Authors or Novels No One But You Has Read

[SlowRain]

Some members on here mention some pretty obscure titles and authors sometimes, although I must admit I'm pretty mainstream.

Are there any published authors or novels out there that you're reasonably certain no one else on this site but you has read? (self-published doesn't count)

I don't think anyone else on here has read Patricia le Roy. Please raise your hand if you have.

What are some of yours? Take your best shot.

[Eric]

I'm sure that I've read several books that no one else on the WLF has read. These may be major authors in their own countries, but have not been translated. That does prevent a discovery of their works in the English-speaking world.

Having said that, I started a thread on the British author Charles Morgan and literally no one has replied. He was a popular author during the 1940s and 1950s, but went into eclipse on his death in the late 1950s. I wouldn't mind betting that no one else had even heard of him, let alone read him, before I mentioned him here.

I've been reading Morgan's essays over the past fortnight or so, and he has written very interesting little pieces on, for instance, Westminster Abbey, Emily Brontë, the pleasures of leisure, Thomas Hardy, the idea of Europe, why birds sing, on being a prisoner, the heritage of Symbolism, Pascal, and other matters. Still to come in this volume are further essays on, for instance, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Italy, Nausicaa, and other matters.

I was impressed by his novel "The Judge's Story", too, which I describe on another thread.

[saliotthomas]

My grandfather wrote a short book about his love for my grandmother when she died 2 years ago.
Even in my familly few were those who bothered to read it.
So i'm pretty sure that the rarest thing i ever read,the most touching too.

[Daniel del Real]

I guess we all have those kind of authors in our countries or mother languages that we have read but since they are not translated yet, it's difficult for someone at WLF to read them or even hear about them.
In Spanish there are a few and since only Stiffelio and Manuel are Spanish speakers here, then we could find some good examples about it.

[Igu Soni]

Fugitive Histories by Githa Hariharan (review), The Alchemy of Desire by Tarun J Tejpal, Shadow Space by Jayanta Mahapatra, the poems of Dom Moraes, as far as I remember.

[john h]

"Canone Inverso" by Paulo Maurensig which I've mentioned elsewhere on this site. Really good book but no one seems to have heard of it.

[luchus]

I would like to bring in In Parenthesis by David Jones, first published in 1937, praised by T.S. Eliot, a work all of its own, somewhere between prose and poetry, mixing Welsh mythology with experiences from the First World War trenches. It's one of the most overlooked modernist works, and wrongly so. It's quite exhilarating, actually. Fortunately, it's still in print, though.

[Stiffelio]

Originally Posted by john h

"Canone Inverso" by Paulo Maurensig which I've mentioned elsewhere on this site. Really good book but no one seems to have heard of it.

Of course I read this one. And thousands of other people read it too; it was a huge best seller in Italy when it came out. Great book!

[beelzebubbles]

Silversheene: King of the Sled Dogs by Clarence Hawkes is a children's adventure tale which was published in 1929. I found it at my grandfather's house when I was a girl. I was surprised to find that it can be purchased used on Amazon.

[Igu Soni]

Has anyone read Walter Moers' The thirteen and a half Adventures of Captain Bluebear or Rumo and his Miraculous Adventures, both translated by John Brownjohn? I don't think so.
Brilliant books, I assure you.

[Ramblingsid]

Well I have to agree on David Jones' "In Parenthesis" - wonderful work. As is his "Anathemata".

A fine poet and artist.

[Mirabell]

Originally Posted by Igu Soni

Has anyone read Walter Moers' The thirteen and a half Adventures of Captain Bluebear or Rumo and his Miraculous Adventures, both translated by John Brownjohn? I don't think so.
Brilliant books, I assure you.

yeah I have. well, actually not in translation. so, technically, I haven't.

[Mirabell]

here's two writers I hope I'm wrong about but that most of y'all haven't read.

there's hans henny jahnn, whom I consider 20th century's best German prose writer (posted about here, and most recently, here)




and there's Patrick Roth, a German writer who has a huge reputation here, which is kinda weird since he snuck up on me, publishing a book here and there, really not that much, but as a whole, his work is formidable.

he is most famous for his "Christ"-Trilogy, which I'm currently rereading ()review forthcoming), consisting of the novels Riverside. Christusnovelle, JOhnny Shines oder Die Wiedererweckung der Toten and Corpus Christi.

he lives in LA and hasn't been translated yet which is a shame because he's stunning, as far as craft is concerned and the trilogy is awesome, it takes your breath away, it's written in a language that is partly a pastiche of an older style, think early Romantics, partly in a more contenporary style, structurally, it's a sophisticated game with belief, myth, tradition; the effect is moving, stunning and will leave you with admiration for the man who wrote it. I know of no other writer like him.

in his other work, he writes a lot about themes adjacent to film and his very readable Frankfurter Poetics Lectures (a good sign for his stature in German letters) further explore this alley.

[LRiley]

The Argentine Enrique Medina comes to mind. He's had two books translated to English 'The Duke' and 'The tombs'. He's kind of a Latin American version of Celine.

A couple others---a Mallorcan writer Llorenc Villalonga--Bearn: or the doll's room. A Catalonian Juan (Joan) Perucho--Natural history.

[Igu Soni]

Originally Posted by Mirabell

yeah I have. well, actually not in translation. so, technically, I haven't.

Thank friggin' god. I was actually kinda scared that I didn't think anyone had read it.

[Mirabell]

Originally Posted by Igu Soni

Thank friggin' god. I was actually kinda scared that I didn't think anyone had read it.

He's a very very popular writer in Germany and Austria. I would bet money that Clarissa has read one of those books as well.

[Omo]

Originally Posted by Mirabell

He's a very very popular writer in Germany and Austria. I would bet money that Clarissa has read one of those books as well.

I have read Wild Journey through the Night, not the books Igu Soni mentioned though. He is indeed very popular over here, but since I disliked aformentioned work I haven't read anything else. Not my kind of humour.


Probably noone has read Sorbish literature in these forums. Handrij Zejler, Juri Brezan, Kito Lorenc, etc. - usually they are only translated into German, but if you read Polish or Czech you will still be able to understand most of it. Click.

[nnyhav]

I could name a few, but the best and probably most obscure was George Economou, Ananios of Kleitor:
Ananios by George Economou reviewed by Tim Whitmarsh TLS
This being the sort of thing I like, a lot, I did, in fact, even more. (US PoD thru B&N)

[Jayaprakash]

I know lots of people who've read Moers.

Authors that no amount of effort has made anyone, even the dyed-in-the-wool Indian lit fanatics read:

Naiyer Masud

Vilas Sarang

A bunch of self appointed fantasy experts I used to hang with used to make a lot of noise about looking beyond the obvious and reading semi fantastic or magic realist works from other cultures. I offered to send them copies of Sarang's short stories. No one was interested. I realised that their stance was just a cover for reading more Marquez and looking superior to the Robert Jordan junkies.

A great writer of fantasy for younger readers, forgotten now:

Nicholas Stuart Gray

Superior to Rowling (obviously) but also to Lewis.

[Igu Soni]

Originally Posted by Jayaprakash

Authors that no amount of effort has made anyone, even the dyed-in-the-wool Indian lit fanatics read:

Naiyer Masud

Vilas Sarang

I've been looking for these. Sarang's The Women in Cages is on its way.
No one seems to know who publishes Masud.