The State of Books to Come

The literary scene is an odd thing. 200 years ago, when Scotland had two internationally influential journals, in Blackwoods and The Edinburgh Review, commenting on the latest work from, say, Walter Scott and James Hogg, a somewhat self-contained Scottish literature could be said to exist, though hardly in a vacuum. Nowadays, with books from anywhere in the world easily reaching our shelves, Scottish readers and writers can be as influenced by foreign writing as Scottish, and that’s no bad thing.

In 2010, we’ll see new books by Scots Alan Warner, who brings out The Stars in The Bright Sky in May, Louise Welsh with Naming the Bones in March, and Andrew O’Hagan, who will be bringing out the intriguingly named The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog, and of his Friend Marilyn Monroe in May. Notably though, Andrew O’Hagan is part of a London scene.

But so what? There are some great books out this year by authors from the rest of the UK too, and they’ll be just as available to you as the Scottish writers’ work. Look out for David Mitchell, of Cloud Atlas fame, releasing The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet in May, and Scottish-based Dan Rhodes’ Little Hands Clapping in February. Also in February the award laden Andrea ‘Small Island’ Levy, brings out, The Long Song, and another award magnet, Martin Amis, will release his long-awaited The Pregnant Widow, about feminism apparently. In March there’s an edition of Collected Stories from Hanif Kureishi, and Ian McEwan brings out Solar. In April, Jim Crace brings out All That Follows, and in May Jonathan Coe brings out The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Simm. Further on in the year, Salman Rushdie will release a sequel to his children’s book Haroun and the Sea of Stories, to be called Luka and the Lake of Fire. Speaking of sequels, Vikram Seth will release a sequel to his A Suitable Boy, called (suitably) A Suitable Girl. Most controversially, look out for Philip Pullman’s The Good Man Jesus and The Scoundrel Christ in April, part of Canongate’s Myths series.

From Americans in 2010, we can look forward to Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem, Manhood For Amateurs by Michael Chabon, Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer, Imperial Bedroooms by Bret Easton Ellis and Point Omega by Don DeLillo. Some of these are already available in the U.S, and can be had on import, but they should all have appeared by mid 2010. There’s also Dave Egger’s Zeitoun, to be released in March and set in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and Jonathan Franzen’s first book since The Corrections, entitled Freedom. Intriguingly, a new book by the late David Foster Wallace is promised, called The Pale King, though it’ll be assembled from his noteboooks – a laborious process, so no news on release dates yet. A similar book was released after Ralph Ellison’s death, called Juneteenth, and didn’t garner much praise; an extended version of the same material called Three Days Before The Shooting will appear in February, probably for academics only.

Further afield, the biggest selling book in Japan in 2009 were two volumes of Haruki Murakami’s IQ84. A further volume will be out in Japan in 2010, and the existing volumes might just appear in English translation then too. Books which should make it to us through translation include The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa (recommended by Paul Auster), Mario Vargas Llosa’s The Celtic Dream, about Irish diplomat Roger Casement, Cain by Jose Saramago, Adan E Eden by Carlos Fuentes, and various Roberto Bolano translations.

All the books I’ve listed here look promising. Want bad news? Well, financial uncertainty may plague bookshops, though there’s less competition now Borders has gone, and experts at the 2009 Frankfurt book fair predicted digital book sales may overtake print by 2018. Publishers continue to make bizarre decisions too: the Arsenal midfielder Theo Walcott has been signed up by Random House to write a series of children’s books about a young footballer, and you’ll be able to pick up the first of these in April. This is actually true. Although, come to think about it, I’d probably read that…

Enjoy your books!