Martin Shaw @thebooksdesk Twitter profile

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

1 year

None of Cormac McCarthy's first five novels sold more than 5,000 hardcover copies. That includes Blood Meridian, remaindered after netting just 1,883! Yet his editor & publisher stuck by him, & he persevered. RIP Mr. McCarthy, you were a legend

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

5 months

Pessoa’s trunk of unpublished writings after his passing...

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

5 months

Robert Walser died on Xmas Day 67 years ago, on one of his regular walks from the Herisau asylum, where he spent the last 23 years of his life

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

5 months

Richard Yates sure knew how to give a woman a compliment…

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

5 months

WG Sebald - manuscript box / materials for Austerlitz

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

5 months

Kafka from age 18 to 40

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

2 years

Page 1 of the manuscript of Sebald’s Die Ringe des Saturn

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

2 years

Robert Walser died on Xmas Day 65 years ago, on one of his regular walks from the Herisau asylum, where he spent the last 23 years of his life

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

5 years

They might only occupy 4 or 5 inches of my bookshelf, but these Kafka first editions (in various states of repair, but that doesn’t bother me in the least) mean more to me than virtually anything. BOTD in 1883... #Kafka

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

5 years

The utterly marvellous Ryan O’Neill with “A Question Asked by an Audience Member at a Writers’ Festival” (from his “The Drover’s Wives”)

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

6 months

Robert Walser, the last photo (on Good Friday, 1954)

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

4 years

You know the only unfortunate thing I find about the #AuthorsForFireys thing is that to me it seems hard for the less well-heeled to get a look in. Hence, I’ll offer feedback on a synopsis/1st 30 pp of your ms, & contribute myself to the CFA appeal

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

13 days

Milena Jesenská – journalist, writer, editor, translator – and one of Kafka's great loves, died 80 years ago today in Ravensbrück concentration camp

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

6 months

Max Sebald – the 22nd anniversary of his passing on this day...

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

1 year

A little personal boon for me in all this with my agent’s hat on: Oz publishers can no longer tell me my fiction submissions are too short to have commercial legs! Viva la novella! (& huge congrats to Jess, an author who is a class act in every way)

A 98-page novella has won the country’s richest writing prize

The Melbourne writer has won this year’s $100,000 Victorian Prize for Literature for her novella Cold Enough for Snow.

www.smh.com.au

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

1 year

Oh my god this couln’t be more heartbreaking. Vale Gabrielle Carey, aged 64…

A ‘social cure’ for depression: Can we afford it, or afford not to try?

Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m 64? That was a question I was forced to confront.

www.smh.com.au

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

2 years

One of my most treasured possessions: a photocopy of W G Sebald’s handwritten list of his favourite books, which he provided at the request of the wonderful (& sorely missed) Freiburg bookseller Thomas Bader, who wanted to make a display of them in his shop

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

6 years

One of my most treasured possessions: a photocopy of W G Sebald’s handwritten list of his favourite books, which he provided at the request of the wonderful (& sorely missed) Freiburg bookseller Thomas Bader, who wanted to make a display of them in his shop

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

2 years

One of contemporary literature's great first pages: Javier Marias' "A Heart so White". #RIP

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

2 years

Tell me the strangest interaction you've had with a literary celebrity

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

4 years

Announcement time! After several years now of having the privilege of making my own tiny contribution to the stable of @alexadsett – hands down Oz's No. 1 literary agent! – I'm delighted to announce the launch of my own humble agenting venture: @ShawLiterary !

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

5 months

A “purposeful” Pessoa (surely off to the Café A Brasileira for some absinthe & a smoke, methinks)

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

1 year

Vale Robert Walser, who died on Xmas Day 1956, on one of his regular walks from the Herisau asylum, where he had spent the last 23 years of his life.

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

2 years

The most precious book I own (in every sense). Kafka’s debut from 1912...

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

5 months

A favourite Pessoa quote of mine:

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

2 years

Just imagine being the editor who turned to the first page of their author’s submission & were presented with a sentence like this...

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

5 months

Xmas time, time to hit the stack…

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

5 months

Dora, Kafka’s last love

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

2 months

This week, @shawliterary turns 4! As ever, thanks for your support whenever I occasionally get excited about a book & bombard you somewhat! But it is so so satisfying, making a little contribution to literary culture from time to time with work from the oft-overlooked Antipodes!

