Best European Fiction 2010

Preface by Zadie Smith

With Inga Abele, Naja Marie Aidt, David Albahari, Andrej Blatnik, Steinar Bragi, Juhani Brander, Stephan Enter, Antonio Fian, Josep M. Fonalleras, Jon Fosse, Georgi Gospodinov, Julian Gough, Alasdair Gray, George Konrád, Peter Kristúfek, Deborah Levy, Valter Hugo Mãe, Cosmin Manolache, Christine Montalbetti, Giulio Mozzi, Orna Ní Choileáin, Mathias Ospelt, Victor Pelevin, Giedra Radvilavičiūtė, Julián Ríos, Penny Simpson, Goce Smilevski, Peter Stamm, Igor Stiks, Peter Terrin, Jean-Philippe Toussaint, Neven Ušumović, Elo Viiding, Ornela Vorpsi, Michał Witkowski

Collection Best European Fiction Series

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.

Click here for interviews with the contributors to Best European Fiction 2010.

Read interviews with series editor Aleksandar Hemon at Amazon.com's Omnivoracious blog, Public Radio International's The World, and at The New York Times.

Editor Aleksandar Hemon has been interviewed for the Guardian Books Podcast and on New Hampshire Public Radio's "Word of Mouth."

Details

Title Best European Fiction 2010

Edited by Aleksandar Hemon

Preface by Zadie Smith

Collection Best European Fiction Series

ISSN 21526672

Title First Published 2010

Format Paperback

Nb of pages 460 p.

ISBN-10 1564785432

ISBN-13 9781564785435

Publication Date 2010

Nb of pages 460

List Price $15.95

Onix Version 2.1

Summary

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 Ušumović [Croatia]
Veresˇ

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

Orna Ní 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 Radvilavičiūtė [Lithuania]
The Allure of the Text

Goce Smilevski [Macedonia]
Fourteen Little Gustavs

Stephan Enter [Netherlands]
Resistance

Jon Fosse [Norway]
Waves of Stone

Michał 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 in Lyon

Peter Kristúfek [Slovakia]
From The Prompter

Andrej Blatnik [Slovenia]
From You Do Understand?

Julián Ríos [Spain: Castilian]
Revelation on the Boulevard of Crime

Josep M. Fonalleras [Spain: Catalan]
Noir in Five Parts and an Epilogue

Peter Stamm [Switzerland]
Ice Moon

Deborah Levy [United Kingdom: England]
From Swimming Home

Alasdair Gray [United Kingdom: Scotland]
The Ballad of Ann Bonny

Penny Simpson [United Kingdom: Wales]
Indigo's Mermaid

Reviews

Press Reviews

Time

With the new anthology Best European Fiction 2010 our literary world just got wider.

The Believer

But perhaps this is reductive when a signal attribute of the "best" writing is its immunity to any one interpretation and its potential to produce numberless readings. If that's so, then this

...more

The Guardian (UK)

This is a precious opportunity to understand more deeply the obsessions, hopes and fears of each nation's literary psyche – a sort of international show-and-tell of the soul.

Library Journal

[W]e can be thankful to have so many talented new voices to discover.

BookBrowse

[A] chaotic, exciting glimpse into the reading pleasures of the Continent... If you like short fiction, cultural oddities, contemporary literature or surprising techniques, you'll find something to love in this collection.

Warwick Review

Aleksandar Hemon done good and Dalkey Archive are to be congratulated for having the balls. One hopes this will indeed be the first in a long-running series.

Ths Collagist

In Best European Fiction 2010 fiction is alive and well, the short story is alive and well, is even necessary, a must for all of those "American students," and for their professors as well. This is proof that quality art is not beholden to the marketplace.

The Independent

Not only is Best European Fiction 2010 a worthwhile attempt to introduce readers to some contemporary literary trends in Europe, it is an enjoyable and intriguing journey.

The Wall Street Journal

The collection's diverse range of styles includes more experimental works than a typical American anthology might... [Mr. Hemon's] only criteria were to include the best works from as many countries as possible.

The Smart Set

Horace Engdahl was at least right with one thing: The word "insular" should be taken as an insult. None of the images it conjures up — hermetically sealed jars, a hall of mirrors, sterility

...more

Chicago Tribune

There is not a bad story in the bunch . . .

PopMatters

Here's hoping to many more years of impossibly ambitious Best European Fiction anthologies.

Public Radio International's "The World"

Getting the word out about first-rate new international fiction has been a challenging problem for publishers interested in broadening the horizons of American readers, who tend to be

...more

The New York Times

Best European Fiction 2010… offers an appealingly diverse look at the Continent's fiction scene.

Booklist

**Starred Review**

Dalkey Archive Press inaugurates a planned series of annual anthologies of European fiction with this impressive first volume, which gathers short stories

...more

BBC World New Service

[W]hat the reader takes from them are not only the usual pleasures of fiction - the twists and turns of plot, chance to inhabit other lives, other ways of being - but new ways of thinking about how to tell a story

Newcity Lit

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

Time Out Chicago

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.

Financial Times

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.

Bookslut

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.

Hipster Book Club

But the real secret of this anthology is how much exciting new fiction is being written in smaller, less-explored European countries like Albania, Denmark, Lithuania, and Macedonia.

WE ALSO SUGGEST

Garden, Ashes

Danilo Kiš, William J. Hannaher

Garden, Ashes is the remarkable account of Andi Scham's childhood during World War II, as his Jewish family traverses Eastern Europe to escape persecution. As the family moves from house to house, the novel focuses on Andi's relationship with...