, so we made the decision to head into town together. What would normally take 20 minutes, took well over an hour, each way. Publix is open and a few gas stations with long lines, some have gas and some don't, but everything else is closed. Most traffic lights are out and cones reroute you to where you'll be safest. So much debris. So much devastation. 

"The mission was mail, but the magic in the day was in the stories we told one another. How we endured this traumatic event, how we're moving forward. What we hope to teach our kids, what we wish we had already known. How we still felt like we were in our twenties, working at South Seas on Captiva, were we met nearly three decades ago. We're sad. We're grateful. We're scared. We need help and we want to help. It's the same for all of us. It was cathartic and a balm, this story session and I hope that all of you have friends like this, even one, who lets you tell your raw, real, messy stories. If you don't, get them out however you can! Let someone tell you their story. The world needs more things done out of love. Let someone tell you their story. The world needs more things done out of love."


G.P. Putnam's Sons: Take Me Home by Melanie Sweeney


Publisher Katherine Tegen to Retire 

Katherine Tegen

Katherine Tegen, v-p and publisher, Katherine Tegen Books, will be retiring in December after 40 years in publishing. She first joined HarperCollins in 1984, and after stints elsewhere--including a few years at Houghton Mifflin--rejoined the company in 2001, launching her eponymous imprint, Katherine Tegen Books, in the fall of 2003.

"Katherine and Katherine Tegen Books leave a legacy of publishing groundbreaking, commercial-literary fiction, with millions of books sold, including global blockbusters the Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage, the Gone series by Michael Grant, and the Divergent series by Veronica Roth," noted Suzanne Murphy, president & publisher, HarperCollins Children's Books.
 
As an editor, Tegen has worked with many award-winning and bestselling authors and illustrators, including Henry Cole, Leslie Connor, Michael Grant, Margaret Peterson Haddix, Maureen Johnson, Patricia MacLachlan, Garth Nix, Veronica Roth and Angie Sage. 

Murphy noted that Tegen has also "been a trusted and beloved mentor to the many editors who have worked with her over the years and the proud publisher of their authors and illustrators under her imprint," including Mac Barnett and Shawn Harris, Charles G. Esperanza, Lisa Greenwald, Tiffany D. Jackson, Mackenzi Lee, Justin A. Reynolds and Eliot Schrefer.  
 
Over the next few months, Tegen will work with Murphy and her team, including executive editor Ben Rosenthal and senior editor Mabel Hsu, to ensure a smooth transition for Katherine Tegen Books authors under a new, yet-to-be-named imprint.


International Update: Lviv BookForum's Message from Zelensky, Who Will Also Address Frankfurt Book Fair

Volodymyr Zelensky

The Lviv BookForum, Ukraine's largest literary festival, has opened with messages of support from President Volodymyr Zelensky and participants including Margaret Atwood and Neil Gaiman. The aim of the forum is to create a civic space for a free and tolerant exchange of ideas between writers and readers. The hybrid program--combining in-person and virtual live appearances--blends 40 writers and thinkers "in 15 conversations encompassing art in times of conflict, memory, gender equality, loss, corruption, imperialism, and hope," organizers noted.

As digital partner for the first time, Hay Festival is broadcasting the conversations free online in English, Spanish and Ukrainian to a global audience, while bolstering the program with a slate of online events pairing international writers with their Ukrainian counterparts.  

In his opening statement of support, President Zelensky said: "I sincerely welcome BookForum in hospitable Lviv, an important book publishing event that holds its intellectual front in this difficult time. For more than half a year, the world has witnessed how Russian aggression has been destroying our territories, Ukrainian culture, language and books as a symbol of freedom and indomitability of our people. Today, when the Armed Forces of Ukraine are courageously defending their native country from the enemy invasion, it is vitally important for us to preserve our national culture and identity. That is why, on all platforms, we bring the truth to the world about what is happening now in Ukraine, about the Russians' arbitrary actions and crimes against humanity."