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

5 months

Spooky Sebald…

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

1 year

Oh this is very exciting - the long-delayed volume “W G Sebald - Shadows of Reality” - a fully-illustrated catalogue of Sebald's photographs, is coming this September from the Boiler House Press!

W G Sebald: Shadows of Reality

Available for pre-order

www.boilerhouse.press

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

1 month

Sorry to be morbid on main, but have been thinking a bit recently about a book will: has anyone else done that? I mean they could just end up going to some dealer, but I’m sure I could think of some perfect recipients - also for instance all my Sebalds & Kafka’s! #SignedBooks

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

12 days

Today would have been Max Sebald’s 80th birthday (here in the late ‘80’s)

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

1 month

One of my authors today: "how can they say it's brilliant and not go for it?!" Time to pull out my customary answer once more – David Markson's rejection tally for "Wittgenstein's Mistress"... #Brilliant #CantDo

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

6 months

A book brush - for dusting your books & bookshelves!

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

1 year

Happiness is...reading a book with deckled edges...

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

1 year

Thomas Bernhard, hangjng with the roofers after buying his second house (in 1971)

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

6 months

The only book Sebald wrote in English, & the last published in his lifetime. And a bit overlooked too, I have the feeling…

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

2 years

Personally I would read no further after a simile like that!

The New Yorker

@NewYorker

2 years

“Now the idea of a sexual encounter rose on the horizon like a mountain range, beautiful, dangerous, irresistible.” New fiction by Ian McEwan.

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

3 years

David Markson’s list of rejections for Wittgenstein’s Mistress (died 11 years ago today)

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

2 years

Sebald teaches Kafka (“avoiding...the digests & trappings of what is by now a hypertrophic body of secondary literature”)

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

4 months

Off the plane 35 hrs later & straight into a bookstore b/f I collapse: legendary s/h bookseller Howard Bolton in Northcote was close by! (I asked if there had been a run on Murnane, as he had none: he said for years you could never even sell one, & now…)

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

1 year

Never had snow on my birthday before I don’t think?

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

1 year

What’s your favourite bookstore on earth? (the one that invariably lifts your mood, simply by entering? It might be close by, or a highlight of your travels whenever you get a chance to return…)

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

5 months

Heinrich von Kleist’s grave at the Kleiner Wannsee in Berlin: “Nun, o Unsterblichkeit, bist du ganz mein!”

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

6 months

The trouble with being an agent is that you can’t very well pick a novel of the year out of your own ranks! But how would I ever choose just one out of this year’s crop in any case!? These books have made 2023 an astonishing year, unlikely to be topped…

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

1 year

A wonderful day @shawliterary – two authors on the 2023 @_milesfranklin longlist! So very proud of the huge talents that are @kassabyumna and @adamouston ! #TheLovers #Waypoints @ultimopress @puncherwattmann #MilesFranklin2023

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

11 months

Thought it would be a bit rude not to buy this… (at my local everything-1-euro secondhand bookstore…)

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

4 months

Well Thomas Bernhard’s cafe in Vienna was pretty hard to beat, but very pleasurable nevertheless spending an hour or two reading a ms at my old 90’s haunt, Mario’s

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

7 months

Sebald converses with his double (c. 1965)

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

2 years

One of my all-time favourite Kafka anecdotes, which I always pass on to authors whenever they’re a bit down about their sales (“As he had purchased 10 copies, he was only curious who could have bought the eleventh”)

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

4 years

Just to say: it's the six month anniversary of @shawliterary ! An anecdote: a few years ago, a prominent UK publisher said to me: "Agenting OZ authors? You'd have to be crazy! You'll get a bestseller every 10 years, but the rest of the time..."

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

2 years

Deal news! Thrilled to announce the joint trans-Tasman sale (verily, we need more of these!) of the astonishing new novel by one of Aotearoa New Zealand's most remarkable authors, @PipAdam ! "Audition" will appear from @thwupbooks + @GiramondoBooks in mid-'23!

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

2 years

A little cover reveal for all you US/UK followers in particular! Namely the @micwink novel your Antipodean counterparts have all been raving about over the last year (also a whisker away from winning the Miles Franklin on debut) #Grimmish coming in Spring 23!

