Various: Best European Fiction 2010

[Stewart]

If you don't know about it yet - well, you will now - Dalkey Archive is bringing out an anthology of European fiction in January 2010 (edited by Aleksander Hemon, with a foreword by Zadie Smith). It features the work of thirty-five writers, some of whom are appearing in English for the first time, and the efforts of twenty-nine translators, our own Eric included.

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.

I just though I'd give a rundown of the those whose work appears. For those aware of the writers in question, please do share your thoughts.

Here's the list:

Ornela Vorpsi
Antonio Fian
Peter Terrin
Jean-Philippe Toussaint
Igor Štiks
Georgi Gospodinov
Neven Ušumović
Naja Marie Aidt
Elo Viiding
Juhani Brander
Christine Montalbetti
George Konr?d
Steinar Bragi
Julian Gough
Orna N? Choile?in
Giulio Mozzi (AKA Carlo Dalcielo)
Inga Abele
Mathias Ospelt
Giedra Radvilavičiūtė
Goce Smilevski
Stephan Enter
Jon Fosse
Michal Witkowski
Valter Hugo M?e
Cosmin Manolache
Victor Pelevin
David Albahari
Peter Krišt?fek
Andrej Blatnik
Juli?n R?os
Josep M. Fonalleras
Peter Stamm
Deborah Levy
Alasdair Gray
Penny Simpson

[Bjorn]

I read Naja Marie Aidt's short story collection Bavian (Baboon) a while back. Apparently it won the Nordic Council's Prize for Literature in 2008, and I get why; it's excellent, if rather dark.

[Mirabell]

I know a few of these but I am most frustrated that I haven't yet read any R?os. Our own Fausto is a passionate advocate of his work and made me buy two of his books.

[Stewart]

Interestingly, with the exception of Alasdair Gray, I'd never heard of those writing in English, whereas I'd heard of seven of the translated writers.

I wondered, initially, about the inclusion of Ornela Vorpsi, since she writes in Italian, but since the best known Albanian (Ismail Kadare, of course) writer comes to English via French, I daresay it's no big complaint. In her personal statement, at the back of the book, she does say:

...even though I write in an adopted language - writing meant having to abandon my mother tongue - I am entirely an Albanian writer.

I've tried Jean-Philippe Toussaint, having read Monsieur twice and come away with absolutely no opinion either way. The first time I read it I wondered if I missed something, so went back and read it again. Nope. But then, my indifference echoes the eponymous Monsieur, and I wonder if that was the point. Oh, I don't know.

I've had Juli?n R?os's Larva for a while, inspired by, as Mirabell says, fausto's recommendation, but getting me to read a thick book is a hard sell. And, as for Stamm, I remember his name from a review I read near the start of the year.

I've got a couple of Alasdair Gray titles, and went to his book launch around this time last year, but I've not been inspired to pick one yet for, you know, actually reading.

[Eric]

Looking through the list, the only authors I'd heard of before and know a little bit about are: Terrin, Toussaint, Viiding (obviously, as I translated her), Konr?d, Ābele, Fosse, Pelevin, and Gray.

But new names are encouraging. It shows that editors such as Hemon are not prisoner to what's available in average bookshops.

[peter_d]

Kafka, Flaubert and Mann are taken as an example, but there are no Czech, French or German authors in the list. They already have their superstar, Hemon must have thought.

Very interesting initiative though. It seems there's a lot for me to learn, since I only know three authors in the list. Vorpsi, Terrin and Enter. The latter I especially know by his voice. He used to be in the jury of an ongoing storywriting competition, of which the results were read out on an obscure radio channel in the Netherlands. The jury, among them Enter, gave their extensive comments to the winning story.

[Stiffelio]

I am surprised they are including Alasdair Gray on that list. He's a very well known and prestigious award winning author, probably Scotland's best living writer. He doesn't need anthologizing, especially since this anthology is supposed to be for writers who have never been published in English before. I recommend reading Poor Things: it's a masterpiece.

Peter Stamm is also well known, although probably not yet published in English. I am not familiar with anybody else on the list.

Excellent project .

[Stewart]

I am surprised they are including Alasdair Gray on that list. He's a very well known and prestigious award winning author, probably Scotland's best living writer.

Since Dalkey Archive tends to favour postmodern literature, I think it would have had slim pickings when it came to Scotland as there aren't, as far as I'm aware, that many writers here ploughing such a furrow.

[Liam]

I've heard of a handful of these writers but only "read" one: namely, Victor Pelevin. Impressive, but hugely tiresome.

Dalkey Archive tends to favour postmodern literature

To hell with postmodernism!



[goes back to reading the illustrated Lives of Saints from ca. 1275 AD]

[heroi]

I wondered, initially, about the inclusion of Ornela Vorpsi, since she writes in Italian, but since the best known Albanian (Ismail Kadare, of course) writer comes to English via French, I daresay it's no big complaint. In her personal statement, at the back of the book, she does say:

...even though I write in an adopted language - writing meant having to abandon my mother tongue - I am entirely an Albanian writer.

