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Riverhead's Juan Gabriel Vásquez' Debut Novel The Informers Hailed as "Superb" by The Washington Post, and Receives Glowing Reviews from the Press Internationally

Riverhead’s Juan Gabriel Vásquez is earning a reputation in the U.S. as one of the most gifted literary writers to emerge from Latin America in recent years. His much anticipated English translation of The Informers, published just last week, was hailed as “Superb…the best work of literary fiction to come my way since 2005” by the Washington Post’s book critic Jonathan Yardley, and a daily review in the New York Times said “two years ago, Mr. Vasquez was included on a list of the most “important” Latin American writers under 40, nominated by more than 2,000 authors, literary agents, librarians, editors and critics. The Informers alone justifies their choice, given its challenging subject and psychological depth. ..”

Already a celebrated literary success in the UK and Latin America, Vásquez has been compared in the international press to such legends as Roth, Sebald, Marquez, and Borges. In his native Colombia, he was named as one of the Bogata 39, South America's most promising writers of the new generation and his debut, The Informers, was chosen as one of the best Colombian novels of the last twenty-five years.

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The New York Times Bestseller Highlights for the Week of August 16th 

Promises in Death by J.D. Robb (Berkley) debuts on the mass market fiction list at #8 for the week of August 16th.

Here are more New York Times bestseller highlights:

On the hardcover fiction list, The Defector by Daniel Silva (Putnam) is #2 in its second week; The Help by Kathryn Stockett (Amy Einhorn Books/ Putnam) is #4 in its eighteenth week; Black Hills by Nora Roberts (Putnam) is #8 in its fourth week; and Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris (Ace) is #11 in its thirteenth week.

On the trade paperback fiction list, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) is #13 in its 214th week; The Likeness by Tana French (Penguin) is #15 in its eighth week; The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Penguin) is #17 in its sixth week; and In the Woods by Tana French (Penguin) is #19 in its 23rd week.

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Saying you're in the reference-book business in 2009 is viewed in some circles as amusing, at best, and preposterous, at worst. I've been asked more than once why anyone would still labor over an annual volume like Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide when with a few clicks "you can find everything you want about a movie online."

My answer is simple: you can't. I know, because my colleagues and I derive the information in our book from first-hand resources, sweating the details inch by bloody inch. We've added 350 new reviews this year and each one offers its own challenges, about spelling, punctuation, plot points, and what can only be described as minutiae.

When a movie opens on 5,000 screens on the same day, how can The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, and Daily Variety report entirely different running times? Yet they do, all the time. (Will Smith's Seven Pounds was screened for the Hollywood trade papers before the closing credits were added on, so it was listed at 118 minutes. By the time it opened in theaters it was 125 minutes, but the damage had been done: many sources copied the 118m. figure. That's how mistakes get perpetuated.)

Why, when a familiar-looking character actor has a sizeable role in a new film, is his name not included in the cast lists you find on the movie's official web site?