Decapolis: Tales From Ten Cities

by Maria Crossan (Editor), David Constantine (Contributor), Arnon Grunberg (Contributor)

Highlighting a cross-section of cultures, voices, landscapes, and recent histories of 10 major European cities, this short fiction collection presents new perspectives on the urban experience. Depicting characters that are only loosely connected to the societies that they describe, these tales offer snapshots of each city through isolated glimpses enlivened by surrealist wit—a lonely woman in Amsterdam cooks for a circle of middle-aged bachelors; a poet in Barcelona tries to capture the essence of the city in 11 words; and an unemployed journalist wanders in his deserted office in Reykjavik.

184 pages, Paperback

First published October 26, 2006

Reviews

[Dion · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really liked the idea of this short story collection, which attempts to capture some feel of ten different European cities, but like many collections, it's a bit hit and miss. I'm sure it's tough to try to capture the essence of a city without becoming a straightforward travelogue or hagiography that offers little more than a tourist brochure. That being said, I wished many of the stories had a bit more to say about the cities in which they are set, because in some of the selections the city does not factor in at all. A few stories stood out though. Amanda Michalopoulu offers a beautiful and poetic take on Athens, and Larissa Boehning's take on Berlin tells a nice, simple story that still gives a feel for the city. Arnon Grunberg's story on Amsterdam, in contrast, tells little about the city but is an amusing tale nonetheless.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

some almost perfect individual stories -- David Constantine on Manchester had me so spellbound that I missed my train and I didn't even care. some ones that dragged a bit, too -- I probably could've lived without Emil Hakl on Prague, or Jaques Reda on Paris. overall a high standard. but what really appealed to me was the organising principle of the collection as a whole, basically ten stories that are in some way about and very grounded in ten different cities in europe, apparently by an author from or strongly connected to that city. Comma Press seems to have a lot of interesting-looking high-concept story or essay anthologies and I'm pleased to have discovered them.