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Tony Malone

@tonysreadinglist.bsky.social
1.1K followers 308 following 893 posts

Championing the wonders of translated fiction, one review at a time. Slightly older and more haggard than the photos suggest. Bitter at most things, really.

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Tony Malone @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social · 1h
Always glad to raise awareness! 'Songs for the Cold of Heart' (or, in the US edition, 'The American Fiancee') is the big one, but as it's fairly long, this one might be a better starting point (or 'Life in the Court of Matane').
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Tony Malone @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social · 19h
My latest review takes us to Montreal for a story of two people, two times and a lot of strange goings-on: Eric Dupont's 'The Colour of Time, or the Incredible Story of Mary Gallagher' (translated by Peter McCambridge, courtesy of Vehicule Press): tonysreadinglist.wordpress.com/2026/10/12/t...
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Paula Bardell-Hedley @bookjotter.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Winding Up the Week #487 bookjotter.com/2026/10/10/w... #AmReading #Books #BookReview #Reading #bookbloggers #BannedBooksWeek2026 #BookshopDay #LoveYourBookshopDay @kaggsy59.bsky.social @stuckinabook.bsky.social @beautyandthecat.bsky.social @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social @lyzzybee.bsky.social
bookjotter.com
Winding Up the Week #487
This week I look at books recently read and reflected upon, amble through some of the most compelling literary writing across the blogosphere, pause over earlier posts that merit another look, note…
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Tony Malone @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Incense, calligraphy and a few letters of love - it's all happening in Chapter 32 of 'The Tale of Genji', 'Umegae'. Find out more in the usual place ;) tonysreadinglist.wordpress.com/2026/10/08/t...
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John Attridge @johnattridge.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Who cares about the corrupt failing Nobel prize for literature. Everyone knows that the FIFA prize for literature is the one that matters
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Tony Malone @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Fair enough :)
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Tony Malone @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Is there an Anglophone publisher lined up already for this one?
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Tony Malone @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Wow, just wow...
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Tony Malone @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
My latest review looks at Hector MacKenzie's 'the long cloud' (courtesy of Scribe Publications), the story of a man getting back to his (NZ) roots... tonysreadinglist.wordpress.com/2026/10/05/t...
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Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
My latest books cartoon for @theguardian.com
Title: Just announced! Three new Gruffalo books commissioned from bestselling authors!

Lee Chilld:
The Gruffalo just wants a quiet life, but when a crime syndicate moves into the deep dark wood, he must use his terrible claws and the terrible teeth in his terrible jaws to protect the fellow.

Sally Rooney:
The Gruffalo moves to contemporary Dublin. He  
ill ever see past his orange eyes, purple prickles and poisonous wart.

Kazuo Ishiguro:
After a long absence, the gruffalo returns to the forest and attempts to make sense of his past. Encounters with a mouse, a fox, an owl and a snake uncover long-buried memories, regrets and revelations.
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Tony Malone @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Time to dig out your books - Announcing German Literature Month XVI!!! #GermanLitMonth tonysreadinglist.wordpress.com/2026/10/02/a...
tonysreadinglist.wordpress.com
Announcing German Literature Month XVI – November 2026
November isn’t far away, and you all know what that means – German Literature Month is just around the corner! For the 16th time, we’ll be reading German, Austrian, or Swiss books, enjoying a whole…
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Warwick Prize for Women in Translation @womenintranslation.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Announcing the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation Longlist 2026! The list of 13 titles from 12 languages includes novels, poetry, short fiction, and memoir. The prize is judged in 2026 by Arifa Akbar, Véronique Tadjo, Boyd Tonkin. For the full list and announcement: tinyurl.com/394cypw6
The 13 titles longlisted for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation are photographed stood on a wooden shelf with their spines facing the camera. The 13 titles are: 

•	Batool Abu Akleen, 48Kg., trans. from Arabic (Palestine) by Batool Abu Akleen, with Graham Liddell, Wiam El-Tamami, Cristina Viti, Yasmin Zaher (Tenement Press)

