#23 BRB – holidaying!
On Simone de Beauvoir, mac 'n' cheese, Frank Sinatra, and more.
Hello, friends – old and new!
Especially new ones, since today’s issue is not a regular one!
I’m away on holiday, but didn’t want to leave you without some food for thought until next Friday! Today I’m skipping the intro story and leave you with the cultural recommendations: News on Simone de Beauvoir’s lost novel, a Mac ‘n’ Cheese recipe from Tolstoy’s family, Ethiopia government’s plans to develop its own Facebook, and more.
Stay tuned, though: next week I’ll review Sally Rooney’s latest book, “Beautiful World, Where Are You.” This is me, at Waterstones Piccadilly, on #BWWAY publication day!
Happy reading, happy learning,
Teodora x
P.S: If you happen to be in Paris, consider dining at Figuig – the best Moroccan food I’ve ever had! The best meal I’ve had in a while, actually. I’m still buzzing about it! Rich flavours, tender textures, and vegetarian options, too! (The latter is only relevant because it’s seemingly difficult to find plant-based food in Paris, ha!)
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🥁 📚 The latest in the literary world
The 2021 winner of the Women’s Prize is Susanna Clarke for her second novel “Piranesi”! 🏆 2021 Chair of Judges, Bernardine Evaristo, about the book: “With her first novel in seventeen years, Susanna Clarke has given us a truly original, unexpected flight of fancy which melds genres and challenges preconceptions about what books should be.” 👏 Watch the moment when Susanna Clarke is being crowned as the Women’s Prize winner here. 👑
The UK’s top non-fiction award, the Baillie Gifford Prize, has announced its 2021 longlist! 🙌 13 titles are up for the £50,000 distinction, including the bestsellers “Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain” by Sathnam Sanghera and Alex Renton’s “Blood Legacy”. Two translated books have made the longlist too: Maria Stepanova’s “In Memory of Memory” translated by Sasha Dugdale (in case this sounds vaguely familiar, this was also shortlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize), and “Aftermath: Life in the Fallout of the Third Reich, 1945–1955” by Harald Jähner, translated by Shaun Whiteside. The shortlist will be announced on October, 15 at Cheltenham Literary Festival where I am excited to say I’ll be joining! (yay) 😎
Simone de Beauvoir’s lost novel, “The Inseparables”, deemed “too intimate” to be published in her lifetime, was published in English earlier this week by Vintage Classics, and was translated by Lauren Elkin. 😱 It is the story of two friends growing up and falling apart. Here’s a short extract to get a taste of de Beauvoir’s newly discovered book. And here’s what Margaret Atwood has to say about “the grandmother of second-wave feminism”: “Read it and weep, Dear Reader. The author herself weeps at the outset: this is how the story begins, with tears. It seems that, despite her forbidding exterior, Beauvoir never stopped weeping for the lost Zaza.” (“Zaza” – Élisabeth Lacoin, Simone de Beauvoir’s friend whom she adored, measured herself against, longed for intimacy with, and sought to impress.) 🤔
I love writing about authors breaking stereotypes – like the one in which they tell you not to become a writer because you’ll struggle to make ends meet. Before opening the pandora box and point out the inequality, privilege, and other issues within the publishing industry, let’s take a moment and congratulate Louise O’Neill for getting a six-figure deal with Transworld following a five-way auction for her next two novels! 💸 💰
BONUS: Mac‘n’Cheese, anyone? 😋 Why don’t you try Leo Tolstoy’s family recipe? The recipe comes from a cookbook that Tolstoy’s brother-in-law, Stepan Andreevich Bers, published and gifted to his sister, Tolstoy’s wife, Sophia Andreevna Tolstaya. You can actually order a copy since the book was translated and adapted by S Pavlenko a few years ago, under the title “Leo Tolstoy: A Vegetarian’s Tale: Tolstoy’s Family Vegetarian Recipes Adapted for the Modern Kitchen”! 🌱 📚
🎧 📰 👀 My media diet this week
This exclusive, wide-ranging interview with the twice Booker prize-winning novelist, Hilary Mantel, in La Repubblica. Why read it? Learn about the author’s take on the decadence and racism of England, our fascinating obsession for the past, the future of the monarchy, cancel culture, JK Rowling, how she got “misgendered”, and the dark side of Englishness. 👀 🤭
The Slow Newscast from Tortoise, with its latest episode – “Orphaned by America”. Why listen to it? This is the story of 300 children who, five years after the Trump’s administration “zero tolerance” policy, remain separated from their parents. 🇺🇸 😔
Frank Sinatra has a cold: this incredible profile originally published in April 1966 in Esquire became “one of the most celebrated magazine stories ever published, a pioneering example of what came to be called New Journalism.” Why read it? I don’t think I need to be too persuasive when it comes to Sinatra, really, but this is a beautiful piece. Plus, this quote that made me smile: “Sinatra with a cold is Picasso without paint, Ferrari without fuel—only worse.” 🎤 🎶
The man who swam the Seine: this feature from GQ Magazine on a 19-year-old dropout who chose to devote himself to a quest that no one had ever seriously considered – swimming the France’s famous river. Why read it? It’s a story of courage and insanity (I realise these might become synonymous at this point) that inspires you to take risks, and break boundaries. 🌊 🏊♂️
📌 Random news in brief
Ethiopia will develop its own social media platform to replace Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp. So far, no news on planning to block the global services. 🇪🇹
The Spanish chambermaids’ union will launch a booking app to show the working conditions of hotel staff in Spain. This comes after failed attempts to convince TripAdvisor and Booking.com to display details of working conditions alongside hotel ratings. 🇪🇸 📲
An Australian artist, famous for her work on Gotye’s music video, paints on nude models that blend into graphic backgrounds. She’s now taking her art to a new level with an exhibition at the Rebecca Hossack Gallery in London where she’s going to paint a model live for the first time. 🎨 👩🎨
Before we say goodbye… 🥺
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