Margaret Atwood commented: "Putin's war is an attack on democracy and freedom, not just in Ukraine but around the world. In joining the Lviv BookForum and Hay Festival program, I support Ukrainian writers and readers as they share their work. May this theatre of ideas and talent inspire more to raise their voices and share their gifts."

Neil Gaiman added: "It's an honor and a privilege to be a part of the 29th Lviv BookForum. It's Ukraine's biggest literary festival, and it says a lot that, even in the dark days of a war that should never have been necessary, the festival continues in a brave act of resistance and allows writers like me to stand in solidarity with the writers and the readers of Ukraine. With the help of Hay Festival the programming of the Lviv BookForum can reach millions of people around the world. And that includes you, wherever you are. Come and listen and learn." 

Lviv BookForum curator and journalist Sofia Cheliak said: "The role of public intellectuals is not only to interpret reality, but also to illuminate it and in so doing influence the world around us and the paths we take. Our program is built to tackle uncomfortable questions, to which there may not be an unequivocal answer. This is a space for writers and readers to ask questions and tell their stories, a conversation that runs in defiance of the evil that seeks to squash our freedom. Please join us."

--- 

President Zelensky is also scheduled to appear during the Frankfurt Book Fair this year, at the joint invitation of Frankfurter Buchmesse and the Federation of European Publishers. Zelensky will address the book community via video on Thursday, October 20, at 12:30 p.m. in Room Harmonie of the Congress Centre. This will be followed by a speech from European commissioner for culture Mariya Gabriel. 

Ukraine will have a collective stand at Frankfurt in Hall 4.0 B 114, under the motto "Perseverance in Persistence," the Bookseller reported. Organizers estimate more than 100 Ukrainian publishing professionals and authors will be in attendance.

"Ever since the start of the invasion, FEP together with Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels [the German book trade association], have reached out to our Ukrainian counterparts and offered support," said Peter Kraus vom Cleff, FEP president and managing director of the Börsenverein. "What Ukraine is doing now, is standing up for our rights and our values. The whole book community must continue its engagement so that publishing in Ukraine can remain vibrant. I thank President Zelenskyy for having chosen Frankfurt for his intervention and invite all colleagues to join us to listen to him and the commissioner for culture."

Juergen Boos, president and CEO of Frankfurter Buchmesse, said, "The Frankfurt Book Fair has maintained close relations with publishers, authors and industry-related institutions in Ukraine for many years and has carried out numerous trade fair participations, publishers' training courses and specialist programs in recent years. This year, it is very important to us to enable and support the networking of Ukrainian colleagues with their partners worldwide, and to let many Ukrainian intellectuals, publishers, authors and cultural workers have their say at the Frankfurt Book Fair to report on the current situation. We want to create publicity and raise awareness of what is at stake." --Robert Gray


Obituary Note: Jerry Lane

Jerry Lane

Jerry Lane, the longtime owner of Book Stop in Albuquerque, N.Mex., died on September 23, the Albuquerque Journal reported. He was 78.

Lane opened Book Stop in Albuquerque's Nob Hill neighborhood in 1979. The used bookstore moved several times over the decades before settling in a space at Washington and Lomas. Lane closed the store in 2015, but several years later reopened in a new location at 1512 Girard NE street, with a sign on the door reading "open by appointment or chance."

Several of Lane's employees eventually went on to open bookstores of their own. Rachel Hess, who worked for Lane in the mid-1980s, told the Journal that in 1989 he told her it was "time to open your space and spread your own wings," and even gave her a wall of bookshelves to help her launch Rachel's Books.

"He had a habit of helping his competition," she added.

Lane got his start in bookselling in 1973 at a Book Stop location in Tucson. Laurie Allen, the owner of that Book Stop, eventually helped Lane open his own six years later.

Nick Potter, owner of Nicholas Potter Books in Albuquerque, said Lane was "as nice a guy as any of us have ever met. He was generous of heart and spirit on so many levels."

