On the wire

Text message novel published in Finland

By JARI TANNER, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 19 minutes ago

HELSINKI, Finland - A novel whose narrative consists entirely of mobile phone text messages has been published in Finland.

"The Last Messages" tells the story of a fictitious information-technology executive in Finland who resigns from his job and travels throughout Europe and India, keeping in touch with his friends and relatives only through text messages.

His messages, and the replies — roughly 1,000 altogether — are listed in chronological order in the 332-page novel written by Finnish author Hannu Luntiala. The texts are rife with grammatical errors and abbreviations commonly used in regular SMS traffic.


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Mexico's sweet film success inspires Sundance

By Mary Milliken 1 hour, 43 minutes ago

PARK CITY, Utah (Reuters) - Even before they heard their countrymen had garnered a dozen or so Academy Award nominations on Tuesday, the Mexican contingent at this year's
Sundance Film Festival was brimming with confidence.

Together "Babel" and "Pan's Labyrinth," by Mexican directors Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and Guillermo del Toro, won 13 Oscar nominations -- giving the Mexican film industry its biggest boost to date on the other side of the border.

"In another period, you had the Italian directors all over and then the French directors, and I think it is now the Mexican directors," said Mexican filmmaker Patricia Riggen, 36, after her premiere at Sundance, the leading U.S. festival for independent film.


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