9/11 anniversary casts shadow for Muslims: author

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Muslims pray at King Fahad Mosque on the first day of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan in Culver City, Los Angeles, California August 1, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Lucy Nicholson

By Pauline Askin

SYDNEY | Thu Sep 8, 2011 3:08am EDT

SYDNEY (Reuters) - The approaching tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks is casting a long shadow for U.S. Muslims, many of whom are dreading the approaching anniversary because they fear a resurgence of prejudice and hate, said author Mona Eltahawy.

Egyptian-born but U.S.-based, Eltahawy said the attacks on New York and Washington were a shocking and negative introduction to Islam for many in the United States, compounding the difficulties for Muslims already struggling with their identities in the diverse, secular nation.

Despite the fact that African American Muslims had been in the nation since slavery days, public awareness of Muslims in general had remained low.

"A lot of Americans were totally unaware of what a Muslim is until 9/11. The first introduction to Islam was a very negative one," Eltahawy said from Melbourne, where she attended the Melbourne Writer's Festival.

"Now that we're coming up to the tenth anniversary of 9/11, it's a time to say we're here and we're not going anywhere, we're Americans and Muslims too. It's been a difficult ten years and a lot of us are dreading this tenth anniversary because it brings out a lot of hate and prejudice."

Eltahawy, a former news agency journalist turned essayist and columnist, left the security of an office job for the hazards of freelance work just around the time of 9/11.

While she didn't personally experience any hostility, which she attributed largely to the fact that she doesn't wear a head scarf or "look Muslim," the heated atmosphere -- and all the years since -- have made her question what that phrase actually means.

One of her biggest struggles is to break the stereotype that conservative equals authentic.

"I identify as a liberal progressive secular Muslim. One of the messages I try to convey is I'm just as authentic as a conservative Muslim," she said.

"When you think Muslim women, you think women in a head scarf or a women like me. There isn't just one way to think of what a Muslim women is, there's a diversity of appearances and a diversity of voices," she said.

But the last ten years, from 9/11 to the Arab Spring this year that saw the overthrow of long-term Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, have been exciting and professionally satisfying.

Among some of the biggest and most interesting changes have been the emergence of social media such as Facebook and Twitter, both of which were highlighted during the upheavals in Egypt and elsewhere across the Mideast this year.

Terming them "a great connector," she said such services had played a key role in spreading information, to the extent that she now finds Twitter her number one news source.

"Social media has given us a front row seat to revolutions in various parts of the region but they did not create those revolutions," she said.

Putting too much weight on the role of social media risks devaluing the participation of millions of people, she added.

"These are most definitely not social media revolutions. To say they were social revolutions removes agency and courage from all those people who went out on the streets and faced, whether it was the Mubarak regime security thugs ... or what we saw happening in Libya."

(Editing by Elaine Lies)

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Favorite Barnes makes Booker shortlist of 6 author

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By Alice Baghdjian

LONDON | Tue Sep 6, 2011 2:20pm EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - English author Julian Barnes was one of six authors shortlisted for the coveted Man Booker Prize for Fiction on Tuesday, and is the bookmakers' favorite to win the award when it is announced in October.

Barnes's novel "The Sense of an Ending," about an ordinary man who muses on the absence of drama in his life, was praised as "technically marvelous" by the panel of five judges, chaired by British spymaster-turned-writer Dame Stella Rimington.

It marks Barnes's fourth appearance on the shortlist following "Flaubert's Parrot" (1984), "England, England" (1998) and "Arthur and George" (2005). He has not won so far.

"Julian Barnes's book is the most obvious novel on the shortlist and perhaps the most expected as it was well reviewed," Gaby Wood, judge and head of books at Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper told reporters at the unveiling of the list.

"It's a small, quiet book and is not only surprising but actively shocking. In purely technical terms it is the most marvelous distillation of the ideas (Barnes) has been rehearsing over the course of his life. It makes something familiar both strange and shiveringly awkward."

Barnes's relationship with the Man Booker Prize, one of the world's most important awards for English language fiction, has not always been easy.

He once referred to it as "posh bingo" and berated judges for being "inflated by their brief celebrity."

Also on the shortlist this year are two first-time novelists -- Stephen Kelman ("Pigeon English") and A.D. Miller ("Snowdrops") -- and two Canadians -- Patrick deWitt ("The Sisters Brothers") and Esi Edugyan ("Half Blood Blues"). Rounding out nominees is Carol Birch with "Jamrach's Menagerie."

