Review
There is something for everyone here - at least, everyone who loves short stories. Belgian author Peter Terrin writes about a future where, rather than restricting birth rates, the government allows each citizen a few murders, no questions asked. Meanwhile, Bulgarian Georgi Gospodinov writes of a future where one must chose when to die, because it won't happen naturally.
The Sky over Thingvellir is a sweetly powerful story of deflected emotions and difficult breakups, while
The Orphan and the Mob is a witty, murderous satire full of clichés put to outrageous use. Stories of displaced peoples in the aftermath of war, rivalries between father and son, soccer, estranged families, infidelity, lost love, and even a story in verse (written by a Scotsman, naturally). On second thought - maybe those who look for joyful characters and happy endings should give this...
Beyond the Book
Best European Fiction 2010, by the numbers:
Stories: 35
Authors: 35
Countries Represented: 30 (with some countries represented by more than one language and therefore more than one story)
Translators: 29
Languages: 26 (with 6 languages used more than once, and one story using two languages)
Bulgarian
Castilian
Catalan
Croatian (2)
Danish
Dutch (2)
English (4)
Estonian
Finnish
French (2)
German (4)
Hungarian
Icelandic
Irish
Italian (2)
Latvian
Lithuanian
Macedonian
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Romanian
Russian
Serbian
Slovak
Slovenian