Best European Fiction 2011

by Aleksandar Hemon (Editor), Colum McCann (Preface)

The launch of Dalkey’s Best European Fiction series was nothing short of phenomenal, with wide-ranging coverage in international media such as Time magazine, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, Financial Times, and the Guardian; glowing reviews and interviews in print and online magazines such as the Believer, Bookslut, Paste, and the Huffington Post; radio interviews with editor Aleksandar Hemon on NPR stations in the US and BBC Radio 3 and 4 in the UK; and a terrific response from booksellers, who made Best European Fiction 2010 an “Indie Next” pick and created table displays and special promotions throughout the US and UK.



For 2011, Aleksandar Hemon is back as editor, along with a new preface by Colum McCann, and with a whole new cast of authors and stories, including work from countries not included in Best European Fiction 2010.


UK, WALES: Wiliam Owen Roberts, The Professionals

UK, ENGLAND: Hilary Mantel, The Hearts Fails without Warning

TURKEY: Ersan Üldes, Professional Behavior

SWITZERLAND: Verena Stefan, Doe a Deer

SPAIN (Catalan): Mercè Ibarz, Nela and the Virgins

SPAIN (Castilian): Enrique Vila-Matas, Far From Here

SLOVENIA: Drago Jančar, The Prophecy

SERBIA: Vladimir Arsenijević, One Minute: Dumbo’s Death

RUSSIA: Andrei Gelasimov, The Evil Eye

ROMANIA: Lucian Dan Teodorovici, Goose Chase

PORTUGAL: Gonçalo Manuel Tavares, Six Tales

POLAND: Olga Tokarczuk, The Ugliest Woman in the World

NORWAY: Frode Grytten, Hotel by a Railroad

NETHERLANDS: Manon Uphoff, Desire

MONTENEGRO: Ognjen Spahić, Raymond is No Longer with Us—Carver is Dead

MOLDOVA: Iulian Ciocan, Auntie Frosea

MACEDONIA: Blaže Minevski, Academician Sisoye’s Inaugural Speech

LITHUANIA: Danutė Kalinauskaitė, Just Things

LIECHTENSTEIN: Stefan Sprenger, Dust

LATVIA: Nora Ikstena, Elza Kuga’s Old-Age Dementia

ITALY: Marco Candida, Dream Diary

IRELAND (Irish): Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, Trespasses

IRELAND (English): Kevin Barry, Doctor Sot

ICELAND: Kristín Eiríksdóttir, Holes in People

HUNGARY: László Krasznahorkai, The Bill

GERMANY: Ingo Schulze, Oranges and Angel

GEORGIA: Zurab Lezhava, Sex for Fridge

FRANCE: Eric Laurrent, American Diary

FINLAND: Anita Konkka, The Clown

ESTONIA: Toomas Vint, Beyond the Window a Park is Dimming

DENMARK: Peter Adolphsen, Fourteen Small Stories

CZECH REPULIC: Michal Ajvaz, The Wire Book

CYPRUS: Nora Nadjarian, Exhibition

CROATIA: Mimi Simić, My Girlfriend

BULGARIA: Alek Popov, Plumbers

BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA: Goran Samardžić, Varneesh

BELGIUM: François Emmanuel, Lou Dancing

BELARUS: Victor Martinovich, Taboo

AUSTRIA: Dieter Sperl, Random Walker

ALBANIA: Arian Leka, Brothers of the Blade

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Anthologies, European Literature, British Literature, Spain, Russia

511 pages, Paperback

First published November 2, 2010

About the author

Aleksandar Hemon is a Bosnian American writer known for his short stories and novels that explore issues of exile, identity, and home through characters drawn from Hemon’s own experience as an immigrant.

Hemon was raised in Sarajevo, where his father was an engineer and his mother was an accountant. After graduating from the University of Sarajevo with a degree in literature in 1990, he worked as a journalist with the Sarajevan youth press. In 1992 he participated in a journalist exchange program that took him to Chicago. Hemon intended to stay in the United States only briefly, for the duration of the program, but, when war broke out in his home country, he applied for and was granted status as a political refugee in the United States.

