Want to get the latest book news delivered to your inbox each day? Sign up for our daily Book Pulse newsletter.

Awards & Book News

Alexis Wright’s Praiseworthy (New Directions) wins the Melbourne Prize for Literature; The Guardian has coverage.

The winners of Canada Council for the Arts Governor General's Literary Awards are revealed.

Edenville by Sam Rebelein (Morrow) and All I Want Is To Take Shrooms and Listen to the Color of Nazi Screams by John Baltisberger (Planet Bizarro) win Wonderland Book Awards for Excellence in Bizarro Fiction.

The shortlist is announced for the Eccles Institute and Hay Festival Global Writer’s Award.

CrimeReads releases its list of the best gothic novels of 2024.

Trinidad-born novelist Elizabeth Nunez has died at age 80; NYT has an obituary.

Page to Screen

November 8

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, based on the book by Barbara Robinson. Lionsgate. Reviews | Trailer

The Piano Lesson, based on the play by August Wilson. Netflix. Reviews | Trailer

Small Things Like These, based on the LJ-starred novel by Claire Keegan. Lionsgate. Reviews | Trailer

Reviews

Washington Post reviews Herscht 07769 by László Krasznahorkai, tr. by Ottilie Mulzet (New Directions): “When I tell you that the best new novel I have read this year is written in a single sentence that sprawls over 400 pages, interrupted only by the occasional semicolon, you will almost certainly think that I am embracing literary gimmickry for its own sake. And yet that book…is neither an experimental stunt nor a pretentious folly. It is, instead, an urgent depiction of our global social and political crises”; and A Few Words in Defense of Our Country: The Biography of Randy Newman by Robert Hilburn (Hachette): “The misunderstanding of Newman’s music is a persistent theme in what is largely a hagiography by Hilburn, who at times relies too comfortably on the received wisdom of old-school critics and dedicated fandom.”

NYT reviews Taiwan Travelogue by Yang Shuang-zi, tr. by Lin King (Graywolf): “Taiwan Travelogue, a National Book Award finalist first published in Mandarin Chinese in 2020, is a delightfully slippery novel about how power shapes relationships, and what travel reveals and conceals”; and Lazarus Man by Richard Price (Farrar): “Price, an accomplished screenwriter…, is rightly famous for his ear for authentic dialogue, but he has chosen in this book to eschew not just plot but drama and anything that might be called stakes.”

NPR’s Fresh Air reviews Water, Water: Poems by Billy Collins (Random): “For years, Billy Collins has been both blessed and burdened with the tag line that identifies him as ‘one of America’s favorite poets.’ I say ‘burdened’ because if a poet is popular, the suspicion arises that they're a mere rhymester, a step or two up from a Hallmark assembly line troubadour…. His simplicity of language invites cynics to regard him as simplistic. Those of us who've long read his work know better”; and The Dog Who Followed the Moon by James Norbury (Morrow): “‘Inspirational’ is a word that's become cheapened, but it’s a fitting word for The Dog Who Followed the Moon—an inspirational and gorgeous book about not giving up.”

Briefly Noted

Garth Greenwell, author of Small Rain (Farrar), shares “The Books of My Life” with The Guardian.

Louisa Young, the niece of the late Elizabeth Jane Howard, will continue Howard’s “Cazalet Chronicles” series, The Guardian reports.

NYT explores Tove Jansson’s illustrations for a 1966 edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, recently re-released by NYRB.

Southern Methodist University's Project Poëtica and Bridwell Press are launching three new poetry imprints, Publishers Weekly reports.

NYT has “7 New Books We Recommend This Week.”

T: The New York Times Style Magazine rounds up the 25 most influential cookbooks of the last 100 years.

Reactor recommends “Can’t Miss Indie Press Speculative Fiction for November and December 2024.”

Dolly Parton is giving $4.5 million to the Nashville Public Library Foundation for a new early literacy program, Kirkus reports.

Authors on Air

NPR’s Fresh Air interviews Richard Price, author of Lazarus Man (Farrar).

Fresh Air also re-airs a 1992 interview with novelist Dorothy Allison, who has died at age 75.

Today, NPR’s Science Friday will speak with Elsa Richardson, author of Rumbles: A Curious History of the Gut: The Secret Story of the Body’s Most Fascinating Organ (Pegasus).

Polari Prize relaunches its podcast series after a three-year hiatus, The Bookseller reports.

Want to get the latest book news delivered to your inbox each day? Sign up for our daily Book Pulse newsletter.