October News and Highlights

Letter from Hudson Street October 2017 Dear Readers, Though the weather is still flirting with summer here in NYC, we are very much in a fall mood and more excited than ever about all of the new books coming out and the wonderful events we have planned with authors and translators all around the country (and beyond!). These and more goodies in the letter below. Let's get right to it then, shall we? Sincerely, The NYRB Staff Spooooooky Classics 'Tis the season for all things frightful and there's no lack of scary tales in the NYRB Classics series. Here are some of our favorites for adults, kids, and kids-at-heart. [Don't Look Now]( The story collection [Don't Look Now](—which includes Daphne du Maurier's most famous chiller, "The Birds"—is basically a one-stop-shop for getting the spooks: there are hauntings, medical procedures gone terribly awry, moon cults (really!), and some very bad romance. [Shadows of Carcosa]( More into dread than the jumps? [This selection]( of classic, slow-burn creepers by the likes of Lovecraft, Poe, Bierce, and Stoker is like a sampling menu of the "cosmic horror" genre. Full of darkness, chaos, and the inexplicable, these stories encapsulate what Lovecraft called "the true weird tale." [The Haunted Looking Glass]( Edward Gorey, godfather of the ghoulish and grisly, selected his favorite ghost stories for [The Haunted Looking Glass](. Need we say more? Oh yes: and each story is accompanied by a Gorey illustration, so there. [The Other]( Thomas Tryon's novel [The Other]( might be the scariest book in the NYRB Classics series. Let's just say that it's about two brothers and one brother is not like the other. Brace yourself. [Black Spider]( In this genuinely [freaky tale]( by Swiss minister Jeremias Gotthelf, a curse comes to an oppressed rural village in the form of a spider—one that crawls out of a woman's face, no less. As riveting and appalling today as it was to Gotthelf's 19th-century readers, this is also an intriguing meditation on evil and desperation. [The Rim of Morning]( William Sloane wrote only two novels in his lifetime and both, collected in [The Rim of Morning](, were brilliant and deliciously scary. In To Walk the Night, two college buddies find their beloved professor dead in his lab, seemingly consumed by fire. When they look for answers, they get more than they bargained for. In The Edge of Running Water, a mad-genius widower attempts to bring his wife back to life with disastrous results. Stephen King provides the intro to these two gems. [Krabat]( Otfried Preussler's [Krabat & the Sorcerer's Mill]( is about a boy who, along with eleven other children, is taken prisoner by a master of the dark arts who forces them to grind grain and learn black magic. Suffice it to say, it's pretty scary for a kids' book. Also, it's a classic in Germany (and should be everywhere, in our opinion). [The Glassblower's Children]( Maria Gripe's [novel](about the children of a talented but destitute glassblower is not so much a horror story as it is an eerie fairy tale. "Think Ingmar Bergman writing children's stories," one reviewer remarked about this book, which, though occasionally terrifying, works a slow but no less bewitching magic over the reader. [The Midnight Folk]( Kay Harker is an orphan and his caretakers, Sir Theopompous and Sylvia Daisy Pouncer, are not very nice at all. But one day, Kay's dead great-grandfather, a sea captain, steps out of a family portrait and a great, and kind of spooky, adventure begins. [This little novel]( of witches and talking animals is more endearing than scary, but quite in keeping with the season nonetheless. By the way, several of these scary books have been adapted into equally scary (or at least amusingly campy) movies that would be perfect for some Halloween viewing. We've got a blog post about those films [here](. More Movies! Believe it or not, we've got more book-to-screen news for you. Or maybe you've already heard? John Williams's [Stoner is being made into a movie](, directed by Joe Wright (of the Atonement adaptation and that new Churchill biopic, Darkest Hour). Casey Affleck is slated to play the title character. It's already being heralded as a ["very sad movie"](—and one that we couldn't be more excited to see! But that's a long way away, so let's talk about something you can watch now: Agustí Villaronga's adaptation of Joan Sales's novel about the Spanish Civil War, [Uncertain Glory](, which we're publishing in the US this month, is currently streaming on Netflix. You can watch a trailer for the movie below. [Uncertain Glory trailer]( On confiscated typewriter ribbons and "dangerous" books During the last week of September, we celebrated several classics that had been suppressed, censored, or completely banned in honor of Banned Books Week. Here is just a handful of such books from the series. [Agostino]( Alberto Moravia's coming-of-age novel [Agostino](was rejected by Fascist censors in 1941. When it was finally published in 1944, it became a best seller. [Life and Fate]( Vasily Grossman's WWII epic [Life and Fate]( was judged so dangerous in the Soviet Union that not only the manuscript but the ribbons on which it had been typed were confiscated by the state. [Fear]( Gabriel Chevallier's [Fear,]( an unflinching (and unflattering) portrait of French forces during WWI, was suppressed and