In Chicago Hemon worked a series of jobs, including as a bike messenger and a door-to-door canvasser, while improving his knowledge of English and pursuing a graduate degree at Northwestern University. Three years after arriving in the United States, he wrote his first short story in English, “The Sorge Spy Ring.” Together with several other short stories and the novella “Blind Jozef Pronek & Dead Souls,” it was published in the collection The Question of Bruno in 2000, the same year Hemon became an American citizen. Like much of Hemon’s published work, these stories were largely informed by Hemon’s own immigrant experience in Chicago. Hemon brought back Jozef Pronek, the protagonist from his earlier novella, with Nowhere Man: The Pronek Fantasies (2002), the story of a young man growing up in Sarajevo who later attempts to navigate a new life in Chicago while working minimum-wage jobs. The book, like the rest of Hemon’s work, was notable for the author’s inventive use of the English language. He was awarded a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” in 2004.

The Lazarus Project (2008) intertwined two stories of eastern European immigrants to Chicago. Vladimir Brik, a Bosnian immigrant writer and the novel’s narrator, becomes obsessed with a murder case from nearly a century earlier in which Lazarus Averbuch, a young Russian Jew, was shot and killed by Chicago’s police chief. Hemon received much critical acclaim for the novel, which was a finalist for a National Book Award. He followed this with Love and Obstacles (2009), a collection of short stories narrated by a young man who leaves Sarajevo for the United States when war breaks out in his home country. The Making of Zombie Wars (2015) chronicles the quotidian difficulties of a workaday writer attempting to finish a screenplay about a zombie invasion.

Hemon also cowrote the screenplay for The Matrix Resurrections (2021), the fourth installment in the popular sci-fi Matrix series. His other works included the memoirs The Book of My Lives (2013) and My Parents: An Introduction/This Does Not Belong to You (2019). The latter book consists of two volumes.

Reviews

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will endeavour to rate this fabulous collection in the manner of the Eurovision Song Contest scoring system. The only difference being both the talent levels and absence of musical content. No hang on—there isn’t any musical content in the Eurovision Song Contest either. Har har! Oh, me! You should own this outstanding anthology for its breathtaking scope and impressive quality. Scores out of ten. The ten-pointer indicates a favourite in the collection.

Wiliam Owen Roberts, Wales — 7 pts
Hilary Mantel, England — 8 pts
Ersan Üldes, Turkey — 6 pts
Verena Stefan, Switzerland — 6 pts
Merce Ibarz, Catalan — 8 pts
Enrique Vila-Matas, Spain: Castilian — 7 pts
Drago Jančar, Slovenia — 9 pts
Vladimir Arsenijević, Serbia — 8 pts
Andrei Gelasimov, Russia — 5 pts
Lucian Dan Teodorovici, Romania — 9 pts
Gonçalo M. Tavares, Portugal — 8 pts
Olga Tokarczuk, Poland — 8 pts
Frode Grytten, Norway — 9 pts
Manon Uphoff, Netherlands — 8 pts
Ognjen Spahić, Montenegro — 6 pts
Iulian Ciocan, Moldova — 6 pts
Blaže Minevski, Macedonia — 7 pts
Danutè Kalinauskaitè, Lithuania — 7 pts
Stefan Sprenger, Liechtenstein — 6 pts
Nora Ikstena, Latvia —7 pts
Marco Candida, Italy — 8 pts
Éilis Ní Dhuibhne, Ireland: Irish — 9 pts
Kevin Barry, Ireland: English — 8 pts
Kristín Eiríksdóttir, Iceland — 8 pts
László Krasznahorkai, Hungary — 7 pts
Ingo Schulze, Germany — 4 pts
Zurab Lezhava, Georgia — 9 pts
Eric Laurrent, France — 7 pts
Anita Konkka, Finland — 8 pts
Toomas Vint, Estonia — 8 pts
Peter Adolphsen, Denmark — 7 pts
Michal Ajvaz, Czech Republic — 9 pts
Nora Nadjarian, Cyprus — 6 pts
Mima Simić, Croatia — 8 pts
Alek Popov, Bulgaria — 9 pts
Goran Samardžić, Bosnia & Herzegovina — 10 pts
François Emmanuel, Belgium — 7 pts
Victor Martinovich, Belarus — 8 pts
Dieter Sperl, Austria — 6 pts
Arian Leka, Albania — 5 pts

[Vanessa Wu · Rating 5 out of 5]

First of all, let me say that with collections like this, I don't start on page 1 (the first story does actually start on page 1) and read all the way through to page 483. I usually keep them by my bed and come back to them time and time again.

Secondly, I have to confess that I am very superficial. The first story I read was called Nela and the Virgins by Mercè Ibarz because I thought it might be sensual, particularly when I saw the sentence:

"'We won't be virgins long!' Isi and Valentina exclaimed at the same time."