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

1 year

OMG isn’t it beautiful…(a little present to myself of the first edition of Robert Walser’s The Assistant)

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

8 months

Nice bit of truth-in-reviewing here (in the TLS)

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

3 months

The Stella longlist!

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

2 years

Deal news! Some of you might remember that a couple of months ago a ms literally left @shawliterary in awe – I just could not believe what I had just read! So, thrilled to now announce the sale of @PaulDalgarno 's "A Country of Eternal Light" to @catherinefmilne @HarperCollinsAU !

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

1 month

One thing I do love about Germany is the bike path network: another 70 km ride today through rural Thuringia & probably only 2 or 3 km on conventional roads! The paths are often sealed too…& then a train home (bikes allowed at no xtra charge). A bike rider’s paradise, really…

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

8 months

The key thing is always to have a book you’re reading that you can rest a wine glass on…

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

2 years

Deal news! Well, fresh on the heels of its awesome run in the @_milesfranklin , I'm thrilled to now announce, on behalf of @PuncherWattmann , the sale of UK & US rights to @MicWink 's #Grimmish , to @PressPeninsula & @coachhousebooks !

Peninsula steps into the ring with Winkler's 'blistering' novel

Peninsula Press has snapped up Grimmish, a "blistering" novel by Michael Winkler about 20th-century boxer Joe Grim.

www.thebookseller.com

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

15 days

Oh my goodness gracious me: @shawliterary has not just one but TWO titles on the @_milesfranklin longlist! Huge congrats to @angeokeeffe , for her divine The Sitter ( @uqpbooks ), & Jen Craig for the amazing Wall ( @PuncherWattmann )!

Perpetual announces longlist for 2024 Miles Franklin Literary Award

www.perpetual.com.au

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

2 years

Pessoa’s trunk of unpublished writings after his passing...

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

5 months

Robert Walser: for Max Sebald, a second grandfather (from: Logis in einem Landhaus / A Place in the Country)

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

1 year

Max Sebald: the 21st anniversary of his passing on this day...

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

9 months

Nice: without even asking, the waiter seated me at Thomas Bernhard’s regular table at one of his favourite cafes, Café Bräunerhof. Perhaps he could sense a pilgrim…

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

3 years

I really wish someone would write to me and say "I am seeking representation for my 120,000-word inaccessible literary fiction novel"...

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

6 months

2023 was an inordinately satisfying year @shawliterary ! Thanks to all the authors (& their publishers) who made it so special…

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

3 months

Sorry Clarice, it was your turn…

Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

8 months

The key thing is always to have a book you’re reading that you can rest a wine glass on…

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

7 months

Deal news! So delighted at @shawliterary to announce that @pipadam 's latest novel, the extraordinary 'Audition', has been acquired for publication in the US by @Coffee_House_ , and by @strangelight_ in Canada! Here's what the two publishers had to say:

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

3 months

Sebald, Elephants

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

2 years

Deal news! I'm so delighted that everybody's (well, the very discerning among you!) favourite self-published book of 2021, @micwink 's Grimmish, has found a home at the very excellent @puncherwattmann , and will have a proper Oz release later this year!

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

2 years

Deal news! I'm v delighted to announce that Jen Craig has a new OZ publisher – @PuncherWattmann ! Also that they've not only committed to publish her forthcoming novel "Wall" next year, to coincide with its US release, but will also reissue her first 2 novels!

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

2 years

Now this is much better: a good news #MilesFranklin story! @micwink on the fairytale that’s been #Grimmish ...

No one would publish my novel, and now it’s up for the Miles Franklin

Rightly or wrongly, being a self-published author feels undignified. Second-best.

www.smh.com.au

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

1 year

Nothing better than to be bowled over by two awesome ms's, then fast-fwd a year or so & find them shortlisted for a great prize! Thrilled then to have TWO @shawliterary authors on the @TheStellaPrize shortlist: @adriane_howell & @grillzoid ! #2023StellaPrize

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

2 months

666 pp, & typeset in 10 pt too! I wonder if KOK’s editor ever says to him “Jon Fosse’s last book was 48 pp - you should try it sometime Karl!”?

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

4 years

My father died a year ago today. Just a couple of months earlier, I had spent a wonderful few weeks with him...with no hint that the end was drawing near. For all those who’ve struggled to see their loved ones this year: I can’t imagine how hard it’s been...

