SUPER BAD

As much as I do not enjoy kicking a dead horse, Allen and Unwin (via Granta) have once again managed to mangle what could have been a very good cover to a very good book. I've just finished reading Gary Shteyngart's Super Sad True Love Story and it is really, really terrific. He has been an author on my radar for a while now, but once he appeared on the New Yorker's 20 Under 40 list (obtaining his own awkward pencil sketch portrait in the process) and once I read the cover blurb (for a George Saunders devotee like me, its recipe of dystopian deadpan surrealism was nigh on irresistible). So, yes, you should read it, but A&U have done their best to convince you otherwise...

Sometimes you see a book cover and think, okay, that's just something they've knocked up before the real jacket designer comes on board, or, cool, they've asked some gaol inmates to sketch a book cover as part of social therapy classes or maybe they've read a two-sentence blurb once and remembered some words and then looked up clipart from Word 95 and pasted it all together. This is one of those covers. For the lead Granta title for September, it's a pretty shocking effort. As one friend in the publishing industry so succinctly put it, "If that cover was my baby, I would try to put it back."

Nonetheless, I really do recommend you look past the cover and give it a go. You won't be disappointed.

In the interests of fairness, however, the US jacket isn't much better:

The UK jacket is getting there, but still doesn't do it for me:




P.S. I don't want it to feel like I'm picking on you, Allen & Unwin, so here's a book cover from Penguin (Viking) that I saw today, and should make you feel okay. Buckets ready...



When this image on the cover would be an improvement on the cover, you know you're in trouble.

P.P.S. Super Sad True Love Story also has by far the best book trailer of the year. Hi-larious:

EMERGALICIOUS!

So it's that time of the year again when Melbourne is descended upon by the cream of the "new writing" crop -- the Emerging Writers Festival (EWF). I was lucky enough to be invited down last year to talk about my blog "Operas I Have Written for My Cats". Sorry, no, that's my other project. It was for this place, where you're reading this. Back when I wrote a short story a day. Anyway...

I had such a good time last year, and was so impressed with the organisation, enthusiasm and energy around the festival (by far the best Writers Festival I'd been to) that I simply had to go back. This year I'll be in conversation with writer, artist and performer Beth Sometimes, and more specifically about her Adventure in Postcards, where she wrote a postcard to "someone or something" every day for a year. The results were compiled in her charming and impressive book From Sometimes Love Beth. Our conversation will form part of the EWF's From Here to There series, during their jam-packed Town Hall Program, which you can buy a pass to for the whole weekend May 29-30. Seriously, you won't be disappointed.

I had such a great time last year taking part in a From Here to There session, chatting with Stef Convery about Furious Horses, and answering questions from a mind-bogglingly enthusiastic audience. I was also fortunate enough to be able to stick around the town hall and encounter a whole bunch of other wonderful discussions, panels and performances. If you're anywhere near Melbourne, I encourage you to do the same. EWF has been running from May 21, and has all sorts of brilliant things going on, both in and around Melbourne, and on Twitter.

I would love to list all the sessions I want to attend, but it'll be quicker just to point you to the EWF program. I'll see you there!

Popular blogger Christopher Currie enjoys the perks of Melbourne Town Hall, EWF 2009:

DOUBLE-DOWN

Sitting down with my rep from Hachette Publishing last week, I learnt that two new John Grisham books were slated to appear in late May, one adult title and one young adult title. Stifling a yawn, and ready to move on to making fun of the new Stephen King B-format covers, I noticed that the two books had the same title. It seemed as if Hodder & Stoughton Australia (and UK) were planning to release both an adult and YA version of the same book. Well ... no.

This is the "Adult" edition. Recommended Retail Price $32.99:

This is the "Young Adult" edition. Recommended Retail Price $25

Yep, you guessed it. Same book, different covers, different prices. Same book-buying market. Now I've got no issue with "crossover" novels per se (think The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time or The Book Thief), or even dual covers (think Harry Potter or Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book). The main problem for me, in this instance, is that the whole endeavor is so calculated. You see, in the US—the home of old Pelican Briefs himself—there is only going to be one version of the book. See if you can guess which market Grisham wrote it for (apart from 80s VHS-cover fanatics).

Yes, in the US, it is a KIDS' BOOK. It's abundantly clear that Hodder & Stoughton and Hachette Australia just want more market share. Pure and simple. Their press release seems to paint the idea as deeply democratic, and just giving fans what they want. But, seriously, guys, come clean.

I would rather chew off my own arm than read this book, but if you do, it's embargoed until its worldwide release on May 25. And don't forget, you've got two great choices of how much money you fork out for it. Do enjoy.