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With the new anthology Best European Fiction 2010 (Dalkey Archive Press; 421 pages), edited by Chicago-based writer Aleksandar Hemon, our literary world just got wider. Hemon, an award-winning author who was born in Sarajevo and did not begin writing in English until he was in his early 30s, is an excellent guide to the European sensibility. And Best European is an exhilarating read. With stories from 35 nations and regions from Albania to Wales, it's like a Eurail pass that lets you tour a continent's worth of psychological landscapes. Trying to take in all of them...
...writers in Best European seem a more adventurous bunch than their American counterparts. They experiment freely with structure and venture more often down the path of metafiction, debating the direction of a story even as their characters are entangled in it. ("The Basilica in Lyon," by Serbian writer David Albahari, is a mesmerizing dream chase along those lines.) Hemon says this is a reflection partly of his own editorial taste but also of the European publishing environment, which doesn't follow the American blockbuster model. "There's a lot of American fiction on the fringes that is very daring...
...Staff writer Julie M. Zauzmer can be reached at jzauzmer@college.harvard.edu...
...Staff writer Stephanie B. Garlock can be reached at sgarlock@college.harvard.edu...
...Staff writer James K. McAuley can be reached at mcauley@fas.harvard.edu...