Ed Ripp, a private bookseller based in Albuquerque, said he "wanted good books in people's hands."

A memorial will be held for Lane on October 29, at the Book Stop location on Girard NE.


Notes

NYC's Albertine Books Hosting Nobel Literature Laureate Annie Ernaux

Annie Ernaux

Next Monday, October 10, at 6 p.m., Albertine Books in French & English in New York City will host "The Art of Capturing Life in Writing," featuring new Nobel Literature laureate Annie Ernaux in a conversation with author Kate Zambreno about Ernaux’s body of work, including her latest novel, Getting Lost (Seven Stories). The event will be in English. 

Ernaux will be in New York for the first time since Seven Stories Press started publishing her work in the U.S. She is presenting Les Années Super 8, a film co-directed with her son, David Ernaux Briot, at the New York Film Festival.


Spooky Front Window Display: Fountain Bookstore

"Meet our newest seasonal helper here at the store, Bone Didion!" Fountain Bookstore, Richmond, Va., posted on Facebook along with a photo of the storefront. "Bone is hanging out in our new window display and also modeling a bag full of goodies sent to us by our friends over at @tordotcompub! Want to be the lucky winner of this tote filled with spooktastic books that'll get you in the mood for fall? All you have to do is comment your favorite Halloween read, and we'll pick a winner Tuesday! Good luck y'all, and may the best ghoul win!"


Personnel Changes at Abraham Associates; Seven Stories

Alice Mesjak has joined Abraham Associates as a sales rep, focusing on new store openings and helping select accounts work with client publishers. She remains a part-time bookseller at Bookends & Beginnings in Evanston, Ill.

---

Claire Kelley has been promoted to director of marketing at Seven Stories for the adult imprint and also for the children's imprint Triangle Square Books for Young Readers. Kelley joined Seven Stories in 2020 as director of library and academic marketing, and now expands her reach to include special sales, partnerships, and other creative marketing efforts. A former bookseller, she is currently working toward her Masters of Library and Information Science and has held roles at Bookshop.org, Roost Books, Melville House, Simon & Schuster, and Knopf Doubleday.



Media and Movies

TV: Little Secrets

Jennifer Hillier's 2020 novel Little Secrets is being adapted for TV. Deadline reported that a thriller series "is in the works for Peacock from Tish Cyrus's HopeTown Entertainment, writer Melissa Scrivner Love and Universal Television."

Little Secrets is part of the first-look deal that NBCUniversal Television and Streaming struck with Cyrus, mother of Miley Cyrus, in December. Love will executive produce alongside Cyrus and Dannah Axelrod of HopeTown Entertainment. 


Books & Authors

Awards: Heartland Booksellers Winners; Goldsmiths Shortlist

Winners have been named for the Heartland Booksellers Award, a prize given jointly by the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association and the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association to celebrate literature in the Great Lakes and Midwest. The winners will be honored on opening night of this year's Heartland Fall Forum in St. Louis, Mo. The winners are: 

Fiction: The Sentence by Louise Erdrich (Harper)
Nonfiction: In Praise of Good Bookstores by Jeff Deutsch (Princeton University Press)
Poetry: There Are Trans People Here by H. Melt (Haymarket Books)
YA/Middle Grade: The Beatryce Prophecy by Kate DiCamillo (Candlewick Press)
Picture Book: The Year We Learned to Fly by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by Rafael López (Nancy Paulsen Books)

--- 

A shortlist was released for the £10,000 (about $11,420) Goldsmiths Prize, which recognizes "fiction that breaks the mold or extends the possibilities of the novel form." The winner will be named November 10. This year's finalists are:

Somebody Loves You by Mona Arshi
Seven Steeples by Sara Baume
Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies by Maddie Mortimer
Peaces by Helen Oyeyemi
there are more things by Yara Rodrigues Fowler
Diego Garcia by Natasha Soobramanien & Luke Williams


Reading with... Rita Cameron

photo: Cal Cameron

Rita Cameron studied English at Columbia University and law at the University of Pennsylvania and is a 2022-2023 Graduate Steinbeck Fellow in the MFA program at San Jose State University. She lives in San Jose, Calif., with her family. Cameron is the author of two novels, Ophelia's Muse, a work of historical fiction, and The House Party (Morrow, September 13, 2022), in which she examines the taboo of money and all the ways its power echoes through class, community and our most intimate relationships.

Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:

A high school party goes terribly wrong. In a town where so many have so much on the line, who will pay the price?

On your nightstand now:

I'm packing for a few weeks on the road, and it's always a struggle to allocate suitcase space between books and clothes. I never want to be without a book, but I feel the same way about clean socks. Coming with me will be Sara Nović's True Biz and Kirstin Chen's Counterfeit, as well as Bruce Holsinger's new novel, The Displacements, which promises to be a wild ride about an environmental disaster, and John Vercher's After the Lights Go Out, which deals with issues of race, family, memory and aging, set in the gritty world of mixed martial arts.  

Favorite book when you were a child:

I loved the Vesper Holly series by Lloyd Alexander, which starts with The Illyrian Adventure. These historical fiction adventures featured a fearless and whip-smart teenager from Philadelphia (my hometown) who travels the world, solving mysteries. Imagine Indiana Jones, if he was a 16-year-old girl. I'd love to see these back in print!

Your top five authors:

Edith Wharton, David Sedaris, Donna Tartt, Michael Chabon, Kazuo Ishiguro.

Book you've faked reading:

The Lord of the Flies by William Golding. There, I said it. I never read it in high school, and I still haven't. And now I've written a book about what happens when a group of teenagers are left to their own devices, so I'd better go back and finally read it.

Book you're an evangelist for:

I'm not alone here, but I am always talking up Hilary Mantel's trilogy on Thomas Cromwell, Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies and The Mirror & the Light. Mantel's intimate style of writing instantly brings readers close to Cromwell and transports us 500 years into the past as Cromwell navigates a quickly changing political landscape in a fascinating time.

Book you've bought for the cover:

This is why a great indie bookstore can be so dangerous--all those tables of gorgeous covers, paired with knowledgeable personal recommendations. Who can resist leaving without a stack of new books for the TBR pile? That was how I discovered Jess Walter's Beautiful Ruins, which features an alluring shot of a rocky coastal Italian village. It's a great cover, but the book is even better, weaving together time periods and far-flung locations into a seamlessly entertaining book.

Book you hid from your parents:

My parents are both big readers, and we often recommend favorites to each other. If I hid any book from them, it was probably yet another stack of the Baby-Sitters Club books that I brought home from the library. They were by no means forbidden, but my parents always encouraged me to read widely and, like a lot of kids, I loved reading old favorites over and over.

Book that changed your life:

I read Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon while I was a miserable law student. The adventures--and misadventures--of Chabon's writers, editors and students, set in the literary world, provided some much-needed escapism for me. I think it's fair to say that Wonder Boys doesn't paint the most flattering portrait of publishing and academia, but I found the world of the novel intensely appealing, flaws and all. I always wanted to write a book, but Chabon's book made me want to be a writer.

Favorite line from a book:

"Wouldn't it be fun if all the castles in the air which we make could come true, and we could live in them?" --Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

I've spent countless hours making my own castles in the air. Some of them I've even turned into novels.

Five books you'll never part with:

Stephen King's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft--the best book on writing that I've read. It's accessible and entertaining, and I turn to it whenever I'm feeling stuck. The funny thing is that I'm a huge scaredy-cat, and I never read horror.

Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth--with Wharton, glittering settings and lively characters are always a given, but I love this book for its ending. Good premises abound, but good endings are harder to come by, and this book really sticks the landing, especially given the heartbreak that awaits.

The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle--I love being able to dip into these whenever I need a quick "comfort read," and I'm looking forward to sharing them with my children.

Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare, a comedy that still entertains 400 years later.

Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson--this is a new favorite, but I loved it so much that I didn't want to lend it out, and I ended up buying half a dozen copies for friends. Kids who catch on fire when they're upset--it sounds crazy, but it was one of the most insightful books about raising kids that I've read, and it's laugh-out-loud funny.

Book you most want to read again for the first time:

I recently picked up Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam at an airport book shop and read it without knowing anything about it. I'm not going to spoil it for anyone else, but when it turns from a well-observed family drama into something else, it really blew me away. I read it in two sittings, and then immediately insisted that everyone else I know read it as well. A perfect book for our times.


Book Review

Review: Plain: A Memoir of Mennonite Girlhood

Plain: A Memoir of Mennonite Girlhood by Mary Alice Hostetter (University of Wisconsin Press, $26.95 hardcover, 168p., 9780299340407, December 6, 2022)

Mary Alice Hostetter tells an authentic and evocative story about her early years entrenched in strict Mennonite religious traditions and her experiences when, at the age of 18, she decided to leave the community.

In 2008, Mary Alice edited and published The Measure of a Life, a book that chronicled the diaries of her mother, Ruth Martin Hostetter, who recorded details of being a Mennonite wife and mother, living and farming in a tight-knit church community in Gap, Pa., from 1920 to 2000. In Plain, Mary Alice continues writing about farm life, family and its meaning. However, she more deeply probes emotional truths from the past, exploring what her Mennonite upbringing meant to--and for--her own life.

Hostetter grew up the 10th of 12 children. For 18 years, she toed the line, being good, obedient and God-fearing. She conformed and strove to fit in. However, yearnings beyond what she considered the limitations of her patriarchal community--especially watching schoolmates enjoy worldly pleasures--raised questions that lured her away from the traditions and expectations of her birthright.

Twenty-one beautifully captured essays comprise the book. Hostetter digs deep into her childhood working on a farm, tending house and churchgoing; school experiences; rebellions such as sneaking off to movies; early paid jobs like a stint as a local tour guide of the Mennonite and Amish communities; her quest to go to college and become a teacher; breaking many rules of her upbringing in pursuit of cultural activities; changing her wardrobe; frequenting happy hours; and traveling stateside and abroad. Hostetter's journey to a very small town in West Virginia--a sabbatical taken from teaching to write a book--changes her life unexpectedly. Intrigued by welcoming townsfolk, she ends up learning how to make cheese. In many ways, her West Virginia experiences bring her back to her roots, while they also widen the scope of her world as she finally recognizes and embraces being a lesbian.

These moving, tenderly rendered essays straddle the line between Hostetter expressing a fervent desire to leave her upbringing and way of life, while also finding pride and nostalgia for where she came from. The two pathways ultimately merge and come to reflect how Mennonite influences will always infuse Hostetter's being. Readers are the blessed beneficiaries of her early formations and experiences, as without them, she would not have become such a sensitive, perceptive and wise writer. -- Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines

Shelf Talker: Beautifully rendered, tender essays exploring the far-reaching influences of a Mennonite upbringing by a woman who left her community at the age of 18.


Deeper Understanding

Robert Gray: What Were the Odds I'd Win the Nobel Lit Prize?

Short answer: ∞/1.

A gracious loser, however, I congratulate Annie Ernaux on her well-deserved honor and can now confess that my money was on a longshot: Australian writer Gerald Murnane, whose 2022 Nobel Prize for Literature bookies' odds coming down the homestretch were running around the 30/1 mark. 

Gerald Murnane

That number was consistent with his Nobel odds back in 2006, when he told the Age, "It's a bit better odds than this drought will break." He was not surprised to be on the list then ("I was given to believe some months ago that I had been nominated. It wasn't by an Australian. It was almost certainly from someone in Sweden."), but wouldn't be flying to Stockholm should he win ("My reason is that my whole life is built around a reluctance to travel.").

