The big news of the day is that Yan Martel’s first novel since the Booker-winning Life of Pi is set to drop in April, and it’s expected to generate some controversy. The book is called Beatrice & Virgil and though details on the book are a bit sketchy, the best intelligence out there tells us that the book is about the Holocaust, the nature of evil and love, a taxidermist, a donkey and a howler monkey. We can’t wait.
Can’t get enough Giller coverage? Still trying to decide who you want to win? Well, you might want to check out the Globe’s podcasts from the Scotiabank Giller Prize Nominees reading at IFOA.
For all you short story writers out there who love to analyze exactly who gets into the Best American Short Stories, a blog called Years of BASS has put together a spreadsheet that reveals who gets into the collection. (download it as a google document) The answer: Alice Munro. Our pride and joy has had twice as many stories in the collection over the years as anyone else, including heavywights Joyce Carol Oates and John Updike. Mavis Gallant is also near the head of the pack. A similar breakdown of stories that have appeared in the New Yorker since 2003 revealed that Munro also lead that list. (via The Millions)
And finally, even though this was posted last Friday, we want to add our voice to Bookninja when they suggest that an awful lot of arts journalists pretty much deserve to be put together in the same room and then blown the f*ck up. Well, okay, we wouldn’t go that far, (especially since we really like our arts journalist friends and if they had a conference, we’d probably attend… they usually have an open bar at those things) but we certainly understand the sentiment.
