Category: literary life

Over at the Guardian, Brian Whitaker wonders about the bizarre and continuing appeal of “desert sheikh” romance novels:

She is a slender blonde from a western country, with long, flowing hair. He is a mysterious dark-eyed sheikh from the east – and fabulously rich. When their paths cross he is smitten by her beauty, and by fate or trickery she is whisked off to his desert kingdom, with little prospect of escape.

While he declares his undying love for her, she remains unsure about him. In the end, though, he proves his worth by fending off his jealous brothers and other foes. After surviving a few terrorist attacks, robberies, kidnappings and that sort of thing, the couple finally turn their attention to perfumed baths and nights of unbridled passion.

Excuse me while I go barf.

I’m intrigued by Lisa Fugard’s debut novel, Skinner’s Drift. It’s set in the Limpopo River Valley, and it’s about a woman who returns to South Africa after ten years to see her dying father, a man “whose terrible secret [she] has kept since she was a child.” Alan Cheuse reviews it for NPR.

Here’s an interesting Portland even for tonight: Danielle Trussoni reads from her memoir, Falling through the Earth, at Powells. Here’s are the details:

7:30 PM
Powell’s City of Books on Burnside
1005 W Burnside
Portland, OR

The author’s website is here.

The New York Times‘ Edward Wyatt asks a bunch of publishers and editors about their reasons for increasingly turning to paperback originals.

“In the last four or five years, it’s gotten hard to publish fiction by lesser-known authors, and even by some better-known authors,” said Morgan Entrekin, the publisher of Grove/Atlantic. And when a book fails in hardcover, booksellers often will limit their orders for a paperback edition, making it harder to sell the author’s next book. “When you’re taking back 50 to 70 percent of the hardcover copies you shipped,” Mr. Entrekin said, “the stores — rightfully so — are not willing to take another chance.”

There’s a picture of Entrekin with two of his paperback originals, both of them nominated for this year’s Orange Prize: Leila Aboulela’s Minaret and Alice Greenaway’s White Ghost Girls.

Peruvian magazine Etiqueta Negra, which now has a circulation of 11,000, gets some love from the San Francisco Chronicle:

Founded four years and 33 issues ago by two brothers born in a remote part of the Andes Mountains who had no experience in publishing or journalism, Etiqueta Negra has grown from an idea “that probably wouldn’t make it in a place like Peru” to a circulation of 11,000. The magazine is available in the United States only via pricey special-order subscriptions (www.etiquetanegra.com.pe), but it is read across the Americas — from Argentina to Canada. While plans are in the works to distribute the magazine more widely around the world, annual online subscriptions (PDF files) will soon be available for $30.

More here.

This is a bit of good news from PEN: Iranian journalist Akbar Ganj has been released rom prison this week for the Iranian New Year. The email announcement states that “Since his sentence is officially over on March 30, it is unlikely he will be returned to prison. Additionally, there appear to be no maneuverings to re-arrest him, despite his outspoken criticism of Iranian policies. His family says that his is very weak due to his imprisonment and long hunger strike, but that he is in good spirits and recovering.” More about Ganji here.