But it's actually a story about how love evolves silently.

"Nothing was said about sex nor about how they spent their nights together."

And it's a story about the craft of using that silence as a writer.

This was not what I wanted to hear so next I turned to Desire by Manon Uphoff. This was more like it. Another virgin, some rough sex and the art of becoming a woman.

"'Woman,' he whispered in her ear. 'Now you're a woman.'"

I wasn't sure of the gender of Manon Uphoff. I felt while reading the story that Manon was a man. I wondered if it was important and decided it was important enough to me to look up the biographical note, which told me that she is the award-winning author of four novels, three novellas and a host of short stories that are considered among the best in contemporary Dutch literature.

Then I read the story again and felt it completely differently.

Interesting.

I have now read the story three times and will probably read it again before sampling others with less sensual titles like "Sex for Fridge", "Plumbers," "Taboo" and (I hope it is not sensual) "Auntie Frosea."

I am giving this 5 stars because I have already got value for money (it was 19 euros, which will barely buy you two lemonades and a croissant in Les Deux Magots). Nela and the Virgins, impressed me greatly, in spite of it being not what I was looking for and I have read it twice. If all the stories are this good it will turn out to have been 19 euros very well spent.

[Lizzie Bedell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an absolutely fabulous compilation. A must read.

[S.Ravkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for my reading-of-the-world project (multiple countries). It had not occurred to me to read a collection of short stories from various countries until fairly recently, and this anthology is particularly nice because it includes a lot of countries that are difficult to find English translations for (such as Liechtenstein, which is why I was directed towards this book by a fellow reader). I normally give short story anthologies three star ratings because the stories usually range from really good to absolutely forgettable. In the case of this book, though, almost all of the stories were quite good. A couple of the stories I will not forget any time soon. It really is a fantastic collection.

Countries/regions represented (* denotes stories I read for this project): Albania, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, England (UK), Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Georgia, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Ireland (Irish), Ireland (English), Latvia, *Liechtenstein, Lithuania, *Macedonia, *Moldova, *Montenegro, Netherlands, *Norway, Poland, Portugal, *Romania, Russia, *Serbia, Slovenia, Spain - Catalan, Spain - Castilian, *Switzerland, *Turkey, *Wales (UK).

[Tuck · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is so chock full of great writing one can start at any place and feel very satisfied. a few that particularly stand out for me are william owen roberts, hilary mantel, merce ibarz, enrique vila-matas, olga tokarczuk, danute kalinauskaite....well hell, i liked em all pretty much.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

See my video book review in The Collagist here: http://www.dzancbooks.org/the-collagi...

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful collection. Some very talented authors I'd probably never have come across otherwise.

[Lauren Stoolfire · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked Best European Fiction 2011 edited by Aleksandar Hemon for my Read Around the World Challenge - Europe specifically for the Liechtenstein story "Dust" by Stefan Sprenger which was translated from German by Dustin Lovett. I don't know if I was just not in the right frame of mind going in, too dumb to get or appreciate, or there's something going on with the translation that this 13 page short story honestly didn't compute for me overall. I'm not quite sure what I'm missing.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

"In this respect, I thought, he was like Garfield-I mean the cat. His presence or absence made no difference to the rest of the text. Nevertheless, he felt that he had a legitimate right to sit there, to do nothing more than waste space. So Colonel Enke was a sort of literary Garfield. Yet Garfield, the original, was alive and well, despite his uselessness, his obsolescence-giving orders, playing colonel, and being well paid for the privilege."
-Ersan Üldes-- "Professional Behavior" (Turkey)

A great collection of stories. There's something like 30 stories all together from many small countries we never hear anything about literarily.
the collection highlights how global we've become: the Swiss writer sets her piece in Montreal, The French in California, The Bulgarian in Germany, The Hungarian and German in Italy.
Still, occasionally there's that moment upon reflection where I think "That story was so Irish...," or "That story was so Cypriotic..."
I liked the forward by Colum McCann and Alexsander Hemon is an engaging editor: there were a wide range of lands represented and an array of subject matter. BEF 2010 featured its stories alphabetically by country, BEF 2011 presents the stories in reverse alphabetical order, I can't wait for the 2012 edition.

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liechtenstein

(Dust)

"The researchers attempted to establish a baseline of zero emotion by examining ordinary household dust."

