John Baker’s Blog

Peter Monaghan in The Chronicle Review looks back at the fate of a first novel:
Since William Heinemann Ltd. first issued it in London, the novel has sold about 11 million copies in some 50 countries and as many languages. (This month Anchor Books will issue a 50th-aniversary edition.) In the United States, in an era [...]

Two items of good news this week. I don’t usually rate literary prizes, and the announcement of their winners often elicits a groan of pain from me. But both of these were deserved.
1. Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe won the 2007 Man Booker International Prize for fiction. Other nominees for the prize included Philip Roth, Margaret [...]

This novel would make an excellent gift for any young people you know who are thinking of becoming missionaries.
As night fell, burning torches were set on wooden tripods and the young men raised a song. The elders sat in a circle and the singers went round singing each man’s praise as they came before him. [...]