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by Etienne BALMER / Kyoko HASEGAWA Nobel-winning Japanese novelist Kenzaburo Oe, a leading liberal voice who defended the disenfranchised and challenged the conformity of modern society, has died aged 88. “He died of old age in the early hours of March 3,” publisher Kodansha said in a statement on Monday, adding that a family funeral has already been held. Known for his pacifist and anti-nuclear views, Oe saw himself as part of a generation […]
New York, United States | AFP | British author Salman Rushdie, whose writings made him the target of Iranian death threats that forced him into hiding, was attacked on stage Friday in western New York state. Video footage posted on social media showed people rushing to his aid after he was attacked at the event in Chautauqua County, with police confirming a stabbing while declining to immediately identify the victim. “A most horrible event […]
A US romance novelist who wrote an essay entitled “How To Murder Your Husband” has been convicted of killing her spouse. A jury in Portland, Oregon, took just eight hours on Wednesday to return a guilty verdict against Nancy Crampton Brophy for shooting dead Daniel Brophy. Prosecutors said the writer, whose “Wrong Never Felt So Right” series of novels include “The Wrong Husband” and “The Wrong Lover,” had been struggling financially before she shot […]
by Ludovic EHRET Agence France-Presse Beijing, China (AFP) — After Wuhan was sealed off from the world, acclaimed Chinese writer Fang Fang started an online diary about the coronavirus tragedy unfolding in her hometown. Her journal drew tens of millions of readers — but now that it is about to be published abroad in several languages, she is facing a nationalist backlash at home. Critics say the 64-year-old, who was awarded China’s most prestigious literary prize […]
by Andrea GRAELLS TEMPEL PARIS, France (AFP) — George R.R. Martin, the 70-year-old writer behind HBO’s blood-spattered epic “Game of Thrones”, has created a multitude of fantasy worlds spanning medieval pasts to distant sci-fi futures. Portly, with a white beard, glasses and usually wearing a cap, Martin has been described as “America’s Tolkien” and says he was inspired by the British fantasy master’s “The Lord of the Rings” as a teenager. He grew up poor […]
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AFP) — Argentina’s iconic bookstore Ateneo Grand Splendid has just been named the “world’s most beautiful bookstore” by travel magazine National Geographic.
Comic book legend Stan Lee has terminated a $1 billion lawsuit alleging that the entertainment company he co-founded had tricked him into signing away his image rights. The complaint, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court in May, accused POW! Entertainment CEO Shane Duffy and co-founder Gill Champion of failing to disclose fully to Lee details of the firm’s 2017 sale to Camsing International. The entertainment icon contended that they took advantage of him at a […]
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — Prolific novelist Philip Roth, a dominant force in American literature throughout the latter half of the 20th century, has died at the age of 85. Roth’s death on Tuesday, first reported by the New Yorker and The New York Times, was later confirmed by Roth’s literary agent Andrew Wylie. He said the cause was congestive heart failure. Roth won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for fiction for his acclaimed novel […]
by Hui Min Neo Agence France-Presse BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — Mickey Mouse may be Disney’s top star in most parts of the world, but in Germany, Donald Duck is king. More than 50 years after the cartoon featuring the hot-tempered duck arrived in the land of Goethe, it remains one of the bestselling comic title at the newsstands. Generations of children grew up with the so-called Lustiges Taschenbuch (which translates as Funny Paperback) featuring the […]
REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AFP) — From its unique history to its passion for chess, books and football, here are five things to know about Iceland, which votes in legislative elections on Saturday: – Crime – Contrary to the dark goings-on in Nordic noir literature, Iceland is a tranquil North Atlantic island of 335,000 people, where police patrol unarmed and homicides are extremely rare. The country has on average only 1.8 homicides a year. As a result, […]
by Giovanna Fleitas Agence France-Presse SANTIAGO, Chile (AFP) — International experts announced Friday that Chilean Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda did not die of cancer, but could not conclusively determine if he was assassinated by late dictator Augusto Pinochet’s regime. Neruda, a celebrated poet, politician, diplomat and bohemian, died in 1973 aged 69, just days after Pinochet, then the head of the Chilean army, overthrew Socialist president Salvador Allende in a bloody coup. The writer, who […]
by Joe Jackson Agence France-Presse LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — US author George Saunders on Tuesday became only the second American writer to win Britain’s renowned Man Booker Prize, which was awarded for his first full-length novel “Lincoln in the Bardo.” Judges for the world’s most prestigious English-language literary award praised as “utterly original” the book that chronicles the death of Abraham Lincoln’s 11-year-old son Willie using the accounts of hundreds of narrators. “The form […]