"I am that which remains when you have understood. Something exhausted, empty, but free."

"You only really see what other people are like when they're having a crisis."

How a person behaves at the bottom of the barrel shows you that sort of stuff that person is made of."

Estonia (Beyond the Window a Park is Dimming)

"She was sincere and just a little bit unhappy - as if a cheap cup had fallen from her fingers and shattered into pieces."

"Everything good in this world must surely come to an end sooner of later."

"It seemed to him that he was now like a novelist who has dozens of possible plot twists available to him."

"He would have an easier time of living if he completely withdrew into his shell."

"feeling that he’d gotten stuck on the wrong side of the glass."

[Val · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of European fiction contains a short story called "Dust" by Stefan Sprenger from Liechtenstein. I read it for my World Tour, but have not read all the other stories in the book yet. Stefan Sprenger's story is a quirky meditation on emotion, representation in art, capturing the essence of both of them and life, guilt for the terrible things humans can do to each other and the world, God, the Gulf War and dust. I liked it and I hope some more of his work becomes available in translation.

[Tuxlie]

《最佳欧洲小说（2011）》The launch of Dalkey’s Best European Fiction series was nothing short of phenomenal. For 2011, Aleksandar Hemon is back as editor, along with a new preface by Colum McCann, and with a whole new cast of authors and stories, including work from countries not included in Best European Fiction 2010. “最佳欧洲小说”是欧洲文学出版社甄选出的欧洲当年或近年最佳欧洲小说作品，相当于欧洲小说的年鉴，体现欧洲文学前沿的高度。长期以来，由于小语种语言的限制，国内读者对欧洲文学的了解大多是源自西欧文学，而这本书却给读者以领略整个欧洲文学精神风貌的机会，甄选作品的国度达到四十个，无论是英国、德国这样的老牌文学强国，还是拉脱维亚、爱沙尼亚、立陶宛、波黑、克罗地亚、马其顿这样的文学小户；既有声名煊赫的作家也有新发掘的潜力新人，其中包括今年曼布克奖得主希拉里·曼特尔，他们代表了欧洲文学整体的趋势和走向。多样化的地域文学特点和多样性的文风，使得本书宛若流动着的“欧洲当代文学” 文学地图。中国读者可从中领略广博多姿的欧洲多元文化，这也是国内出版界首次如此细致并成规模译介欧洲当代文学新作。本书由著名译者李文俊老师领衔，结集国内外优秀译者，译本权威。

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read collections of short stories by a single author that I've enjoyed, but I guess I finally have to admit that I'm just not crazy about short stories in general. There are some good ones in this mix of European writers, but I ended up kind of picking and choosing and walking away dissatisfied. No story inspired me to look for more work by the same author. I'm marking it as finished, but truthfully, I didn't read every single story and can't judge this fairly as a result.

[Ben Jaques-Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some moments were utterly brilliant and some just made me wonder why writers felt like they should let people read their work. Hillary Mantel's story was wonderful and touching. Several of the stories by Eastern European authors also stood out. They tended to harken back to the days of socialism, which gives them both a surreal and nostalgic sense. I'd recommend only reading the stories that grab you right away; the ones that don't probably won't at all.

[Valerie W · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection has many dark stories that touch on several subject matters. My favorite is Plumbers by Alex Popov for the humor amidst the more serious pieces and great rhythm and descriptions. Otherwise, it was a bit hard to get through; I did not read all the stories but got through around 50% of them.

[Veach Glines · Rating 2 out of 5]

Forgettable

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were some short stories I enjoyed immensely, others not so much. But I am embarrassed to admit I found myself skimming some of the short stories just to get through them.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some writing from authors I've never heard of and probably would never read. Liked most pieces, disliked some; liked some alot and some day might look for more of their works in translation.

[French Books USA Cultural Services of the French Embassy]

Includes a translation of Eric Laurrent's novel "American Diary" and "Lou Dancing" by Belgium author François Emmanuel.

[Gurldoggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A phenomenal series. Read it slowly over a few months. Come back to it again and again.

[Suesaroo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy the glimpses into other cultures from the translated fiction.

[Kate Throp · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is going in my bedside table to be dipped into from time to time. Has a great range of short stories but I particularly bought it for Dust by Stefan Sprenger for the Liechtenstein leg of my around the world reading journey. I still have no idea what it was about but I loved it. Does that make sense?

[Josh Maher]

Montenegro, Moldova, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina

[Forest · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewed for LJ.