Book News Around the World
July 13, 2008

A Weekend in Paris is not, I’m sorry to say, an invitation for you to join me on a delightful side trip, but the title of a popular spy novel now filling bookstore windows in Moscow. According to Victor Sonkin in the Moscow Times, literary style is “virtually . . . non-existent [but] “that’s hardly a bad thing for a spy novel.” I want this book. I want to know how a Russian spy novel reads, who is the hero, who is the villain, and what the struggles encompass. Brain candy, yes, but non-Western brain candy!

Sonkin’s newest review is of a novel by a notable young Russian author that was published by a house specializing in “unusual” books. Agatha is actually a novella, a story of  “an 8-year-old girl whose parents regularly go to a fertility clinic for treatment. Bored at being left at home on her own, Agatha ventures into the forest next to her house and eventually meets the devil. It is worth noting that Goralik deliberately places her heroine in a generic world that is definitely neither Russian nor West European nor American.” Sonkin notes a few flaws in it, but finishes up with an intriguing statement, that “it works on such a visceral level as to leave a lasting aesthetical impression.”

Why do I bring this up? Because my attention has been drawn to something I have seen many times before but to which until now I never paid particular attention—reviews, commentary, and other literary-focused pieces  from around the world (excepting England).  It apparently never occurred to me that book, author and publishing-related articles are integral parts of their media or that so much of their media was now accessible. Thanks to World-Newspapers.com, which offers access to “world newspapers, magazines and News Sites in English,” I can easily peruse the reading interests and literary news of places heretofore unknown to me. (You will need to search each country’s listings those for the literature/book review sections or columns; not all have them.)

Discovering this site was for me like finding a gigantic treasure chest that suddenly opened itself.  With mere clicks of the keyboard  I can share what other countries, including India, Australia, New Zealand, Uganda, Wales, Scotland, the Central African Republic, Hungary, Croatia, and Jamaica, publish and read. You might say that all that work has been done for me by going to publishers such as Europa Editions and Green Integer. But not all foreign works are translated (nor should they be). And whether you read translations or not the fact is that if you want to understand a particular country’s literary culture, articles in their media about their books, authors and publishing industry is the key to unlocking the literary treasure chest that awaits you.

This Week. . .
I like the idea of book museums. I don’t mean that books should be locked up, but having museums dedicated to books is wonderful. And in searching them out, I came across this unusual one, located in Azerbaijan—Baku’s Miniature Books Museum, the world’s only private museum dedicated to these tiny books.

Unfortunately, the page is from 2003, and I am not sure if it is even still in existence in 2008. I hope so. But even online it is an impressive. The museum began with Zarifa Salahova who wanted to share her passion for books with everyone. She opened the museum’s doors on April 23, 2002, with more than 3,600 miniature books on display. Russian poet Alexander Pushkin alone is represents nearly ten percent of the collection.

Without giving too much away (you can read it yourself while enjoying the pictures), the collection includes books made of leather, snakeskin, wood and silver. The books themselves have been divided into 15 categories, one of which is “Smallest.” Included in this category are three books from a famous Japanese house, so tiny they might be mistaken for specks on a fingernail (while still being readable under a magnifying glass)!


Until next week, read well, read often and read on!

Lauren