Best European Fiction

What is fiction like in Europe today? That was my purchasing purpose. This is a fascinating book, so many voices, such a plunge into younger modern minds. From the perspective of a reader with decades of perusing the printed word, I can say this book absolutely delighted me with the creative variety. Not sure I really enjoyed all of the stories but I am delighted to have read them and my grey cells are left chewing over concepts and phrases. In some the lack of punctuation and capitalization reminded me of Archie and Mehitabel.

Reading this book was to me much like my experience with watching some of the great foreign movies that are out there--it's like discovering a hidden treasure that few others know about, and for their pure novelty in style, setting, and tone, really snap me out of my world-weary state and hold my attention. I didn't like all the stories, in fact I didn't even finish several (and these are short stories) because I just didn't get them or thought they were plain poorly written, but the majority were good, and some very good. I find myself turning over many of these stories in my head for a few days afterwards, some continue to enter my consciousness for weeks afterward because they were just so poignant and unique. I plan to purchase last year's edition once I finish this one (about 3/4 of the way through now). I usually just read classics, so reading these unknown authors was a stretch for me. Try it, I think you'll like it :)

Would gently disagree with my fellow reader. The stories aren't "difficult"; they merely require the reader be present for them. This is all writers ask of us. Also, My Fellow Americans: This is not a travel guide. If you're interested in picking out a lovely spot for your next vacation I would suggest you find a Fodor's instead. I'm up to Serbia so far and have yet to be overwhelmed with a desire to reserve a shuttle to the airport. Iceland has this young bickering couple screaming at each other by a lake. There's a psychotically grumpy, work-injured father out and about in Latvia. To top it off, there's a Dutch future coming wherein citizens are allowed to murder--within rules. And yet, what a wonderful, luminous, and maybe even life-changing read this book is. You won't view things the same way once you're done with it. I left each story with something of value, some human insight. Would say the most exquisite piece so far has to be "Zidane's Melancholy" by Belgium's Jean-Philippe Toussaint. His take on the football (soccer) star's head-butt of an opponent in the 2006 World Cup final is perfection. The genius of the writing is in Monsieur Toussant's bravery; a less confident writer would have tossed the reader a coy wink now and again. Instead, he has the courage to stick to this serious, philosophical, surgical tone. Other gems include Christine Montalbetti's (France) story of a writer having a sort of invisible but nonetheless extraordinary panic attack while in the company of Japanese writer Haruki Murukami, and a day in the life of a down and out transgendered street hustler from (Poland's Michal Witkowski); if the latter story does not make one sympathetic to people at the edge then surely nothing will. Ireland's Julian Gough provides much needed humor; his "The Orphan and the Mob" is a riduculous and hilarious mishmash of every stereotype about the Old Sod in a few laugh out loud pages. Romania's Cosmin Manolache's story ("Three Hundred Cups") started out in an interesting if conventional way but ends as a prayerful meditation on nothing less than what it means to be human.