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Laura Restrepo, Leopard In The Sun (El Leopardo al Sol), 1993 The beginning is like something straight out of Scarface; the pock-marked gangster and the beautiful woman he's always wanted are sitting at the bar when a rival enters, yells something about revenge for something that happened 20...

Oh, and thanks for the link, Flower. It doesn't say which Zentropa movies he's worked on, but even if I wouldn't want to take the comparison too far, he does share some common themes with von Trier - violence, atonement, religion, etc. Plus, a pretty dark sense of humour. It's not a great novel...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Script_doctor

I'm currently reading Lars Husum's debut Mit venskab med Jesus Kristus (My Friendship With Jesus Christ) and enjoying it quite a bit. Flower (or anyone else who's familiar with him), any take on him? I'm told it made a pretty big splash in Denmark?

So apparently the rapture is on Saturday. Anyone going (and if so, can I have your stuff?) or are you waiting for the Maya thing to kick in on 21 December 2012, or the next time the Swiss try to fire up the LHC? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0GFRcFm-aY&feature=player_embedded Seriously...

It seems we don't have a thread on AA Milne. Since today is apparently Eeyore's birthday, and he's one of my favourite book characters, I thought I'd start one and post this link: Eeyore: Literature's archetypal outsider | Books | guardian.co.uk Also, here's a Winniepedia link on Milne...

Indeed it is. By the way, I'm really liking Shalamov. Well, if you can say it's a book you like.

The Guardian's readers' favourite Russians.

Looks like, but at 1000+ pages I think I'll have to put it on hold a bit...

Thanks for reminding me about Shalamov, Apfelwurm. I was just wondering what to read next, and it turns out I have a collection of Kolyma tales right here...

Looks like The Tunnel is coming out in Swedish in November. I'll have to snatch that one up.

Svetlana Aleksievich: Voices From Chernobyl - The Oral History Of A Nuclear Disaster (Чернобыльская молитва, 1997) The first interview is with the widow of one of the firemen who were sent in on the first day. He'd been shoveling radioactive sludge dressed in only jeans and a t-shirt, his skin...

Jean Giono: Hill Of Destiny (Colline, 1929) The best horror stories are always those that yank the carpet out under us, that serve up a nice harmonic everyday scenario and suddenly make us see the cracks in the foundation, the grinning skulls behind the smiles, how easy it is to lose your...

RIP Bo Carpelan.

Isaac Bashevis Singer: The Slave (Der Knact, 1962) High up in the mountains sits Jacob, a Polish Jew, the last of his family following the latest in a series of massacres. No, it's not the 1940s, it's mid-17th century, though obviously the still-recent memories of WWII were at the back of...

Yup. Englund is largely responsible for the resurgent popular interest in historical writing in Sweden (well, him and the far more conservative Herman Lindqvist, whose second printings often come with several pages of corrections). He's also one of the few "proper" historians I've read who's...

Which is why this is the worldpictureforum.com. ;) (Though ironically, in these digitized days a picture is made up of far more than a thousand words...) Anyway, for the record, Englund is actually an acclaimed and bestselling historical writer. I've read several of his books, I think he's been...

Alain Mabanckou: Memoirs of a Porcupine (Memoires de porc-épic, 2008) Under a tree in the Congo sits the world's oldest porcupine. He's spent far longer than any porcupine should live as the evil double - alter ego, if you will, dark passenger if you're a Dexter fan - to an alleged serial...

Patti Smith: Just Kids (2010) They're so very young when they meet up, seemingly the definition of wide-eyed idealists; Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe run into each other on a street corner in New York in 1967, both 20 years old. One would go on to reinvent rock music, being hailed as the...

I do love it when literature debate gets really catty. Self-appointed "Greatest living Swedish writer" Björn Ranelid is going to be on the Swedish version of Dancing With The Stars this season. In one interview, he praises himself for "doing his duty" in "going among the people" and "educating...