Monthly Archives: November 2011
As everyone who has read the fantastic Stieg Larsson, My Friend knows, November was always an extremely turbulent month for Larsson and his closest friend, the book’s author Kurdo Baksi.
One of the most important days of all was the 30th, when the two would give lectures and have articles printed about racism in order to combat the swedish neo-Nazi rallies also on this date.
In memory of this we are pleased to bring you a special message from Kurdo Baksi, below which is an opportunity to win an amazing prize.
I MISS STIEG LARSSON EVERY 30th NOVEMBER 30.11.11
I miss Stieg Larsson so much every 30th November. Even today.
30th November was a very important day in both our lives before Stieg left our planet. This day is also important for the Swedish neo-Nazis and racists because the king Charles XII of Sweden was killed on the 30th of November 1718. According to Swedish racists Charles XII of Sweden tried to create a large Swedish empire and that is why they have a memorial and demonstration for him every year in Stockholm.
30th of November is also an anti-racist day because anti-racists try to stop neo-Nazi demonstrations. And, Stieg and I were always two of those who participated at this anti-rascist demonstration.
But, we also did more on this day. Every year we published some articles in the largest newspapers in Sweden. Sometimes our articles were signed by all the leaders of the political parties and the Prime Minister, sometimes we published just together. Sometimes our article was published just in one newspaper, but sometimes we published the same article in 90 newspapers in Sweden!
We also organized lectures against racism, Nazism and xenophobia this day somewhere in Stockholm every year.
This 30th November I will not do so much because my friend Stieg has changed the planet. But I will dedicate a lecture about his life.
The circle is closed now.
KURDO BAKSI
The Author of “My friend Stieg Larsson”
To honour Stieg Larsson’s work we have a competition running from now until the 20th of December on here and on the MacLehose Press blog. Simply write why you loved the Millennium trilogy in 100 words or less.
The 10 best entries will receive a free copy of the “Afterword” (only available in the special Millennium Boxset) which collects together a number of essays on Larsson’s work as well as some of the author’s emails.
Please, write your answers in the comments box and show your support for one of the most important authors of the last decade.
Billy O’Callaghan has reviewed Michela Murgia’s exquisite English-language debut in the Irish Examiner:
“MACLEHOSE Press, a publishing house devoted to uncovering unique and generally overlooked foreign voices for the English language market, have hit aces yet again with this delicate gem. Accabadora is Italian writer Michela Murgia’s third novel, but her first to receive an English translation
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With Accabadora, Signorina Murgia has penned a powerful and at times genuinely spellbinding piece of work.
Over barely 200 pages, and set against a vivid rural backdrop, she explores such serious themes as euthanasia, child abuse, familial and romantic love, loyalty and forgiveness, the grief and release of death, and the many, many shades of morality.
The result is a truly admirable achievement: compact and elegant, rich in atmosphere, with fully developed characters that resonate at a deeply emotional level. Once it takes a full grip, this is a story that refuses to yield. It is also one which will linger a long while after the final page has been turned.” Read the full review.
Radio Four actually reviewed the book on the 17th of September, but we seem to have missed it then. Miranda Sawyer thought the book “incredibly moving”; she “loved it”. Novelist Liz Jensen was also a fan:
“A real gem . . . Beautifully written . . . brilliantly translated, there wasn’t a single sentence where you thought this is a novel in translation. This is a translation by Silvester Mazzarella . . . Wonderfully well evoked . . . It reminded me a little of the Tiger’s Wife“
Listen to the review here; it starts with a brief reading at about 12 minutes in.
The Soho Conversations at Maison Bertaux present: What Is Poetry For? Cristina Viti & Stephen Watts (the translators of the forthcoming A Life Apart by Mariapia Veladiano).
