Posts by Pete Mitchell

city-pick heads to Russia
Posted 8 April 2013 by Pete Mitchell We talked to Heather Reyes, editor of the new city-pick: St Petersburg, about the fascination of Russia and the joy of unearthing the unexpected. Read 'city-pick heads to Russia '
Interview with John O'Brien, Dalkey Archive
Posted 21 January 2013 by Pete Mitchell We catch up with John O'Brien, founder of Dalkey Archive Press, to discuss translation, the joy of discovery, and the point of literature. Read 'Interview with John O'Brien, Dalkey Archive'
'As if he were convulsed, or laughing': resurrecting Danilo...
Posted 19 December 2012 by Pete Mitchell There's a story by Danilo Kiš in which the heretic Simon Magus wanders the deserts of the Middle East years after Jesus' resurrection, preaching that the god of the Christians... Read ''As if he were convulsed, or...'
'Other Words for Funny': Will Self, Kafka, and the...
Posted 26 July 2012 by Pete Mitchell Will Self, not for the first time in his long and storied career, is not amused. He's at City University, talking about Kafka's Metamorphosis, and poor Gregor Samsa running all... Read ''Other Words for Funny': Will Self,...'
Stiegmatized: Scandinavian Crime Fiction after the deluge
Posted 7 July 2011 by Pete Mitchell Sweden, says Håkan Nesser , can be any number of things depending on where you're viewing it from. If you're American it's all Ingmar Bergman, depressed people with failing marriages... Read 'Stiegmatized: Scandinavian Crime Fiction after the...'
The perils (and joys) of History: Daniel Kehlmann in...
Posted 30 June 2011 by Pete Mitchell On the last day of the London Review's World Literature Weekend, a press of sticky, gasping booklovers file out of the sultry weather and cram themselves into the London Review... Read 'The perils (and joys) of History:...'
Top four books of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
Posted 5 May 2011 by Pete Mitchell The Austro-Hungarian Empire rose out of the Nineteenth Century and barely made it into the Twentieth. Improbable, fragile and ultimately doomed, it brought together a bewildering multiplicity of national, ethnic... Read 'Top four books of the Austro-Hungarian...'
Five books about Russia
Posted 19 April 2011 by Pete Mitchell With the upcoming Independent Foreign Fiction Prize winner announcement next month, we thought it ample opportunity to draw your attention to other books in translation. When we talk about 'State-of-the-nation'... Read 'Five books about Russia '
Five great Holocaust books
Posted 14 April 2011 by Pete Mitchell How do you define 'Holocaust literature'? The idea itself seems absurd, if not obscene; but the efforts of writers and philosophers to understand one of the most incomprehensible events in... Read 'Five great Holocaust books '