Read all about it: New Statesman Books of the Year 2012

To see Malarky show up in The New Statesman, a publication I am long familiar with from my London and Dublin days and my lifelong cultural left inclinations, was a big surprise will hereby ever be referred to as my Jimmy Knapp moment. I may not get another Jimmy Knapp moment, hence it was special. (I am sure there will be further surprises as my knitting and plumbing disasters appear steadfast and always surprise me.)

To sit beside Deborah Levy’s Swimming Home (published by the fine and progressive And Other Stories) only solidified this as my Jimmy Knapp moment.

Jenny Diski, who je remercie mille fois, wrote the following:

Anakana Schofield’s Malarky (Biblioasis, $19.95) and Deborah Levy’s Swimming Home (And Other Stories, £7.99) are quite different novels, each with their own notable style and imaginative power. Good new novels are rare and here are two of them. Diana Souhami’s Murder at Wrotham Hill (Quercus, £18.99) is a brilliantly formulated and well-written account of a tawdry murder that shines a bright light on postwar austerity

Full evidence of Jimmy Knapp moment found here.

To read Tom McCarthy’s intro to Swimming Home click here and scroll to More Information.

To read Malarky, well you know exactly what to do. Hop on down to your local bookstore or click on over to the various online stores. You may or may not experience a Jimmy Knapp moment.  You will certainly experience multiple moments for Malarky is an episodic narrative in which each episode is an extrapolation of a single moment in Our Woman’s life.

If you’re in the UK or Ireland or Australia, India or South Africa: Malarky will be published by Oneworld and on your doorsteps during 2013, likely summer. I shall post the publication date as soon as I know.

Malarky chosen by Apple iTunes, iBookstore BEST OF 2012 Fiction

Thanks a million to the (Apple) iBookstore who selected Malarky as one of their 10 BEST OF 2012 FICTION titles.

iBookstore described its chosen 10 titles as “spectacular books” which sent rather a bounce of reverb between my kettle and toaster!

Among the 10 titles selected were writers I personally admire such as the brave Tamara Faith Berger’s Maidenhead (I read with Tamara at Incite at VPL which was delightful), Junot Diaz’s This is How You Lose Her. (I was actually due to read with Junot in Toronto but there was a double booking with another festival, hopefully we’ll have another chance to read together in this lifetime) and Ben Stephenson (who if I am not mistaken contributed flash fiction to the same Boulderpavement issue I did in May, along with Stuart Ross.)

I also thank and commend the iBookstore Canada for their strong support of Canadian Independent Publishers. I am a fan of ibooks as an interface and enjoy swiping my way through novels.

Edmonton Journal: Malarky selected for Five Favourite Reads of 2012

How lovely indeed to see Malarky selected as one of Five Favourite Reads of 2012 by the Edmonton Journal Book Columnist Michael Hingston alongside Cesar Aira’s Varamo / The Miracle Cures of Dr. Aira (New Directions) and Leanne Shapton’s Swimming Studies.

I recently alighted on Aira’s work and have delighted in him. I appeared on a panel with Leanne Shapton at IFOA and admire the interdisciplinary approach in her work. Swimming Studies took me back to the swimming pool. Sadly disasters abounded upon my return so I shall stick to vicarious swimming through reading that memoir and keep my feet dry until I can afford some serious swimming instruction. (Again! I must have taken the most swimming lessons in history and made so little progress I’d have to wonder if there’s in a swimming gene I lack). I also really hope that 2013 or even 2014 will result in a reading in Edmonton. Never has a writer been keener than I to visit the home of the former Toonerville Trolley. (Not even sure many writers even know of the one time existence of this historical transport system) I have studied the weather in Edmonton and now own a parka for this impending visit.

Here’s some snips from the article (full piece click here)

2. Anakana Schofield, Malarky (Biblioasis) “an obsessive, voice-driven novel about a grieving Irish housewife that runs along irregular timelines and lingers at unusual places. It also never, ever apologizes for itself. More importantly, it all works….”

3. Leanne Shapton, Swimming Studies (Blue Rider Press)

“Midway through this gorgeous, buoyant hybrid of a memoir, Shapton inserts a 26-part photo series documenting, with captions, every swimsuit she owns…”

5. César Aira, Varamo / The Miracle Cures of Dr. Aira (New Directions)

“…Aira’s fiction is an ongoing, off-the-cuff record of his magpie imagination…Read Aira in the morning and you won’t need coffee.”