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Jonathan Franzen
The Norwegian writer and a favorite of OVID Jon Fosse has won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature “for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable.” Among many of Fosse’s works, we at OVIDBLOGS love his A New Name: Septology VI-VII and recommed this hypnotic prose to readers over the world.
Jonathan Escoffery, Kathryn Harlan, Dionne Irving, Yiyun Li, and Laura Warrell make up the short list of finalists for the 2023 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.
To celebrate Women’s History Month and to recognize great contributions to the world of literature, OVID recommends 5 novels written by female writers. From an intimate story about the mother to the tumulus love story set in remote Dagestan, there is something for everyone in this recommendation.
From fiction to social commentary, OVID brings you the best of Scandinavian literature in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Annie Ernaux wins the 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature “for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory”.
Bride & Groom
A compelling novel that explores the complexities of modern-day love and marriage in contemporary Russia. With richly drawn characters and a vivid sense of place, “Bride & Groom” offers a fresh and captivating perspective on the joys and struggles of relationships in today’s world.
A Man’s Place
“A Man’s Place” by Annie Ernaux is a powerful memoir that explores the complex relationship between a father and daughter. Widely regarded as a classic of French literature, the book offers a deeply affecting portrait of family relationships and the impact that working-class values and patriarchal society have on them. Ernaux’s spare and direct writing…
The Centaur
The Centaur is a modern retelling of the legend of Chiron, the noblest and wisest of the centaurs, who, painfully wounded yet unable to die, gave up his immortality on behalf of Prometheus.
The Sun Walks Down
Longlisted for the 2023 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, Fiona McFarlane’s blazingly brilliant, The Sun Walks Down, tells the story of a boy lost in colonial Australia. Told in many ways and by many voices, this novel radiates with love, art, and the unbearable divine. A visionary tale; mythic, vivid, and bright with meaning.
Herzog
Saul Bellow’s finest book, this National Book Award for Fiction winner presents a multifaceted portrait of a modern-day hero, a man struggling with the complexity of existence and longing for redemption. Herzog is a novel that is both deeply philosophical and highly engaging.
Carmen Boullosa
Alisa Ganieva
Alisa Ganieva is a contemporary Russian writer who was born in 1985, in the Dagestan Republic of the Russian Federation. She studied Oriental Studies and Journalism at the Russian State University for the Humanities in Moscow, and later received her PhD in Contemporary Russian Literature from the Institute of World Literature in Moscow. Ganieva first…
Naguib Mahfouz
Naguib Mahfouz is widely regarded as one of the most influential writers in modern Arabic literature. Born in Cairo, Egypt in 1911, Mahfouz spent much of his life writing novels, short stories, and screenplays that explored the complexities of Egyptian society and the human experience. Mahfouz’s early life was shaped by the cultural and political…
Annie Ernaux
Winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize for Literature, French author and academic Annie Ernaux was born on September 1, 1940, in Lillebonne, Normandy. She is widely regarded as one of the most significant writers of contemporary French literature and has been honored with numerous awards and accolades for her contributions to the literary world. Ernaux…
John Updike
John Updike was an American author and literary critic, born on March 18, 1932, in Reading, Pennsylvania. He is best known for his prolific writing career, which spanned over five decades, and produced more than sixty books, including novels, short story collections, poetry, and literary criticism. Updike’s early life was marked by his love of…