Reading, Discussion and Book Launch for Journey Across Breath by Stephen Watts (translated by Cristina Viti; Hearing Eye, 2011)
8pm, Monday 28th November 2011, Maison Bertaux, 28 Greek St, Soho, London (tube: Leicester Square, Tottenham Court Road)
Tickets £4 (available on door, or email me if guaranteed attendance; limited availability)
Venue tel no: 0207 437 6007; Event information: Gareth Evans, home.gareth@gmail.com
NOTE FOR THIS EVENT: PLEASE BRING ANY POEMS YOU’D LIKE TO READ OR DISCUSS
The second in a new series of monthly cafe conversations exploring cultural, social and political issues, upstairs at the legendary Maison Bertaux, the oldest patisserie in London, founded in 1871 by refugees from the Paris Commune. 2011 marks its 140th year of unbroken operation.
The Soho Conversations are pleased to be working with longstanding London poetry publishers Hearing Eye (www.hearingeye.org) on the second event in this new series, celebrating the relationship between place and ideas, between individual thought and committed public expression.
The complete range of Maison Bertaux delicacies will of course be on sale throughout… and a fine vin….
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In an age of brutal (‘prose’) realities, what is poetry for? As both a form and an intention, is it unsuited to the rigours of the times, too fragile to hold the complex, often competing demands of daily challenge and deeper need? Or is it rather, in its concentrated, committed dedication to what matters most, beyond headline politics and ephemeral attachments, simply the strongest and most affecting way of confronting life’s often sorrowful, troubling beauty, its sometimes lacerating epiphanies of being?
On the birthday of Soho-born visionary poet William Blake (28.11.1757), acclaimed poets and translators Cristina Viti and Stephen Watts will make an unequivocal and passionate case for poetry and what it can hold as the embodiment of common citizenship and a common good. Like Melissa Benn in last month’s Conversation, they are profoundly committed advocates; for a clear and richly metaphorical language, for the priorities of translation and for the bridges towards wider, layered understanding that sometimes only the poetic can effect.
The evening will also see the launch of the second in a proposed trilogy of publications exploring Stephen’s links to the Italian landscape and language; his paternal homeland and the source territory of abiding concerns around place, people and lineage. Journey Across Breath is translated by Cristina and conceived very much as a book in two tongues. The first collection in the series – Mountain Language / Lingua di montagna - was published by Hearing Eye in 2008 and described as “a most moving, energetic and substantial ‘meditation’” by David Constantine.
Yellow Bird’s Millennium series based on Stieg Larsson’s best-selling trilogy won the International Emmy Award for Best TV Movie-Mini-series. The award was given on Monday at the International Emmy’s in New York.
The last time Sweden won the prestigious international recognition was in 1998 with Lars Molin’s The Tattooed Widow.
The acting duo Noomi Rapace and Michael Persbrandt playing the leads in the 6X90′Millennium films and TV series were Emmy nominated for Best Actress and Best Actor but lost respectively to UK actress Julie Walters (MO) and actor Christoffer Eccleston (Accused). The series directed by Niels Arden Oplev (pictued left with Yellow Bird producer Søren Stærmose right accepting the award) and Daniel Alfredson was produced by Yellow Bird in co-production with SVT, Nordisk Film, and ZDF Enterprises.
Read the full story on the Norsk Film and TV Fond website
Iris on Books has joined the blog community’s chorus of praise for Accabadora:
There are two things that made this book an enjoyable and worthwhile read to me. First, it was Maria’s perspective. As a reader, you see the world through her perspective. This means there are times when she does not understand the meaning of something adults discuss. She wonders about things, but she just as easily skips over them, shrugs it off as a child can do. Her understanding grows as the story progresses, even beyond that final reveal of Bonaria’s role in the village. It may seem like the typical description of an innocent child narrator, but not like it is used in most fiction, I think. It is not a child finding out something horrible, describing inhuman circumstances. It is also not the child narrating the story, it is not told from a first-person perspective. And yet, you do feel most closely affiliated with Maria, only able to understand the world through her eyes. The whole story is very human, very much about a community, how it functions, how people love and strife and clash together.
Read the full review