•	Hanna Johansson, Body Double, trans. from Swedish (Sweden) by Kira Josefsson (Scribe)

•	Krisztina Tóth, Eye of the Monkey, trans. from Hungarian (Hungary) by Ottilie Mulzet (Seven Stories Press UK)

•	Linn Ullmann, Girl, 1983, trans. from Norwegian (Norway) by Martin Aitken (Hamish Hamilton)

•	Lalla Romano, In Farthest Seas, trans. from Italian (Italy) by Brian Robert Moore (Pushkin)

•	Hélène Bessette, Lili Is Crying, trans. from French (France) by Kate Briggs (Fitzcarraldo)

•	Eva Luka, The Minotaur’s Daughter: Selected Poems, trans. from Slovak (Slovakia) by James Sutherland-Smith (Seagull) 

•	Geetanjali Shree, Our City That Year, trans. from Hindi (India) by Daisy Rockwell (Tilted Axis)

•	Anjet Daanje, The Remembered Soldier, trans. from Dutch (Netherlands) by David McKay (Scribe) 

•	Ichiyo Higuchi, Troubled Waters, trans. from Japanese (Japan) by Bryan Karetnyk (Pushkin) 

•	Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, We Are Green and Trembling, trans. from Spanish (Argentina) by Robin Myers (Harvill)

•	Anna Nerkagi, White Moss, trans. from Russian (Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug) by Irina Sadovina (Pushkin) 

