Best European Fiction 2010

by Aleksandar Hemon (Editor), Zadie Smith (Preface by)

Overview

Historically, English-language readers have been great fans of European literature, and names like Franz Kafka, Gustave Flaubert, and Thomas Mann are so familiar we hardly think of them as foreign at all. What those writers brought to English-language literature was a wide variety of new ideas, styles, and ways of seeing the world. Yet times have changed, and how much do we even know about the richly diverse literature being written in Europe today? Best European Fiction 2010 is the inaugural installment of what will become an annual anthology of stories from across Europe. Edited by acclaimed Bosnian novelist and MacArthur “Genius-Award” winner Aleksandar Hemon, and with dozens of editorial, media, and programming partners in the U.S., UK, and Europe, the Best European Fiction series will be a window onto what’s happening right now in literary scenes throughout Europe, where the next Kafka, Flaubert, or Mann is waiting to be discovered. List of contributors

• Preface: Zadie Smith • Introduction: Aleksandar Hemon • Ornela Vorpsi (Albania): from The Country Where No One Ever Dies • Antonio Fian (Austria): from While Sleeping • Peter Terrin (Belgium: Dutch): from "The Murderer" • Jean-Philippe Toussaint (Belgium: French): "Zidane's Melancholy" • Igor Stiks (Bosnia): "At the Sarajevo Market" • Georgi Gospodinov (Bulgaria): "And All Turned Moon" • Neven Usumovic (Croatia): "Veres" • Naja Marie Aidt (Denmark): "Bulbjerg" • Elo Viiding (Estonia): "Foreign Women" • Juhani Brander (Finland): from Extinction • Christine Montalbetti (France): "Hotel Komaba Eminence" (with Haruki Murakami) • George Konrád (Hungary): "Jeremiah's Terrible Tale" • Steinar Bragi (Iceland): "The Sky Over Thingvellir" • Julian Gough (Ireland: English): "The Orphan and the Mob" • Ornaní Choileáin (Ireland: Irish): "Camino" • Giulio Mozzi (AKA Carlo Dalcielo) (Italy): "Carlo Doesn't Know How to Read" • Inga Abele (Latvia): "Ants and Bumblebees" • Mathias Ospelt (Liechtenstein): "Deep In the Snow" • Giedra Radvilaviciute? (Lithuania): "The Allure of the Text" • Goce Smilevski (Macedonia): "Fourteen Little Gustavs" • Stephan Enter (Netherlands): "Resistance" • Jon Fosse (Norway): "Waves of Stone" • Michal Witkowski (Poland): "Didi" • Valter Hugo Mãe (Portugal): "dona malva and senhor josé ferreiro" • Cosmin Manolache (Romania): "Three Hundred Cups" • Victor Pelevin (Russia): "Friedmann Space" • David Albahari (Serbia): "The Basilica

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781564786166
Publisher:	Deep Vellum Publishing
Publication date:	12/15/2009
Series:	Best European Fiction
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	448
File size:	702 KB

About the Author

Aleksandar Hemon is the author of The Question of Bruno, Nowhere Man, and The Lazarus Project, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2008. Born in Sarajevo, Hemon visited Chicago in 1992, intending to stay for several months. While there, Sarajevo came under siege, and he was unable to return home. Hemon wrote his first story in English in 1995. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2003 and a “Genius Grant” from the MacArthur Foundation in 2004. He lives in Chicago with his wife and daughter.

Table of Contents

Preface: Zadie Smith

Introduction: Aleksandar Hemon

Ornela Vorpsi (Albania): from The Country Where No One Ever Dies

Antonio Fian (Austria): from While Sleeping

Peter Terrin (Belgium: Dutch): from "The Murderer"

Jean-Philippe Toussaint (Belgium: French): "Zidane's Melancholy"

Igor Stiks (Bosnia): "At the Sarajevo Market"

Georgi Gospodinov (Bulgaria): "And All Turned Moon"

Neven Usumovic (Croatia): "Veres"

Naja Marie Aidt (Denmark): "Bulbjerg"

Elo Viiding (Estonia): "Foreign Women"

Juhani Brander (Finland): from Extinction

Christine Montalbetti (France): "Hotel Komaba Eminence" (with Haruki Murakami)

George Konrád (Hungary): "Jeremiah's Terrible Tale"

Steinar Bragi (Iceland): "The Sky Over Thingvellir"

Julian Gough (Ireland: English): "The Orphan and the Mob"

Ornaní Choileáin (Ireland: Irish): "Camino"

Giulio Mozzi (AKA Carlo Dalcielo) (Italy): "Carlo Doesn't Know How to Read"

Inga Abele (Latvia): "Ants and Bumblebees"

Mathias Ospelt (Liechtenstein): "Deep In the Snow"

Giedra Radvilaviciute? (Lithuania): "The Allure of the Text"

