Aleksandar Hemon: Best European Fiction 2013

MIKE MCCORMACK Of One Mind (Ireland: English), 403.

SEMEZDIN MEHMEDINOVIĆ My Heart (Bosnia and Herzegovina), 213.

LYDIA MISCHKULNIG A Protagonist’s Nemesis (Austria), 237.

DRAGAN RADULOVIĆ The Face (Montenegro), 20.

TIINA RAEVAARA My Creator, My Creation (Finland), 119.

MARIE REDONNET Madame Zabée’s Guesthouse (France), 251.

GUNDEGA REPŠE How Important Is It to Be Ernest? (Latvia), 177.

ELOY TIZÓN The Mercury in the Thermometers (Spain: Castilian), 202.

IEVA TOLEIKYTĖ The Eye of the Maples (Lithuania), 262.

MIKLÓS VAJDA Portrait of a Mother in an American Frame (Hungary), 139.

BORIVOJE ADAŠEVIĆwas born in 1974 in Užice, now in Serbia. His first books were collections of short stories entitled Ekvilibrista (Balancer, 2000) and Iz trećeg kraljevstva (The Third Kingdom, 2006). These were followed by a novel, Ćovek iz kuće na bregu (The Man from the House on the Hill, 2009). He lives and works in Požega.

BERNARDO ATXAGAwas born Joseba Irazu Garmendia in Gipuzkoa, Spain, in 1951. After receiving a degree in economics from the University of Bilbao, he studied philosophy at the University of Barcelona, and worked as an economist, bookseller, professor of the Basque language, publisher, and radio scriptwriter until 1980, when he dedicated himself completely to writing. He lives in the Basque Country, writing in both Basque and Spanish, and many of his works are available in English translation, including Obabakoak (1988, 1992), The Lone Man (1992, 1996), The Lone Woman (1996, 1999), The Accordionist’s Son (2003, 2007), and Seven Houses in France (2009, 2011). Among several Basque prizes for literature and criticism, he was awarded the Premio Nacional de Narrativa in 1989, the Millepages Prix in 1992, and the Prix des trois Couronnes in 1995.

MIRANA LIKAR BAJŽELJwas born in 1961 in Novo Mesto in what is now Slovenia. She is a professor of Slovenian language and literature and has a degree in the same subject, as well as degrees in education and library science. She started writing a few years ago and published her first short stories in the magazines Literatura , Mentor , Sodobnost, and Vpogled . She has received a number of awards for individual stories. Her first short story collection Sobotne zgodbe (Saturday Stories) came out in October 2009 and her second book Sedem besed (Seven Words) was published in 2012.

RUMEN BALABANOVwas born in 1950 in Sofia, Bulgaria. His works include Someone Has Gone and the play Beyond the Curve . He received the prestigious “Southern Spring” prize for young writers with his first novel, Honey Dew , and has received numerous other awards, including the Chudomir and Golden Youth prizes. He worked as an editor for Hornet , Bulgaria’s sole humor newspaper, was editor-in-chief of the Literature Front newspaper, and published the Psycho newspaper. He is best known as the founder of Bulgaria’s “gutter press.” Balabanov became a TV producer and owned Channel 2001 from 2000 to 2006. He is currently editor-in-chief of Word Today , the official newspaper of the Union of Bulgarian Writers.

BALLAis a highly original voice on Slovakia’s literary scene, the author of absurdist short stories populated by a gallery of lonely, alienated, and peculiar characters unable to relate to other human beings and undergoing bizarre, often frightening experiences. A recipient of several literary awards, Balla shuns the spotlight and continues to live in the provincial town of Nové Zámky. He published the first of his seven short story collections, Leptokária , in 1996. His recent books include the collections De la Cruz (2005) and Cudzí (Strangers, 2008). In 2011 he published a novella, V mene otca (In the Name of the Father), followed by another, Oko (The Eye), in 2012.

DANIEL BATLINERwas born in Eschen, Liechtenstein, in 1988, where he spent most of his childhood. He began to write while very young, predominantly for the stage. Though many of his works had already been performed in Switzerland, where he lived until recently, spring 2012 found his first full-length plays Wodka Nicotschow and Once Oberland, Please! debuting to great acclaim in his native Liechtenstein, where he now resides.

ARI BEHNwas born in 1972 in Aarhus, grew up in England and Northern Norway, and is currently a resident of Bærum. His debut story collection Trist som faen (Sad as Hell) appeared in 1999 to great acclaim; he has since published three novels. His most recent publication is a collection of short fictions, Talent for lykke (Talent for Luck, 2011). He married Princess Märtha Louise of Norway in 2002, and they have three daughters.

KRIKOR BELEDIANis an Armenian writer, literary critic, and translator living in France. He was born in Beirut in 1948 and teaches Armenian Studies at the Université Catholique de Lyon and the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales in Paris. He is the author of six novels and multiple volumes of critical essays and poetry.

LASHA BUGADZEwas born in 1977 and is a Georgian novelist and playwright. He has won an award from the BBC International Radio Playwriting Competition (for his drama The Navigator ) as well as the SABA Awards for Best Novel and Best Play of the Year. Bugadze is also a cartoonist, screenwriter, producer, and TV personality with the Georgian Public Broadcasting Company.

A. S. BYATTis internationally acclaimed as a novelist, short story writer and critic. Her books include Possession , The Children’s Book, and the quartet of The Virgin in the Garden , Still Life, Babel Tower , and A Whistling Woman . She was appointed Dame of the British Empire in 1999.

DULCE MARIA CARDOSOwas born in Trás-os-Montes, Portugal, in 1964. She spent her childhood in Angola and returned to Portugal in 1975, after which she studied law and wrote film scripts. Campo de sangue (Field of Blood, 2002) was her first novel, and it won her the Grande Prémio Acontece. In 2009 she was awarded the European Union Prize for Literature for her novel Os meus sentimentos (My Feelings). In 2010 she won the PEN Prize for her novel O chão dos pardais (Sparrow Ground).

SYLWIA CHUTNIKwas born in 1979 in Warsaw. She graduated with a degree in Culture and Gender Studies from Warsaw University, and is currently a social worker and the President of the MaMa Foundation, which promotes the rights of mothers in Poland. She is also a member of the feminist group Porozumienie Kobiet 8 Marca, and she works as a Warsaw city tour guide. She is the author of Kieszonkowy Atlas Kobiet (The Pocket Atlas of Women, 2008), a book that was nominated Book of the Year by the Polish Radio Programme Three, awarded the Polityka Passport Prize in literature, and longlisted for the Nike Literary Prize in 2009.

VITALIE CIOBANUwas born in 1964 in Floresti, Moldova. He is a novelist, essayist, literary critic, and president of Moldova PEN Centre. He is editor-in-chief of Contrafort literary magazine, contributes articles to numerous cultural and political magazines in Moldova and Romania, and works as an analyst for the Chisinau bureau of Radio Free Europe. He received the Union of Romanian Writers Essay Prize in 1999. His short stories have been translated into English, German, and Spanish.