Jonathan Franzen’s new novel is the talk of the town, but does it have anything to say?
Freedom: A Novel, by Jonathan Franzen. Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 576 pages, $28.
Reviewed by Tommy Wallach
In two days, Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux will publish Freedom, the new novel by Jonathan Franzen whose last book, The Corrections, made just [...]

By Bill Marx
In my other life, as editor of World Books for The World, BBC/PRI’s national radio program dedicated to international news, I write and edit book reviews as well commentaries and interviews. I also host a monthly podcast dedicated to global literature, which is available through ITunes.
The most recent pieces posted on [...]

By Bill Marx
A number of new pieces on World Books since the last update in September, including my podcast interview with Benjamin Moser about his biography of Clarice Lispector (1920-1977) entitled “Why This World” from Oxford University Press.
The Brazilian writer’s challenging stream-of-consciousness technique, lack of political bite, physical beauty and, Moser argues, her [...]

By Bill Marx
I am juggling editing and writing duties between two blogs, theartsfuse and World Books for the website of BBC/PRI’s radio program The World, which is produced at WGBH in Boston. The section aims to be a critical conversation made up of reviews, commentaries, interviews, podcasts, and news stories about international literature. Respected [...]

A novel about sexual obsession, inspired by “Lolita,” stretches the limits of credulity.
Rupert: A Confession
By Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, Translated from the Dutch by Michele Hutchison, Open Letter, $12.95, 131 pages
Reviewed by Tommy Wallach

I consider myself something of an expert in the seldom studied theme of impotence in film and [...]

A brilliant Dutch novel that explores the connections to the disconnected.

The Twin By Gerbrand Bakker
Translated from the Dutch by David Colmer. Archipelago Books, 343 pages.
Reviewed by Tommy Wallach

It isn’t easy to write a compelling novel about loneliness, for the simple reason that loneliness is boring. It makes for something of a paradox: the feeling [...]

Charlotte Roche is one of the most famous authors in Germany. Thomas Mann must be spinning in his grave.
Wetlands By Charlotte Roche. Translated from the German by Tim Mohr. Grove Press, 240 pages.
Reviewed by Tommy Wallach

On the subject of literary criticism, Martin Amis has written that “quotation is the reviewer’s only [...]

This ambitious Norwegian novel works overtime to turn conventional notions of cause and effect topsy-turvy.
The Conqueror
By Jan Kjærstad
Translated from the Norwegian by Barbara Haveland. Open Letter, 481 pages, $17.95
Reviewed by Tommy Wallach

Riddle me this: if a man finds out his wife has been cheating on him for years, then kills her, did the first [...]

Two French writers take on the notion of would-be writers on the run. Only one gets away with it.
Julien Parme By Florian Zeller Translated from the French by Christopher Moncrieff. Pushkin Press, 246 pages.
Tokyo Fiancee by Amélie Northomb Translated from the French by Alison Anderson. Europa Editions, 152 pages.
Reviewed by Tommy Wallach

French author Florian [...]

Does it matter that posthumous literary darling Roberto Bolaño fibbed about his past?
by Tommy Wallach, World Books contributor
My World Books review of “2666″
A couple days ago, “The New York Times” published an article suggesting that Chilean novelist and posthumous literary darling Roberto Bolaño may have fictionalized aspects of his own biography. In question are two [...]