Why Murnane? Well, for the past couple of months I've been on a reader's winning streak with his books. At one point in the early stages, I found myself simultaneously enthralled by The Plains (hardcover), Last Letter to a Reader (paperback), Tamarisk Row (e-book) and Border Districts (audiobook). This was crazy-making, of course. 

I quickly reined in my obsession and focused on just one book at a time after recalling a moment in Michael Ondaatje's novel The English Patient. Hana, the nurse, is reading Rudyard Kipling's Kim to bedridden Count Almasy, who scolds: "Read him slowly, dear girl, you must read Kipling slowly. Watch carefully where the commas fall so you can discover the natural pauses. He is a writer who used pen and ink.... Think about the speed of his pen." Or, in Murnane's case, the speed of his one-finger typewriting method.

Another, not quite so noble, reason for gambling on Murnane could be chalked up to the fact that his work and life are infused with horse racing: bookmakers' odds, punters' "can't fail" systems, owners' "can't lose" colts; bets won or--more often--lost. Even as a child, he would arrange "my glass marbles on the lounge-room mat or my chips of stone on my pretend-racecourse under the lilac bush" to run imaginary races. Variations on these memories often pop up in his tales.

After the Nobel Lit Prize results were announced yesterday, London's Kirkdale Bookshop tweeted: "Gerald Murnane is looking wistfully at his collection of marbles round about now. In his mind, countless real and imaginary horse races are occurring simultaneously."

In Something for the Pain: A Memoir of the Turf, Murnane writes: "I've always believed the odds to be too much against me. And yet, I still today continue the research that I began as a boy more than 60 years ago; I still spend a few minutes each morning checking the results of the latest betting system that I've devised."

He also recalls: "I knew better than to expect much money from the sales of my books of literary fiction, but I hoped to earn a modest income from betting--yes, betting on racehorses. Despite my father's dismal record and my own lack of success in earlier years, I still believed I could beat the odds."

In the Nobel Lit Stakes, however, Murnane has remained a longshot, if one with solid form. On Tuesday, the Guardian reported that Salman Rushdie, victim of a horrific stabbing in August, was the bookies' favorite at 13/2, with Michel Houellebecq and Annie Ernaux ("last year's bookmaker's favorite") at 5/1, followed by Anne Carson (4/1), Haruki Murakami (12/1), Margaret Atwood (9/1) and Stephen King (17/1). 

But in the Atlantic on Wednesday, Alex Shephard wrote that predicting the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature "is a fool's errand. I should know: For the past seven years, I've tried to guess the winner based on odds from the British sportsbook Ladbrokes and never once gotten it right.... Despite this track record, I continue to make predictions about the prize. Why? Two reasons. One is that it's a fun, low-stakes way to engage with the literary world, which most people take way too seriously. And the other is that it remains the single best global survey of literature."

He touted five authors who had never won the prize, and "they probably won't win this year. But their names keep coming up for a reason: They have, over the past several decades, built up an astonishing and influential body of work."

One of the five was Annie Ernaux; another was Gerald Murnane. "Four years ago, the New York Times's Mark Binelli wrote that 'a strong case could be made for Murnane, who recently turned 79, as the greatest living English-language writer most people have never heard of,' " Shephard noted, adding that the author "is admittedly a bit of an eccentric, and culturally remote. He lives in the middle of nowhere in Australia: Goroke, Victoria, population about 300, where... he occasionally tends bar and hangs out at the local men's shed (a kind of state-run cultural center aimed at reducing loneliness among the elderly). All of this makes Murnane fun to talk about, but he is also an extraordinary writer."

How did Murnane take another Nobel loss? Quite well, I suspect. "I was bemused by what I had learned about myself that day," he writes in Something for the Pain. "I seemed to have a built-in regulator that would not allow me to bet more than a certain amount. I might have said that whenever I stepped onto a race course my arms became short and my pockets deep."

And... there's always the next race.

--Robert Gray, contributing editor

Powered by: Xtenit