•	Ingvild Rishøi, Winter Stories, trans. from Norwegian (Norway) by Diane Oatley (Grove Press UK)
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Tony Malone @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Erm, I mean *September*!!!
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Tony Malone @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
The monthly wrap-up post for October, with all the stats and links to reviews :) tonysreadinglist.wordpress.com/2026/10/01/s...
tonysreadinglist.wordpress.com
September 2026 Wrap-Up
While I didn’t post too many reviews in September, it was a most enjoyable reading month, with several great new reads and a few cheeky rereads going on in the background, too.  I also manage…
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Tony Malone @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
An enjoyable evening spent perusing the latest edition of Korean Literature Now (courtesy of LTI Korea), with essays, interviews, stories, poetry and reviews - all available online, too :) klwave.or.kr/klw/magazine...
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Tony Malone @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
For a (rather lengthy...) review of Anjet Daanje's new novel in English, 'The Song of Stork and Dromedary' (translated by David McKay, courtesy of Scribe Publications), a Brontës-inspired epic, come this way :) tonysreadinglist.wordpress.com/2026/09/29/t...
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Tony Malone @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Rereading his work, I suspect his reputation will dip for a while as there are definitely parts which wouldn't pass muster today, lots of casual sexism and body-shaming.
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Tony Malone @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
'All Souls' is an introductory novel (of sorts) for the 'Your Face Tomorrow' trilogy, and it's probably a good starting point. Having said that, if you didn't like 'Tomorrow in the Battle...', Marías may just not be your thing as the style is pretty consistent...
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Marina Sofia @marinasofia.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Reflections on Ingeborg Bachmann on her centenary www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/182...
poetryfoundation.org
The Edge of the Unsayable
Poems, readings, poetry news and the entire 110-year archive of POETRY magazine.
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Tony Malone @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
After a recent reread of' All Souls' and the trilogy, and a first read of 'Dark Back of Time' - well, I think you can see how that ended up, can't you? ;)
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Tony Malone @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
More J-Lit on the blog, with Saneatsu Mushanokōji’s 'The Innocent' (translated by Michael Guest) - a 1911 I-Novel from a slightly lesser-known J-Lit writer... tonysreadinglist.wordpress.com/2026/09/24/t...
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Tony Malone @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I enjoyed both, but it'll be interesting to see how they stand up to a reread years later.
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Tony Malone @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I've recently reread 'All Souls', this and the trilogy (currently taking a break before starting the final part of the third book) - 'Berta Isla' and 'Tomás Nevinson' next, I suspect ;)
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Tony Malone @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Possibly a novel, possibly not, but definitely brilliant - take a look at my review of Javier Marías' sublime 'Dark Back of Time' (translated by Esther Allen): tonysreadinglist.wordpress.com/2026/09/21/d...
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Tony Malone @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
In the post today, courtesy of Véhicule Press, Québécois writer Eric Dupont's 'The Colour of Time' (translated by Peter McCambridge) - having enjoyed a few of his books over the years, I'm looking forward to trying this one soon :)
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Tony Malone @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
After last week's post on the sad ending to Tamakzura's love life, this week's second take on Chapter 31, 'Makibashira', examines the effect of the incident on several others, including the young lady who traditionally shares her name with the chapter: tonysreadinglist.wordpress.com/2026/09/17/t...
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Tony Malone @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
My latest review takes us on a trip to Ukraine, courtesy of Nina Kossman's 'No One Talks About the War' (published by Open Ends Press), a series of conversations from the writer's extended visit to the country in 2023: tonysreadinglist.wordpress.com/2026/09/14/n...
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Tony Malone @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
On my return to 'The Tale of Genji', we finally find out Tamazkaura's fate, and it's probably not what most were expecting... The first of two posts on Chapter 31, 'Makibashira': tonysreadinglist.wordpress.com/2026/09/10/t...
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Tony Malone @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
My first review for September takes us back to Korea with Kim Kyung-uk’s 'God Has No Grandchildren' (translated by Kang Sunok and Melissa Thomson), another set of stories from the Dalkey Archive Press Library of Korean Literature: tonysreadinglist.wordpress.com/2026/09/07/g...
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Rohan Maitzen @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Did I succeed in my efforts to make this summer a better one than usual? Some reflections on my art (and other) adventures.
rohanmaitzen.com
Art (and Other) Adventures III
I hope you didn’t think I’d abandoned my art adventures! It’s just that July and August were mostly so drearily hot and humid that I lost a lot of energy, sometimes for going out,…
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Tony Malone @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
My latest post is the August wrap-up, AKA "What Tony did during #WITMonth" ;) tonysreadinglist.wordpress.com/2026/09/03/a...
tonysreadinglist.wordpress.com
August 2026 Wrap-Up – Women in Translation Month
August saw me embarking on the traditional Women in Translation Month reading, and an enjoyable month it was, too.  I travelled far and wide thanks to all the various writers and translators, and i…
