₦airaland Forum

Harper Collins recently announced its purchase of Chinese novel Zu Jie by Xiao Bai for $60,000, for publication in English.

The noir thriller will be published in 2015 under the English name French Concession. The purchase is part of a trend signaling increased interest in Chinese literature among Western publications and readers.

China's book market is now the world's largest. The industry published 7.7 billion books in 2011, a 7.5 percent increase from 2010. Of those books, 48 sold more than one million copies. Most of those titles were written by Chinese authors for Chinese readers, but Western books translated into Chinese also feature prominently.

Western titles printed in English also have a niche; Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs sold more than 50,000 copies in China. According to Penguin China, George Orwell's 1984 was its best seller in 2011, signaling a desire for both aspiration writing and high-quality classic Western literature.

Since Chinese author Mo Yan received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2012, Western publishers and readers have become increasingly interested in Chinese literature. Penguin China recently published English translations of the popular Chinese novel The Civil Servant's Notebook by Wang Xiaofang and Sheng Keyi's Northern Girls.

In 2012, the London Book Fair invited 21 Chinese authors to participate. AmazonCrossing, a new launch from Amazon.com, published its first Chinese novel translated into English earlier this year.

However, the growth and popularity of Chinese fiction outside of China is still in its infancy. American readers have not demonstrated a huge appetite for foreign literature; in 2012, US publishers purchased 453 foreign titles, about 3 percent of all US book publications. Only 16 of those books were first published in Chinese.

Over the years, a few Chinese books have made the international bestseller lists, including Adeline Yen Mah's Falling Leaves and Jung Chang's Wild Swans. Both authors were based in the West, and wrote about their painful memories of China in a style that has been described as "scar literature." Western readers have responded most to this kind of Chinese fiction, written from a single perspective and focused on a narrative of struggle. More recently, Wei Hui's Shanghai Baby novel about hard-partying youth in the 1990s Shanghai enjoyed popularity overseas, a success that has in part been driven by its ban in China; Western editions explicitly advertise the book's verboten status at home.

Chinese fiction's slow start in the Western market has been attributed to differences in perspective and focus among Chinese writers.

Duncan Jepson, a founding member of the Asia Literary Review, believes that Wang Shuo's Playing for Thrills never caught on in the West because the author's writing style meandered, and focused less on individual characters. Western readers prefer a more specific perspective, and a linear narrative.

Western literature has also often taken for granted the reader's default view of the importance of personal freedom. The most popular Chinese novels are written in a style that reflects a significant difference in the way Chinese culture views story-telling, personal narrative and the role of the individual. For many Western readers, that gap can be hard to overcome.

Books about China from a Western perspective (written by English-speaking writers for an English-reading audience) have been popular over the last decade. But the focus on Western perspectives on China - as opposed to Chinese perspectives on their own country - is limiting, Jepson believes.

A number of publishing companies and publications are doing their best to translate the best of what Chinese literature has to offer. Penguin China has published around four Chinese titles in English each year since its founding in 2005.

A new, high-profile conference beginning on Sunday is drawing educators, authors and academics from the Gulf, Central Asia and North Africa to address the children’s publishing industry.



More than 40 speakers from 20 countries are expected to attend the first regional Conference of the International Board on Books for Young People (Ibby), under the theme Bringing Books and Children Together. They include Tunisia’s celebrated children’s author Mohamed Ghozzi, the Ma Waraa Al Tabiaa series creator Ahmed Khaled Tawfik and the Emirati children’s author Maitha Al Khayat, whose works include I Love My Dad’s Long Beard.

Sheikha Bodour bint Sultan Al Qasimi, a patron of the UAE Board on Books for Young People, the organisation running the event, says the region needs such a gathering – and now.

“The world today faces many diverse challenges,” she says. “Despite these challenges, life goes on and it is our responsibility as caregivers or people in positions of responsibility to prepare our children to deal with the challenges facing them. This is through making all sources of knowledge accessible to them.”

Another hope is that the conference can promote the importance of reading across the region.

“It is an excellent opportunity to promote the importance of books for children, to develop the community and bring books and children together,” says Sheikha Bodour. “Investing in reading is the best way to invest in the future of our children.”