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

1 year

Max Sebald, who would have turned 79 today…

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

3 years

One of the great publishing stories of 2020 was the fact that this novel, Auē by Becky Manawatu, started life as a 500-copy print-run, small press title. It went on to become the biggest-selling title of the year in NZ. And such a phenomenal debut...

Auē by Becky Manawatu - Mākaro Press

ISBN 978-0-9951110-7-3 February 2021 B-format, 420pp, $35 ISBN 978-0-9951110-2-8 September 2019 Trade paperback, 328pp, $35 permanently out of stock eBook (ePub) $15 Winner of the Jann Medlicott...

makaropress.co.nz

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

2 years

I just had the happy thought: I've had @shawliterary authors shortlisted this year both for the Miles Franklin (the almighty @micwink ), & now the amazing @angeokeeffe for the PM's Lit Award! What a good little year 2022 has been at Booksdesk Towers!

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

5 years

"He was *unavoidably* detained elsewhere..." - nice one, Mr Steger #vpla2019

Jason Steger

@jasonfsteger

5 years

My little story on #vpla2019 and Behrouz Boochani. via @theage

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

3 years

“Das nicht, bitte das nicht!...The insect itself may not be drawn. It cannot even be shown from a distance...” - first German edition of Metamorphosis, with Kafka getting his way on the cover design...

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

1 month

Nabokov was certainly one you wanted in your corner! On Kafka: "He is the greatest German writer of our time. Such poets as Rilke or such novelists as Thomas Mann are dwarfs or plaster saints in comparison to him."

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

3 years

Goodness - @shawliterary has turned 1! What started as a well-I’m in-lockdown-anyway-so-why-not, has...well I won’t say blossomed, but has become a very happy space for me! Coz it’s so very satisfying to be able to champion some great authors & their work...

Books+Publishing

@BplusPNews

4 years

Martin Shaw ( @thebooksdesk ) launches literary agency:

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

8 months

Epigraph, W. G. Sebald in Context, ed. Uwe Schütte

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

5 months

The Oxford comma is, unabashedly, and incontrovertibly, absurd

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

2 years

Oops, I forgot my second anniversary! Thanks for having me everyone - @shawliterary has been a blast to date; long may the good ship traverse publishing waters!

Books+Publishing

@BplusPNews

4 years

Martin Shaw ( @thebooksdesk ) launches literary agency:

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

2 years

Of all the books I’ve agented, I’m always going to enjoy returning to the dedication in this one in particular...

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

2 months

Harvill’s immortal categorisation of Sebald’s Rings of Saturn, trs. Michael Hulse, 1998

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

2 years

Rather like his character, Joe Grim, @micwink is proving unstoppable! Now shortlisted for the @_milesfranklin award, on debut!! And kudos too to @edwritten @PuncherWattmann for championing the little book that could! #GrimmishtheNovel #MFLA2022 🥊🥊🥊🥊

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

8 months

Early xmas present to myself…

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

3 years

Not enough is made I don’t think of slow reads - books that lend themselves to just dipping into for a few pages at a time, over weeks/months (even years?). One of my current favourites...

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

2 years

Every time I move I think: next time I’ll have made it in life sufficiently to be able to employ some kid to alphabetise my collection for me. Not happening again this time, I can see!

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

4 months

It will grab the attention of a certain Whatsapp group I expect, but the first award of the evening is to ⁦ @antloewenstein ⁩, with the People’s Choice award

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

4 months

A portion of the ⁦ @shawliterary ⁩ stable, 2024 edition in Melbourne tonight…

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

3 years

Thomas Bernhard & his Suzuki, 1988

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

6 months

Not such a great look I reckon…

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

4 years

Deal news! I'm so very delighted to announce that @ben_walter 's debut collection of stories, "What Fear Was", has been acquired for publication in mid-2021 by @PuncherWattmann . In the words of @RobbieArnott : "Lyrical and inventive, savage and strange...

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

4 months

Oh that’s nice - I can buy up to 17 kg of books on this trip! #checkingin #longhaulflight #thebooksdeskdownunder #bibliophilia #thegentlymad

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Martin Shaw

@thebooksdesk

1 year

Over 30 years later, still a shrink-wrapped, restricted title in the God-fearing Antipodes…

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