We talk to humorist Karl Sharro about the origins story of his Twitter alter-ego Karl ReMarks and about finding the ideal online nemesis. Marcia takes issue with a new book listing the “hundred best novels in translation.”

Show notes

• Karl Sharro spoke about Karl ReMarks’ new book,And then God Created the Middle East and Said ‘Let There Be Breaking News’(and Analysis).The book is forthcoming July 9.
• Boyd Tonkin’s The 100 Best Novels in Translation was released June 21. The two Arabic novels that made the list were Tayeb Salih’s Season of Migration to the North,translated by Denys Johnson-Davies, and Naguib Mahfouz’s Cairo Trilogy,translated by William Maynard Hutchins, Olive E. Kenny, Lorne M. Kenny, and Angele Botros Samaan. The translation was overseen by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, along with Martha Levin, and their notes on the manuscript can be found at the Lilly Library Manuscript Collections.
• You can read the Amazon press release onlineabout how the mega-corporation has (finally) launched some 12,000 Arabic ebooks into the Kindle system. You can find and purchase them on Amazon.com.