Spring 2013 preview, Part I
Interested in which New York Review Books will come out next year? Here’s a sneak peak to our Spring 2013 list; this is Part I, Part II will come tomorrow:
Speedboat by Renata Adler: A landmark of American 20th century experimental writing, voted as the book most deserving to be republished by the National Book Critics Circle in 2010, and a favorite of David Shields in his book, Reality Hunger.
Pitch Dark by Renata Adler: The second novel by Adler: a personal love story, in her distinctive, fragmentary prose.
An Armenian Sketchbook by Vassily Grossman: An account of the two months Grossman spent in Armenia. A more personal testament than his political books, such as Life and Fate and Everything Flows.
The Green Man by Kingsley Amis: Maurice Allington runs a nice country inn but has plenty of problems: his father recently died, his daughter doesn’t listen to him, he needs another drink, and his attempts to seduce his best friend’s wife are causing problems. Plus he suspects his inn may be haunted.
The Alteration by Kingsley Amis: The Reformation never happened and a collection of music experts are judging Hubert Anvil’s voice to see whether a certain surgical procedure should be preformed to keep it high. When Hubert realizes what is in store for him, he must react to the various issues of religion, art, and sex that swirl around Amis’s foray into alternate fiction.
The Hall of Uselessness by Simon Leys: A collection of essays from one of the world’s most renowned sinologists and a master stylist. Leys is also a literary critic of the first degree, whose subjects range from Christopher Hitchens to Confucius.
The Crisis of the European Mind by Paul Hazard: A masterpiece of intellectual history that deals with the period just before, but very much an inspiration to, the Enlightenment and romanticism.
The Skin by Curzio Malaparte: A fictional account of the Allied invasion of Italy in WWII, The Skin combines both the brutal and the absurd to a depict a war that had the Italian populace on both sides.
Transit by Anna Seghers: The nameless protagonist has escaped a Nazi concentration camp only to enter the more mundane and bureaucratic hell of immigration and exile as he struggles to deliver a letter to a mysterious man whose manuscript has had a profound impact on him.
Turtle Diary by Russell Hoban: Two Londoners meet and independently decide to free the turtles at the London Zoo, recruiting a zookeeper to help them. The journey taking the turtles to the sea, however, becomes much more than about liberating animals.