Sessions will cover topics such as the challenges in creating community reading initiatives and examining culture and tolerance in children’s books from the region.

Children's books often introduce young readers to moral, social and educational issues, teaching them the differences between right and wrong. Maitha Al Khayyat's children's stories are books with a difference: they directly relate to issues and situations encountered by young Emiratis.


Her first book, I Love my Dad's Long Beard, has been published in both English and Arabic and is dedicated to those fathers in the UAE who sport facial hair.

"I was with my children who were missing their dad as he was away for a few weeks with work, and I asked them, what do you miss about him? They told me he has a beard and you don't - and that gave me an idea," said Al Khayyat.

Her son Omar was 5 years old at the time. He told his mother that when he hugged his dad, his beard tickled him and smelled nice, which is not something that she had.

"I thought it could be a lovely story, so I sat down and researched different beards and professions in the UAE, and wrote a verse for each daddy," she said.

Her second book, My Own Special Way (Tareeqati Al Khassa), was also inspired by her family. Her young female character longs to wear the hijab like her older sisters, but needs to find her own special way to do so.

Al Khayyat is the eldest of four sisters and her youngest sister, she said, "is a rebel".

"We wanted to encourage her to wear the hijab and we couldn't find a way of inviting her to it. I just read this book at a fair to some girls and it tackles things that girls and children face when they get to an age where they want to do things. My daughter doesn't know how to tie up her own hair, so I said she needs to find her own way of doing it," the author said.

My Own Special Way was published by Kalimat in 2010 and the international rights have now been acquired by the UK publishers Orion Books. It also won a prize for Best Children's Book from the International Forum on Children's Education and Development in Riyadh.

The Ras Al Khaimah-based author grew up in the UK while her father was completing a doctorate. As a child from the Middle East, Al Khayyat said she had problems making friends at her middle school in England, which inadvertently spurred her love of books.

"I had trouble with spelling so I was sent to the library a lot … there were lots of bullies and the only way to escape was to go to the library," she said, adding that her favourite Dr Seuss and Roald Dahl books took her imagination to other places when she read them.

Her own love of books is something she also likes to transmit to her young audience.

"It's a challenge for me to visit a school with children who aren't used to their parents reading to them … it's as if they're not given the chance of having anyone read to them," she said, "but every time I open a book and read it to them, they ask if I've got more books to read to them."

Having learnt English before Arabic, Al Khayyat tends to write in English, although her friends encourage her to write in Arabic.

The Emirati author is due to publish two more children's books by the end of the year: When a Camel Craves Luqaimat (the Emirati dessert) is due to be published by Kalimat, while I Love My Mum's Pretty Veil is due to be released by Zodiac Publishing.

She is also writing a graded reader in Arabic (text book), and is working on articles for a children's magazine that will be published in the near future. Although Al Khayyat's current work focuses on children's stories, she has always wanted to write longer works.

"I love reading novels and stories, and I've always fantasised about writing a novel - which might happen in the near future. Right now I've written children's picture books, but in the future I might consider chapter books and then as my experience grows, I may try writing a novel," she said.

SHARJAH // Original Arabic literature is the key to maintaining cultural identity in the Middle East, says a royal advocate for children's books.



Sheikha Bodour bint Sultan Al Qasimi, daughter of the Ruler of Sharjah, is the founder of a Dh1 million literary prize.

"The Arabic language is a key element of the national Arab identity and is central to raising children who are proud of their Arab roots," Sheikha Bodour said.

"Reading helps develop awareness among children not only of their own language, but also of their culture and their heritage. In addition, books highlight important issues that children face while growing up."

In 2009, she established the Etisalat Prize for Arabic Children's Literature, one of the most valuable book awards in the world, to raise standards and improve quality in Middle East publishing.


Nominated books must be original Arabic-language works, rather than translated, and their content must conform to the values, traditions and customs of Arab communities.

Half of the Dh1m prize money goes to the publisher of the winning book and the rest is shared by the author and illustrator.

The scheme is run by the UAE section of the International Board on Books for Young People, of which Sheikha Bodour is president.

