Part of the email I received today from the Face to Face group planning next years schedule - we email in our suggestions and they are calculated based on popularity and the leader's willingness to discuss - but these are suggestions from the leaders.
This year’s Nobel Prize went to Belarusian Svetlana Alexevich and a title of hers that caught my eye was “Zinky Boys”.
Meantime the Booker went to West Indian, Marlon James, whose “A Brief History of of Seven Killings” has received widespread praise.
Kolkata born author Amitav Ghosh's book Sea of Poppies — a scathing critique of British colonialism, lost out this year's Man Booker International Prize to Hungarian writer Laszlo Krasznahorkai, whose works are described as “postmodern”, “dystopian” and “melancholic” - right up our street I thought! It made me think of his fellow Hungarian writer, Peter Nadas, of whom I have been hearing great things for some years now.
In the US Anthony Doerr’s “All the Light We Cannot See”, which just missed out in our polls last year, continues to sell well and receive high praise.
Jonathan Franzen’s “Purity” was better received than some of his recent works and how can we possibly ignore Harper Lee’s “Go Set a Watchman”?
Two other American authors we haven’t managed to get to yet are Thomas Pynchon and, perhaps surprisingly, Philip Roth.
England’s, Kate Atkinson has been turning out very good books for years now and her most recent offering, “A God in Ruins” has received broad critical acclaim.
Across the Channel, Frenchman Michel Houellebecq continues to provoke, shock and occasionally annoy. His latest, “Submission” has taken him almost to the mainstream. Many consider him to be one of the very few people to be taking the novel forward this millennium.
Amanda Filipacchi, who is also French although she lives in America, offered her third novel, the intriguingly titled “The Unfortunate Importance of Beauty”. I keep hearing that I should read it.
We have done well with South American writers and I am sorry that we haver never got around to reading any of the works of the great Chilean writer, Roberto Bolano. His “2666” continues to fascinate readers around the world.
The Spanish Argentinian, Andres Neuman, was a huge fan of Bolano’s and his “Traveler of the Century” is considered by some to be the finest novel to emerge from Latin America this century.
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