Best European Fiction

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.

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" • Ornanà 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 jos ferreiro" • Cosmin Manolache (Romania): "Three Hundred Cups" • Victor Pelevin (Russia): "Friedmann Space" • David Albahari (Serbia): "The Basilica

Now in its third year, the Best European Fiction series has become a mainstay in the literary landscape, each year featuring new voices from throughout Europe alongside more established names such as Hilary Mantel, Jean-Philippe Toussaint, Ingo Schulze, George Konrad, Victor Pelevin, and Enrique Vila-Matas. For 2012, Aleksandar Hemon introduces a whole new cross-section of European fiction, and there are a few editorial changes as well. For the first time, the preface will be by an American-Nicole Krauss-and the stories, one per country/language, will be arranged within themes (love, art, war, the body), to facilitate book club and reading group discussions.

2013 may be the best year yet for Best European Fiction. The inimitable John Banville joins the list of distinguished preface writers for Aleksandar Hemon's series, and A. S. Byatt represents England among a luminous cast of European contributors. Fans of the series will find everything they've grown to love, while new readers will discover what they've been missing!