The six books were whittled down from a longlist of 13 books. The award, worth 50,000 pounds ($80,530) to the winner as well as the likelihood of a huge boost in sales of the winning book, will be handed out on October 18.

Bookmakers Ladbrokes have named Barnes as favorite at 13/8 odds, while Birch and Miller are the joint 7/2 second favorites to win the prize.

Two novels were singled out for their linguistic dexterity; for the aural quality of jazz music in the writing of "Half Blood Blues," and for Kelman's innovative narration using hybrid dialect in "Pigeon English."

Susan Hill, judge and award winning author, said "Half Blood Blues," the tale of the mysterious disappearance of a rising, black jazz star, Hieronymous Falk in 1940, was not initially a novel she would have picked from a bookshelf.

However, she described it as the one of the most "original, assured and moving" novels she had read.

"It's quite unlike any other novel - it's a vibrant and tense work about war and its aftermath, and what it means to betray," she said.

" doesn't put a foot wrong. She writes about music so we can hear it - not just read the words but we hear it and tap out its rhythm."

"Pigeon English," compared by the judges to Burgess's cult classic "A Clockwork Orange" due to its mix of southeast London English and Ghanaian patois, was described by the panel as "magnificent" and a "linguistic triumph."

Hype surrounding the publication of the novel has compared the story to the case of Damilola Taylor, a high profile British case of the murder of a 10 year-old boy on an impoverished estate in London in 2000.

But focusing on these similarities undersells the novel dramatically, the judges said.

"What the novel depicts is a young boy's wonder and disillusionment with a society that is both welcoming and hostile, but the hostility does not come from the forces you would expect," said judge Matthew d'Ancona, a writer and political columnist.

D'Ancona, who described Kelman as a novelist in the prime of his writing said the novel had the "capacity to endure."

"It's a series of revelations about the world in which we live. It fizzes with doubts and anxieties about the way we live now and in some ways was a grim prophecy the London riots," he said.

Last year's winner was Howard Jacobsen's "The Finkler Question," which was described as the first comic novel to win the award and has sold over 250,000 copies in the UK alone.

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Book Talk: Werewolf doesn't distract author from core themes

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By Bernard Vaughan

NEW YORK | Thu Sep 1, 2011 5:04am EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - British author Glen Duncan has published seven critically acclaimed novels, often exploring touchy topics such as violence and perversity as well as love and morality.

He has employed the fantastic -- in his earlier book "I, Lucifer" the devil is transformed into a human for a month -- to explore these themes, but perhaps never more so than with his latest work.

"The Last Werewolf" stars Jake Marlowe, a 200-year-old, suicidal werewolf who is exhausted by life and also believes he is the last of his species.

Duncan spoke with Reuters about his new book and the pressure to write a commercially successful novel.

Q: How did you develop this idea?

A: "I had written seven novels before this, all of which were well received, but read by not enough people and they didn't win a prize. So I had a conversation with my agent when it came around to writing novel number eight, and I said, 'If I write another overtly literary novel, do you think you'll be able to find a publisher?' And with a refreshing candor he said, 'No, probably not.'

"So in a bit of a bad mood, I decided to write a straight commercial genre novel. The idea was for a plot-driven narrative, no philosophy, no existential angst, no moral inquiry, no meta-fictional conceits. But as is often the way with these things, that's not quite what happened. It was immediately apparent that it was a perfect vehicle for writing about the things I've always been writing about: love and sex and death and morality and cruelty and compassion."

Q: Jake and Talulla are ruthlessly violent, yet sympathetic, characters. Was it difficult striking that balance?

A: "The balance of mordant humor with serious moral inquiry and acts of grotesque violence, yes, I suppose that was difficult. And with these things the proof of the pudding is in the eating. You're never quite sure whether it's right until the whole thing's done. And for some people it won't be right, it will just be that in principal it is offensive to have these things in the same book. I have nothing to offer these people, because I don't see the world in the same way."

Q: Has inhabiting a 200-year-old character who is tired of life altered your appreciation for life expectancy?

A: "I don't think it's radically altered it. I've always felt that life is very short, and my imperative is to deal with failure rather than with regret. That seems to be the choice -- you either do things which might result in failure, but which at any rate you won't regret because you'll have actually tried them. Or you risk living with regret, and regret always seems worse to me."

Q: Did your background as an ethnic Indian and a Catholic raised in Britain influence your interest in outsiders?

A: "I did feel marginal. I did have a sense that I was looking on from the perimeter. And that, with whatever genetic predisposition there might be to having a writerly or observational approach to life, that was certainly a big factor."