condemned as an act of sedition when first published. [The Queue]( Vladimir Sorokin's short novel, [The Queue](, a darkly humorous send-up of Soviet life, was suppressed in Russia all through the 1980s. [Autobiography of a Corpse]( Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky's [surreal short stories]( were considered too inflammatory to even show to a Russian publisher when they were written in the 1920s. His work was not published until 1989. [Uncertain Glory]( Catalan writer Joan Sales's [Uncertain Glory]( was heavily censored when first published, with whole pages cut to make it less offensive. You can read the censor report by Franco's government officials [here](. "The normal, daily things we fall in love with" Maira Kalman, author of [Hey Willy, See the Pyramids]( and [Max Makes a Million](, was recently interviewed by Krista Tippett for [On Being](and it's worth a listen. She shares about her love for everything that makes up her daily life, from the trees of Central Park to dancing in the living room to, yes, dogs. Listen (or read the full transcript) below. [Maira Kalman, ON BEING]( Upcoming Events Wednesday, October 4, 6pm at [Type Books](, Toronto, ON: Paul Eprile will discuss his translation of [Melville]( by Jean Giono. Tuesday, October 17, 7pm at Barnard College, NYC: Darryl Pinckney, Susan Minot, Saskia Hamilton, and Daphne Merkin discuss the life and work of [Elizabeth Hardwick](. Tuesday, October 17, 8pm, at [City of Asylum](, Pittsburgh, PA: a reading by Paul Eprile of his new translation of Jean Giono's [Melville](. Wednesday, October 18, 7pm at the [Brooklyn Public Library](: Darryl Pinckney, Margo Jefferson, and Stephanie Danler discuss [The Collected Essays of Elizabeth Hardwick](. Thursday, October 19, 7pm at [Community Bookstore](, Brooklyn: a celebration of Henry Green's novels so-presented by NYRB Classics ([Nothing]( and [Doting]() and New Directions ([Concluding](). Friday, October 20, 8pm at [Molasses Books](, Brooklyn: Laura Marris reads from her new translation of Louis Guilloux's novel [Blood Dark]( as part of the Us & Them reading series. Monday, October 23, 7pm at [La Maison Française NYU](: Paul Eprile discusses translating the work of [Jean Giono]( with Alyson Waters and Emmanuelle Ertel. Tuesday, October 24, 7pm at [192 Books](, NYC: Paul Eprile and Edmund White discuss [Jean Giono]( and the art of translation. October Books [Uncertain Glory]( [UNCERTAIN GLORY]( by Joan Sales [Nothing]( [NOTHING]( by Henry Green [Doting]( [DOTING]( by Henry Green [Blood Dark]( [BLOOD DARK]( by Louis Guilloux [Collected Essays of Elizabeth Hardwick]( [THE COLLECTED ESSAYS OF ELIZABETH HARDWICK]( Selected by Darryl Pinckney [Max Makes a Million]( [THE NIGHT OF WISHES]( [OR THE SATANARCHAEOLIDEALCOHELLISH NOTION POTION]( by Michael Ende [Secret of the Ron Mor Skerry]( [SECRET OF THE RON MOR SKERRY]( by Rosalie K. Fry [VOICES IN THE DARK]( by Ulli Lust adapted from Marcel Beyer's The Karnau Tapes [Pilgrims of the Air]( [PILGRIMS OF THE AIR THE PASSING OF THE PASSENGER PIGEONS]( by John Wilson Foster [Beautiful and Impossible Things]( [BEAUTIFUL AND IMPOSSIBLE THINGS SELECTED ESSAYS OF OSCAR WILDE]( [Uncertain Glory]( by Joan Sales is the October selection for the [NYRB Classics Book Club](. If you join the club by October 18, Uncertain Glory will be your first selection. In the Press "I was startled by the way the narration unfolded — syncopated, distributed through paragraphs whose titles were regularly recurring. I had read already Finnegan’s Wake (to give an extreme example of an 'explosive' work), but Gass’s book touched me most profoundly." —Etel Adnan, [Los Angeles Book Review](, on William Gass's In the Heart of the Heart of the Country "The color of a work of literature is the mind of its author, and this is what Giono, himself the author of many fictional works, has endeavored to explore." —Ryu Spaeth, [The New Republic]( online, on Jean Giono's Melville "The Violins of Saint-Jacques is a slim novel of beguiling contradictions. Though taking place largely over the course of one night, it still feels broad in scope, as the reverberations of that night ring out across the length of a well-traveled life." —Joe Blessing, [Pop Matters]( "While [Pretending is Lying] features exquisitely rendered artwork, certain passages have the unworked immediacy of a personal diary, marked by smudges of grease pencil and jagged handwritten text. It is a furious, radiant outpouring, and a powerful attempt to make sense of the difficulties [Dominique] Goblet has endured." —Kate Wakeling, [Times Literary Supplement]( "This is a novel that makes you wish you were more observant of your immediate environment, more tuned in towards the potential of the seemingly ordinary, and rue the things you’ve missed." —Shalini Shah, [Vogue India](, on Renata Adler's Speedboat After hours at the library... Just something we stumbled upon: it seems that back in 2013 the Seattle Public Library broke the world record for most books collapsed "domino-style." The video of the project, below, is mesmerizing. Who knew the sound of books falling could be so soothing? Watch and then go check out a book from your local library. Picture at top of newsletter taken in our West Village offices, October 2017 New York Review Books 435 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014 [Preferences]( | [Unsubscribe](