"Only home-grown books can address the issues faced by Arab children accurately and fairly, as they take place in a setting that they understand and can identify with," she said

Isobel Abulhoul, the director of the annual Emirates Airline Festival of Literature in Dubai, said an absence of Arabic literature would leave Arab children searching for identity.

"One of the most important issues in today's world for everyone is identity, and one of the key elements of identity has to be your mother tongue," she said. "Without having home-grown books for children in their mother tongue they will feel alienated and lost.

"People can write books about this part of the world but unless they are themselves native speakers of Arabic, unless it is a region where they have grown up and imbibed the culture and history through the air they breathe, they don't actually get it, they don't understand it.

"That is why the Etisalat Prize is hugely important."

Dr Abdulla Al Karam, the chairman of the board of directors and director general of Dubai's Knowledge and Human Development Authority, said: "There is strong evidence that no matter what language is used, a love of reading improves a child's performance in a whole range of subjects.

"Children need access to books they want to read."

Ten books have been nominated for this year's prize, and the winner will be announced at the 30th Sharjah International Book Fair next month.

"This year's long list covers a range of diverse topics, some of which are friendship, love, being kind to everyone including family, being respectful towards parents and elders, and also raising our voice in support of social causes," Sheikha Bodour said.

"I think these themes reflect the changing times as well as a growing confidence among Arab children's authors."

Last year's prize was awarded to the author and illustrator Walid Taher, and the publisher Dar El Shorouk of Egypt for Al Noqta Al Sawda (The Black Dot).

The 2009 prize went to Nabiha Muhaidali and her publisher Dar Al Hadaeq of Lebanon for a series of books called Ana Aheb (I Love).

Ms Muhaidali said the award gave her a new sense of responsibility to provide quality books for her readers.

"I now consider every book as a project for an award," she said, speaking on the sidelines of last year's fair. "We have to be careful with every element as a publisher.

"Awards are passports; they take you forward but you need to be aware of the example you're creating."

WASHINGTON — Billionaire investor David Rubenstein is giving the Library of Congress $1.5 million to fund three new literacy awards.

Rubenstein of Bethesda, Md., is co-founder of the Carlyle Group private equity firm. He is a major philanthropist and in 2010 gave the library $5 million to support the National Book Festival.

Rubenstein announced his latest gift Thursday at the first International Summit of the Book, which includes national libraries from Britain, Russia, Spain, Peru and South Africa. Rubenstein says spending time at public libraries while growing up helped open doors for him.

The library will create the David M. Rubenstein Prize to honor a groundbreaking contribution in advancing literacy. It's also creating an American Prize and an International Prize to honor projects that combat disinterest in reading.

NEW YORK — Don DeLillo has won the first Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction.

Widely acknowledged as a master chronicler of American dread and secrecy, DeLillo was praised in a statement by the library Thursday for his narratives "into the sociopolitical and moral life" of the United States. DeLillo's novels include "Underworld," "Libra" and "White Noise."

The 76-year-old DeLillo will be presented with the award in September during the library's annual National Book Festival in Washington, D.C.

NEW YORK — Richard Ford and Timothy Egan, winners of literary medals presented by the American Library Association, both credit libraries for making their work possible.

Ford and Egan are this year's recipients of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence for the best works of fiction and nonfiction. Ford was cited for the novel "Canada," narrated by the teen son of bank robbers. Egan won for "Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher," a biography of photographer Edward Curtis, who compiled an encyclopedic archive of North American Indians.

Egan, a prize-winning author and reporter for The New York Times, noted in a recent interview that libraries were a vital part of his research for the Curtis book. Curtis, who died in 1952, had compiled a 20-volume set of his Indian photographs. Few copies exist today, but Egan managed to look through the pictures at the University of Washington library in Seattle.

"It was really magical," said Egan, winner of the National Book Award in 2006 for "The Worst Hard Time," a history of those lived through the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression. "You have to put on these white gloves and look very carefully through this glowing, magical achievement. Libraries, in many ways, are the keepers of our stories."

Ford, a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, recalled that he grew up down the street from a Carnegie library in Jackson, Miss.

"I got an introduction there to what books were, why books were important," said Ford, who now regularly donates books to the library near his home in Maine.

