Grab yourself a FREE taste of Central European literature

I stumbled across an interesting find earlier today, via the World Literature Forum, which may be of possible interest to anyone who’s looking for more short stories to read, especially those taking part in my 100 Shots of Short reading challenge. Organised by the Visegrad Group (or V4, a Central European alliance comprised of the 4 countries – Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia), and specially created in order to promote the literary culture of each country, the Literary Anthology is a collection of 12 selected short stories (although the website blurb says there’s 13?!?), one from each of three writers, from each of the V4 countries.

The good news is the V4 Literary Anthology is available for free, either as an electronic download – 1) as a compiled work in PDF format or 2) as individual stories in Word format, or for the traditional die-hards i.e. those adverse to reading their literature in electronic format, a FREE paper copy can be requested, although postage and packing charges will be incurred. The blurb on the printed edition states it’s a 520 page publication, which it may well be. However given that the electronic version comes in at only 104 pages, I’m inclined to think that this ‘520 page’ claim may be a small clerical error too.

A quick skim tells me this short story anthology is something a bit special, partly because a lot of thought and effort appears to have gone into the selection and translation of the stories (which have been translated to all of the V4 languages plus English), but mainly because it offers an opportunity for ignorant illiterates like me to sample the works and culture of some of the most prominent Central European writers; writers of whom I ashamedly have had little exposure to. My ignorance will be short-lived though because accompanying each short story is a brief, single page biography for each contributing author, which makes the anthology all the more appealing.

Needless to say I’ve added all 12 stories to my 100 Shots list so expect to hear more from me on the V4 Literary Anthology sometime in the near future. Meantime, if you read any of the stories then please share your thoughts.

The authors, and their stories are as follows:

Czech
A Child on Fire by Jan Balabán
Just Like Slicing an Old Tree Stump in Two by Stanislav Beran
A Trip to the Train Station by Jáchym Topol

Hungarian
Unusual Incident by Lajos Parti Nagy
Scary Santa by Szilárd Podmaniczky
Ballad to My Typing Teacher by Margit Halász

Polish
Moving House by Pawel Huelle
Professor Andrews Goes to Warsaw: December 1981 by Olga Tokarczuk
More than Just a House by Daniel Odija

Slovak
The Game by Karol D. Horváth
An Intricate Story (abridged) by Márius Kopcsay
Moonmaiden by Uršul’a Kovalyk