paper trail

Oct 11, 2010 @ 9:00:00 am

Tom McCarthy: odds-on favorite for the Man Booker prize.

Imprisoned 2010 Nobel Peace Prize-winning author Liu Xiaobo has been unable to talk to journalists since the award was announced on Friday, and his wife, Liu Xia, is now under house arrest. During a short visit, Liu told his wife that he was dedicating the prize to victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. Chinese authorities have called the Nobel a "blasphemy," imposed a blackout on news of the prize, and broken up a banquet celebrating the victory.

The Frankfurt Book Fair ended on Sunday, with novelist David Grossman taking home the fest's Peace prize. Grossman will be appearing tonight with Paul Auster at the 92nd Street Y.

Today is the last day to vote for The Guardian's Not The Booker prize. Meanwhile, the Man Booker prize will be announced tomorrow, and odds-makers are predicting that Tom McCarthy's novel C will win, with one major British betting agency, Ladbrokes, calling off bets on McCarthy's book after a surge of money was placed on the novel last week.

Don Delillo reads a CIA memo outlining the agency's detention, interrogation, and rendition procedures. Delillo, a writer long obsessed with secrets and state power, delivers the memo in an unsettling deadpan, leaving the Delilloesque word redacted ringing in your ears.

A modest proposal: Revive the publishing industry by pulping books.