Ford and Egan each will receive $5,000, and finalists each receive $1,500. In fiction, they were Junot Diaz for "This Is How You Lose Her" and Louise Erdrich for "The Round House." In nonfiction: David Quammen for "Spillover" and Jill Lepore for "The Mansion of Happiness." The Carengie medals were established in 2012 and are funded through a grant by the Carnegie Corporation.

NEW YORK — Kate DiCamillo and David Levithan were among the 10 authors who made the first-ever long-list of finalists for the National Book Awards, part of a new nominating process that prize organizers hope will lead to increased attention and sales.

DiCamillo and Levithan were nominees in the Young People's Literature category, announced Monday by the National Book Foundation, which presents the awards. Over the next three days, 10 finalists will be announced for each of the remaining three competitive categories – poetry, nonfiction and fiction. On Oct. 16, the nominees will be narrowed to five for each category. The winners, each of whom receive $10,000, will be revealed at a Nov. 20 dinner and ceremony in New York City.

Earlier this month, the book foundation announced that E.L. Doctorow and Maya Angelou would receive honorary awards.

Publishers, some of whom sit on the book foundation's board and contribute thousands of dollars for tables at the ceremony, have worried in recent years that judges – especially fiction judges – have been overlooking such high-profile books as Jonathan Franzen's "Freedom" in favor of more obscure releases. Anxious for the National Book Awards to match, or least approach, the commercial power of Britain's Man Booker Prize, the board added long-lists and expanded the pool of judges. The awards had long been voted on by panels of fellow writers, but judges this year also come from the bookselling, journalism and library communities.

The young people's category features several nominees who have won prizes before, including three former National Book Award nominees and two winners of the Newbery Medal. One finalist, Gene Luen Yang's "Boxers & Saints," is a two-volume graphic novel. In 2006, his "American Born Chinese" became the first graphic novel to receive a National Book Award nomination.



DiCamillo, best known for her Newbery-winning "The Tale of Despereaux," was nominated for "Flora & Ulysses." Kadohata, a Newbery winner for "Kira-Kira," was cited for "The Thing About Luck." Levithan, a popular author and a vice president and editorial director at Scholastic Inc., was a finalist for "Two Boys Kissing."

The other nominees included Kathi Appelt's "The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp," Lisa Graff's "A Tangle of Knots," Alaya Dawn Johnson's "The Summer Prince" and Tom McNeal's "Far Far Away." Also on the long-list: Meg Rosoff's "Picture Me Gone" and Anne Ursu's "The Real Boy."

McNeal's wife, Laura McNeal, was a finalist in 2010 for "Dark Water."

LONDON — The Americans are coming to storm Britain's literary citadel.

Organizers of the Booker Prize announced Wednesday that from next year authors from the U.S. – and around the world – will be eligible to win the prestigious fiction award.

Prize trustees said that starting in 2014, the prize will be open to all novels written in English and published in Britain, regardless of the author's nationality.

Founded in 1969, the Booker has previously been open only to writers from Britain, Ireland and the 54-nation Commonwealth of former British colonies.

That has not kept the award – officially known as the Man Booker Prize after its sponsor, financial services firm Man Group PLC – from becoming one of the world's best-known literary accolades, one that carries both prestige and commercial clout. Past winners include V.S. Naipaul, Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood, Ian McEwan and Hilary Mantel.

Jonathan Taylor, chairman of the prize trustees, said the expanded prize "will recognize, celebrate and embrace authors writing in English, whether from Chicago, Sheffield or Shanghai."

"We are embracing the freedom of English in all its vigor, its vitality, its versatility and its glory wherever it may be," he said. "We are abandoning the constraints of geography and national boundaries."

Organizers said they had considered setting up a separate U.S. prize, but rejected the idea for fear of "jeopardizing or diluting" the existing award.

Books will continue to be submitted by British publishers and reviewed by a panel of judges.


The changes don't affect the Man Booker International Prize, a lifetime achievement award handed out every two years and open to writers from around the world.

Among the six finalists for the 50,000 pound ($78,000) prize this year are several writers with strong U.S. ties, including Jhumpa Lahiri and Ruth Ozeki.

The winner will be announced at a ceremony in London on Oct. 15.