Goce Smilevski (Macedonia): "Fourteen Little Gustavs"

Stephan Enter (Netherlands): "Resistance"

Jon Fosse (Norway): "Waves of Stone"

Michal Witkowski (Poland): "Didi"

Valter Hugo Mãe (Portugal): "dona malva and senhor josé ferreiro"

Cosmin Manolache (Romania): "Three Hundred Cups"

Victor Pelevin (Russia): "Friedmann Space"

David Albahari (Serbia): "The Basilica

Dalkey Archive Press

Editorial Reviews

Hemon (The Lazarus Project) edits the inaugural volume of an anthology of European short fiction, and while the maiden outing has many fine moments, there's room for improvement in upcoming years. The mix of authors—35 writers from 30 countries—is excellent and includes better knowns with unknowns, though each piece is allotted an average of 10 pages, leading several of the more promising works to feel truncated. Other pieces (such as Giulio Mozzi's story, originally written as part of an art exhibit) don't seem like the best work to represent an author. Still, there is much excellent work. Christine Montalbetti's surreal and enigmatic “Hotel Komaba Eminence (with Haruki Murakami)” plays on the author's obsession with the Japanese writer. In Igor Stiks's terse but well-managed “At the Sarajevo Market,” the discovery of a watch at a Bosnian marketplace triggers a crisis between war-fatigued lovers. Victor Pelevin's acidic satire “Friedmann Space” evolves into a Borgesian tale of Russian scientists sending “lucrenauts” past the “Schwarzenegger threshold” to report back on the black hole–like domain of the megarich. This is a good start—one hopes that next year's volume will be a more consistent collection. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

This first installment in an ambitious new series (remarkably, the first of its kind) brings together 35 short stories and novel excerpts from 30 countries. In his introduction, noted novelist Hemon comments on the dearth of literature in translation available in the United States, citing it as evidence of a general American disengagement from other cultures. With that in mind, selections were chosen for their ability to "cross and trespass all kinds of borders." Almost all of the authors will be unfamiliar to American readers, though a few have appeared previously in English, and the diversity of styles on display is impressive. Among the many highlights are paranoid sf from Peter Terrin (Belgium), edgy realism from Naja Marie Aidt (Denmark), melancholy family drama from Inga Abele (Latvia), and fragile nostalgia from Stephan Enter (Netherlands). VERDICT Arranged alphabetically by country, the collection is ideal for browsing and has something for almost every taste. A few countries are not represented (notably the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, and Sweden), which one hopes will be remedied in future installments. Whether a project of this scope can be sustained remains to be seen, but for now we can be thankful to have so many talented new voices to discover.—Forest Turner, Suffolk Cty. House of Correction Lib., Boston\

Library Journal

Best European Fiction 2010 should remind Americans of the exciting work being done across the Atlantic, especially by writers who are experimenting with the short story on the fringes of the EU.”

Brian Hurley - Hipster Book Club

The book tilts toward unconventional storytelling techniques. And while we’ve heard complaints about this before—why only translate the most difficult work coming out of Europe?—it makes sense here. The book isn’t testing the boundaries, it’s opening them up.

Jonathan Messinger - Time Out Chicago

The work is vibrant, varied, sometimes downright odd. As [Zadie] Smith says [in her preface]: ‘I was educated in a largely Anglo-American library, and it is sometimes dull to stare at the same four walls all day.’ Here’s the antidote.

Suzi Feay - Financial Times

This is the first anthology of its kind, and after reading it you may be… furious that such quality work has been kept from you.

Alicia Kennedy - Paste Magazine

There are other traditions, ways of being, landscapes that might suit you better than those with which you have been provided, and how will you know that unless you go wandering?

Jessa Crispin - The Smart Set

If Dalkey can keep it up, this could easily become the most important annual literary anthology in America. Which is ironic.

Tom Lynch - Newcity Lit

Though as rocky and subject to reader bias as any wide-ranging anthology, much of the work in this first title is startling in its ingenuity and will hopefully be successful enough for publisher Dalkey Archive to produce more editions. Damn the torpedoes.

Michael Buening - PopMatters

Dalkey has published an anthology of short fiction by European writers, and the result, Best European Fiction 2010, is one of the most remarkable collections I've read—vital, fascinating, and even more comprehensive than I would have thought possible.”

Michael Schaub - Bookslut

Starred Review. Dalkey Archive Press inaugurates a planned series of annual anthologies of European fiction with this impressive first volume…an insightful preface by novelist Zadie Smith…as well as an introduction by Bosnian writer and volume editor Aleksander Hemon, author of the highly acclaimed novel The Lazarus Project.”

Booklist

The writers in Best European seem a more adventurous bunch than their American counterparts. They experiment freely with structure and venture more often down the path of metafiction, debating the direction of a story even as their characters are entangled in it.”

Radhicka Jones - Time