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Tony Malone @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Also, when mentioning 'Kokoro', he talks about how "a dozen writers just as good never get mentioned" - forgive me for wondering whether he could name them without a phone or computer to hand (not sure who 'Yuko Tsushimaseki' is, either!).
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Tony Malone @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Any list that *doesn't* have Genji at the top isn't worth the paper it's not written on ;) I like the way he's ambivalent about H. Murakami but still has three of his books in the all-time top thirty...
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Warwick Prize for Women in Translation @womenintranslation.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
The list of submissions to the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation 2026 is now available on our webpage. The prize is in its 10th year and we're delighted to have received a record number of submissions from a record number of languages! 🎉 tinyurl.com/32ms3tsy
An image of a pile of books on a blue background with the text at the top: Warwick Prize for Women in Translation; List of Submissions 2026. Orange and dark blue text on a blue background which reads: Record submissions in our 10th year; 164 titles; 37 languages; link in bio. Dark blue and orange text on a blue background, reading: The languages: French 23; Spanish 23; Japanese 15; Danish 11; Korean 11; German 10; Chinese 8; Italian 8; Swedish 8; Dutch 6; Norwegian 5; Portuguese 4; Czech 3; Russian 3; Arabic 2; Catalan 2; Finnish 2; Hindi 2; Hungarian 2; Slovak 2; Asturian 1; Belarusian 1; Bulgarian 1; Croatian 1; Didxazá 1; Farsi 1; Greek 1; Kannada 1; Macedonian 1; Maltese 1; Mapudungun 1; Persian 1; Polish 1; Taiwanese Mandarin 1; Tamil 1; Ukrainian 1; Vietnamese 1.
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John Self @john-self.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
F-shaped blurbs, seducing chatbots, nicking quotes off GoodReads and paying BookTokers: in today's Guardian I investigated the book world's tricks of the trade.
theguardian.com
How to make a bestseller: insiders reveal the tricks of the book trade
From cover design to shelf placement and influencer partnerships … how publishers will persuade you to buy their books this autumn
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Tony Malone @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Just DMed you.
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Tony Malone @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Yes... What do you need?
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Tony Malone @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
My final #WITMonth post has a Belgian writer showing us several tastes of the east, including one encounter with a *very* familiar face - Marguerite Yourcenar's 'Nouvelles orientales' :) tonysreadinglist.wordpress.com/2026/08/31/n...
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Tony Malone @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
So, yeah, what I do is pointless, basically ;)
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Tony Malone @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Review number eight for #WITMonth is a rather dystopian affair as we look at Krisztina Tóth's 'Eye of the Monkey' (translated by Ottilie Mulzet, courtesy of Seven Stories Press): tonysreadinglist.wordpress.com/2026/08/27/e...
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Tony Malone @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Today's #WITMonth journey takes us to Berlin, via Buenos Aires, with Vlady Kociancich’s excellent 'The Eighth Wonder' (translated by Jessica Sequeira, courtesy of Seven Stories Press), a novel where nothing is quite as it seems... tonysreadinglist.wordpress.com/2026/08/24/t...
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𝔻𝕖𝕔𝕝𝕒𝕟 𝕆'𝔻𝕣𝕚𝕤𝕔𝕠𝕝𝕝 @jacqbetula.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
My review of If This Be Magic: The Unlikely Art of Shakespeare in Translation by Daniel Hahn, published by @canongate.co.uk will be in tomorrow's Irish Times.
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John Self @john-self.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
A revolutionary theatre company's "napalm opera" Vietnam-a-Go-Go; two men, each reading a novel about the other; a migrant who pretends he's an asylum seeker so employers feels sorry for him; and a woman who asks her maid to help her read the letters on an optician’s chart. Me on translated fiction
theguardian.com
The best recent translated fiction – review roundup
The Red Book of Farewells by Pirkko Saisio; Short Circuit by Wolf Haas; Cosmos by Lucia Odoom; The Fallen Trees Are Also the Forest
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Tony Malone @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
A new arrival, out on 29/9 from Scribe Publications - Anjet Daanje's 'The Song of Stork and Dromedary', translated by David McKay. Looking forward to this after loving 'The Remembered Soldier' last year :)
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Tony Malone @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
My latest #WITMonth wasn't really my thing, but it's certainly not the worst book I've read this year - Michiko Aoyama's 'What You are Looking for is in the Library' (tr. Alison Watts): tonysreadinglist.wordpress.com/2026/08/20/w...
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Tony Malone @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Very much so, one I thoroughly enjoyed :)
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Tony Malone @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
My fifth post for this year's #WITMonth takes us back to Japan, and back to the thirteenth century, for Lady Nijō’s 'A Tale Unasked' (tr. Meredith McKinney), a story of a woman at court, and of her rather eventful life... tonysreadinglist.wordpress.com/2026/08/17/a...
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Tony Malone @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Up today for #WITMonth, poetry and essays with Maria Stepanova's 'The Voice Over' (courtesy of Columbia University Press - from *many* translators!): tonysreadinglist.wordpress.com/2026/08/13/t...
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Tony Malone @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Today's #WITMonth post looks at Birgit Vanderbeke's 'Ich freue mich, dass ich geboren bin' (available in Jamie Bulloch's translation from Peirene Press as 'You Would Have Missed Me'): tonysreadinglist.wordpress.com/2026/08/10/i...
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Tony Malone @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
There may be nuances that go missing on occasion, but Banana is Banana, and no translator's going to change that. Much of my eye-rolling comes from the content, not the form...
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