The Booker frequently attracts heated debate, and the expansion received mixed reviews from the literary world. Writer and broadcaster Melvin Bragg told the Sunday Times that it would mean "the Booker will now lose its distinctiveness. It's rather like a British company being taken over by some worldwide conglomerate."

But Irish writer John Banville, who won the prize in 2005 for "The Sea," told the BBC it was an excellent idea.

"But God help the rest of us," he added, "because American fiction is very strong indeed."

I was in China in 2007, at the first party-approved science fiction and fantasy convention in Chinese history. And at one point I took a top official aside and asked him Why? SF had been disapproved of for a long time. What had changed?

It's simple, he told me. The Chinese were brilliant at making things if other people brought them the plans. But they did not innovate and they did not invent. They did not imagine. So they sent a delegation to the US, to Apple, to Microsoft, to Google, and they asked the people there who were inventing the future about themselves. And they found that all of them had read science fiction when they were boys or girls.

Fiction can show you a different world. It can take you somewhere you've never been. Once you've visited other worlds, like those who ate fairy fruit, you can never be entirely content with the world that you grew up in. Discontent is a good thing: discontented people can modify and improve their worlds, leave them better, leave them different.

And while we're on the subject, I'd like to say a few words about escapism. I hear the term bandied about as if it's a bad thing. As if "escapist" fiction is a cheap opiate used by the muddled and the foolish and the deluded, and the only fiction that is worthy, for adults or for children, is mimetic fiction, mirroring the worst of the world the reader finds herself in.

If you were trapped in an impossible situation, in an unpleasant place, with people who meant you ill, and someone offered you a temporary escape, why wouldn't you take it? And escapist fiction is just that: fiction that opens a door, shows the sunlight outside, gives you a place to go where you are in control, are with people you want to be with(and books are real places, make no mistake about that); and more importantly, during your escape, books can also give you knowledge about the world and your predicament, give you weapons, give you armour: real things you can take back into your prison. Skills and knowledge and tools you can use to escape for real.


According to a recent study by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, England is the "only country where the oldest age group has higher proficiency in both literacy and numeracy than the youngest group, after other factors, such as gender, socio-economic backgrounds and type of occupations are taken into account".

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." Can the often-quoted opening of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, first published 200 years ago, still be considered the funniest one-liner in the English language?


Yes, if you're Gyles Brandreth, editor of the fifth edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations, whose top 10 list of favourites also include, "If not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled," from PG Wodehouse's 1938 novel The Code of the Woosters, and broadcaster Stephen Fry's observation on modern life that "The email of the species is deadlier than the mail."

Brandreth's editorship of the dictionary of wit, which he assumes from the late Ned Sherrin, author and broadcaster, is notably establishment in flavour. His number one joke of the 21st century turns out to be a one-liner by the mayor of London, Boris Johnson: "My policy on cake is still pro having it and pro eating it!" Modern-day favourites also include a one-liner from Prince William, a man not usually known for his humorous quips, on his wedding: "We're supposed to have just a small family affair."

Johnson is rising up the ranks of funny politicians: with 13 entries in the dictionary he outwits Margaret Thatcher (11) and Harold Macmillan (9) to become the third-most amusing British politician, behind Winston Churchill (32) and Benjamin Disraeli (28). David Cameron and George Osborne do not feature.

By counting up the most-quoted witticisms, Brandreth and the Oxford dictionaries team have crowned Oscar Wilde the most-quoted humorist of all, with 92 entries. The playwright and poet is much quoted for such lines as, "To lose one parent, Mr Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness," from his 1895 play The Importance of Being Earnest.

"These are the people whose lines, written or spoken, have stood the test of time," Brandreth said. "They are the all-time greats. Some are notable for their original humour, some for their pertinent wit and wry observation. Wilde is leagues ahead of the rest of the pack. He is without doubt the most quoted and quotable of them all."

Dorothy Parker leads the list of the top five wittiest women, with 43 entries, ahead of Mae West, among whose best lines is: "Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before." Margaret Thatcher is the fifth most-quoted woman, and the fourth most-quoted politician. "Margaret Thatcher was not noted for her sense of humour, but she is in the top five because she said some memorable things, such as this oft-quoted line: 'If you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman.'"

The seven most-quoted writers are male and among these only Woody Allen is still alive.