No she is not. She just happened to have been born in Albania. In her writings she paints a very different Albania from what I know, and from what the reality is. She obviously does that deliberately, because she knows that writing about a scandalous country in the heart of europe pays, specially takin in consideration the fact that the european public know close to nothing about Albania. What she does is write about Albania the same way that mediocer journalists write in your papers about Albania, hopin to get some attention out of reporting something unique, dangerous, ugly etc. She is a caricaturist not a writer, taking advantage of an grotesque caricature of her birthplace, I call it that since she clearly in her writing does not consider Albania her country or albanians her people. She is a self centered, a sick in the head narcisist, and a women that has been left with big psychological complex having been raised by a lone mother, who saw everyone around her an enemy and herself a victim of a brutal society. Ornela Vorpsi takes her personal experience in an national level in her books, making a personal story a national phenomena. For me words are not enough to describe her plain stupidity.

[Stiffelio]

Since Dalkey Archive tends to favour postmodern literature, I think it would have had slim pickings when it came to Scotland as there aren't, as far as I'm aware, that many writers here ploughing such a furrow.

I still don't understand why they had to go to Scotland; unless they were looking for literature written in Gaelic which hasn't yet been translated into English. Is there any?

[Stewart]

I still don't understand why they had to go to Scotland; unless they were looking for literature written in Gaelic which hasn't yet been translated into English. Is there any?

I would guess they went to Scotland because Hemon, editing, liked what he read. Dalkey Archive aren't just about translation as we've seen in both their American Literature/British Literature series. Subsequent years may see British writers drop out and, who knows, Czech, Moldovan, and Belarusian writers drop in.

unless they were looking for literature written in Gaelic which hasn't yet been translated into English. Is there any?

Very little that I'm aware of. This came out a few years ago, though.

[Eric]

Ornela Vorpsi was about 20 when she moved to Italy, according to onew website. So she must have seen something of Albania, which has changed a lot recently, no doubt. But it is the same problem as with Kader Abdolah. Perceptions will be from long ago; and subjective ones, at that.

I'm glad to see that Stewart is defending Dalkey. I will too, not only because I've translated two novels for them, but because they, unlike half-a-hundred other publishing houses and presses, are receptive to writing that is non-commercial and often non-mainstream, plus that which is translated.

One very important thing with Dalkey and this anthology, is that this was not, as far as I know, only the choice of Hemon himself. Dalkey asked translators (not just people at Frankfurt) to suggest people to include. I personally suggested Elo Viiding, and chose the story to send in.

Hemon is, in any case, of Bosnian origin, so he understands how there are many, many writers locked away in Europe and never come to the attention of an English-speaking audience.

The anthology is, as Stewart suggests, designed to become a kind of annual publication. This will mean it will become an ongoing sampler of what is being written, even in English. This also means that if there were no Dutch, French, Czech, whatever, authors this time, this is not a one-off anthology and there will be a chance next time. But I have to say, one danger with anthologies is that when they start out to do "Europe", they try to be painfully even-handed, and always include someone from every conceivable country. Quality should prevail over this tendency.

[Flower]

I read Naja Marie Aidt's short story collection Bavian (Baboon) a while back. Apparently it won the Nordic Council's Prize for Literature in 2008, and I get why; it's excellent, if rather dark.

I have read the book as well as attended an afternoon where she told about her writing etc.

She is a great writer but it wasnt my thing.

[Omo]

I've read only works by Wiktor Pelewin, I'm afraid. I read his Generation Pepsi-Cola, then Life of Insects, Omon, Buddha's little Finger, The Dialecticts of the Transition Period from Nowhere to Nowhere, The Helmet of Horror; afterthe werewolves and -foxes I stopped. I guess I must read him again.

[Stewart]

There's a Q&A with Aleksandar Hemon on Papercuts, the New York Times blog, regarding this volume.

On how the stories were selected:

By the time I was reading the submissions, each country was represented with, on average, three pieces — which is to say that I had about 100 pieces to read. A lot of reading that is. But the Dalkey Archive people winnowed that down from me — they had translated a lot more stories and then narrowed the selection. The project, in other words, generates translations — the pieces that are not published in the anthology might end up elsewhere. This is important, as languages like Lithuanian or Estonian have so few translators that those literatures were practically nonexistent in the United States. As for the missing countries, some of them just did not show up — that is, there was a deadline for submissions and we could not wait. Besides, if we featured every single European country the book would’ve been a thousand pages long. Next year, there might be a different line-up.

[Clarissa]

An educated European ? a reader of serious fiction ? is likely to speak two or more languages.

Well said. How many Americans can say the same? Or Brits for that matter.

[heroi]

Well, I'd guess more Americans then Brits, even though in Britain there is a stereotype of the ignorant American, I have realized that many Brits take pleasure in their ignorance as well, or that the level of it is the same or even higher in Britain.

[Stewart]

Dalkey Archive must be happy with the pre-publication coverage this volume has been getting. Aside from overviews in Publishers Weekly and the Wall Street Journal, there are reviews at Bookslut, Time Out Chicago, 3AM, NewCity Lit, the Financial Times (blink and you'll miss it), Hipster Book Club, and Paste Magazine.

I wonder if, closer to publication date, the bigger newspapers will deem it worthy of review.

[Richard Sheehan]

I purchased this book this week and am delighted with the couple of stories I've read so far. I've not had a great deal of experience in reading European fiction before (other than UK writers) but there seems a different tone in the writing, in the makeup of the sentences and paragraphs, to that of my usual UK and US reading. Maybe it's just the translations, I don't know, but the narrative seems to have a different feel. It's most refreshing.

I'll certainly look to pick up some more works by those writers included as well as others that I hear about on here and elsewhere, which I'm sure was the intention of the publication.

Well done to all concerned!