Q: As a successful literary writer, how much pressure is there to write a commercially successful book?

A: "It's a pressure that anybody who works for his or herself will be familiar with. Whatever else may be true, the bills still have to be paid. And it was becoming increasingly obvious the way the economic climate had turned around three years ago, if you were a literary writer who wasn't already a household name, you rocketed to the top of the list of hilariously expendable items. It was clear that publishers were going to be less inclined to lose money on books. There are a lot of writers in my position who have published respectable work, but they're living a hand-to-mouth existence."

Q: When are you writing the sequel?

A: "It's already written."

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Author Hargreaves tickled pink as Mr. Men turns 40

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By Alice Baghdjian

LONDON | Wed Aug 10, 2011 1:41pm EDT

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - Monsieur Chatouille, Don Cosquillas, Unser Herr Killekille all tickled the butcher and the policeman and no matter what language you speak, Mr Tickle's extraordinarily long arms continue to delight young readers all around the world.

The bright orange character celebrated his 40th birthday on Wednesday.

Mr. Tickle, created by Roger Hargreaves as an answer to his six-year-old son's question "what does a tickle look like?", along with Messrs Greedy, Nosey, Happy, Bump and Sneeze, formed the foundation of the Mr. Men children's books when they were first published in 1971.

The series of 49 Mr. Men and 36 Little Miss books has sold 120 million books worldwide since their first appearance -- an average of one copy sold every 2.5 seconds.

"It is truly incredible that something so personal to my father went on to become such a global phenomenon," Adam Hargreaves, son of creator Roger Hargreaves and now the face of the Mr. Men empire, said in a statement.

"If he were alive today, I think he would be ecstatic to see how popular his creations have become. My dad managed to capture basic human characteristics that can be recognised as part of each and every one of us. We've all been a Mr. Happy, Mr. Funny and even a Little Miss Naughty at times," he said.

In the last decade Roger Hargreaves became one of best-selling British authors, alongside Harry Potter creator J.K Rowling.

Adam Hargreaves took over the Mr. Men series after his father's death in 1988 and has continued to create characters, even special editions based on real people.

The latest Little Miss character, Little Miss Princess, was published in March this year to coincide the British royal wedding of Kate Middleton and Prince William, while British designer Stella McCartney was the inspiration for Little Miss Stella in 2006.

The brand has spawned two television series across the globe, beginning with the 1970s series in Britain, narrated by Arthur Lowe. A modern-day Mr. Men Show, produced by entertainment group Chorion, who now own the rights to the Mr. Men characters, airs in Britain, the United States, France and Australia.

(Edited by Paul Casciato)

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"Red" author to publish new thriller novel

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NEW YORK | Mon Apr 11, 2011 1:44pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - British author Warren Ellis, whose comic series "Red" was adapted into a hit film last year, is writing two new novels, the first of which will be released next year, publisher Little, Brown and Company said on Monday.

The 43-year-old author is writing a new thriller, called "Gun Machine," described in a news release as about "a beleaguered New York City detective who stumbles upon a cache of hundreds of guns that each trace back to a wide array of seemingly unrelated unsolved murders."

A second as yet untitled novel has also been planned for the Little, Brown and Company's suspense fiction imprint Mulholland Books.

Ellis's graphic novel, "Red," was transferred to the big screen last year in a blockbuster action film starring Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman and Helen Mirren that earned $186 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo.

His comics, which have included the "Transmetropolitan" and "Planetary" series, sell in excess of 100,000 copies a month in the United States alone, according to Little, Brown.

(Reporting by Christine Kearney, editing by Jill Serjeant)

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NEW YORK | Mon Apr 11, 2011 1:44pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - British author Warren Ellis, whose comic series "Red" was adapted into a hit film last year, is writing two new novels, the first of which will be released next year, publisher Little, Brown and Company said on Monday.

The 43-year-old author is writing a new thriller, called "Gun Machine," described in a news release as about "a beleaguered New York City detective who stumbles upon a cache of hundreds of guns that each trace back to a wide array of seemingly unrelated unsolved murders."

A second as yet untitled novel has also been planned for the Little, Brown and Company's suspense fiction imprint Mulholland Books.

Ellis's graphic novel, "Red," was transferred to the big screen last year in a blockbuster action film starring Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman and Helen Mirren that earned $186 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo.

His comics, which have included the "Transmetropolitan" and "Planetary" series, sell in excess of 100,000 copies a month in the United States alone, according to Little, Brown.

(Reporting by Christine Kearney, editing by Jill Serjeant)

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