Books of Interest: July 2021

Non-Fiction

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Masochistic Nationalism: Multicultural Self-Hatred and the Infatuation with the Exotic
By Göran Adamson (Routledge, ISBN13: 9780367442330)

‘In his 1945 essay, “Notes on Nationalism,” George Orwell contrasted “positive nationalism”—pride in one’s country—with the “negative” and “transferred” nationalisms … In his new book, Swedish academic Göran Adamson calls this combination of negative and transferred nationalisms “masochistic nationalism”’ (from Jonathan Kay’s Quillette review).

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Looking For Trouble

By Virginia Cowles (Faber, ISBN13: 9780571353569)

‘She was in Madrid during the Spanish Civil War, flinging off her heels under shellfire; Prague for the Munich crisis; Italy to interview the ‘dapper’ Mussolini; Berlin when Germany invaded Poland (after taking tea with Hitler); Helsinki as the Russians threatened; Paris as the Germans approached; London in the Blitz…’ First published in 1941, this memoir was issued as a Faber Finds paperback in 2010; Faber will now publish a hardback and ebook in November 2021.

Fiction

When The Sparrow Falls

By Neil Sharpson (Tor Books, ISBN13: 9781250784223)

‘On the one hand, Sharpson’s hypothetical engagement with technology and totalitarianism recalls classics like 1984 or Brave New World. On the other, the novel’s geohistorical rootedness—and its attention to the human side of repressive systems—feels more in the mode of Arthur Koestler’s Darkness at Noon or Czesław Miłosz’s The Captive Mind. ‘ (from Jake Casella Brookins’ Chicago Review of Books review).

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George Orwell in Translation – Latvian

Posts Parīzē Un Londonā (Down and Out in Paris and London)

By Džordžs Orvels (George Orwell) (Dienas Grāmata)

Dienas Grāmata have more of Orwell’s books available in Latvian translation. including Mācītāja Meita (A Clergyman’s Daughter), Toreiz Birmā (Burmese Days), and Lai Plīvo Aspidistra (Keep The Aspidistra Flying).

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George Orwell in Translation – Dutch

Waarom ik schrijf: Verhalende essays (‘Why I Write’ and other essays)
By George Orwell (Singel Uitgeverijen, ISBN13: 9789029542364)

Singel Uitgeverijen have Orwell’s best known works available, but lesser known works, too, including his diaries 1931-1949.

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Tegen totalitarisme: Essays over politiek und literatur (Against Totalitarianism: Essays on politics and literature)

By George Orwell, edited by Thomas Heij (ISVW Uitgevers, ISBN13: 9789083121505)

The contents page gives an idea of the width of Orwell’s thought, and the detail with which Thomas Heij has selected the contents. He has, for instance, chosen both Orwell’s ‘Politics Vs Literature’, in which Orwell discussed fascistic precursors in Gulliver’s Travels, but also Orwell’s little known wartime wireless ‘interview’ with Jonathan Swift.

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George Orwell biography in translation – Spanish

George Orwell. La biografía
By Bernard Crick; Prólogo de Alfonso Berardinelli; Traducción de Salvador Cobo (Ediciones El Salmón, ISBN13: 9788412032253)

“Orwell aspiró a transformar la escritura política en un arte” Entrevista con Salvador Cobo. (George Orwell wanted to turn political writing into an art. An interview with translator Salvador Cobo).

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An appearance here should not be taken as en endorsement by the Orwell Society of any work .