A sold-out edition, European Literature Night has presented for its 5th edition some of the brightest literary talent from Europe to audiences and readers across the UK.
European Literature Night 2013 featured a wealth of prose that is as wide as the continent itself. There are the personal family stories, from the comedic Catalonian tale of four brothers who have never known each other to an Austrian exposure of generational estrangement, from an ancient Belgian family mystery to a homely portrait of German domestic bliss which is masking deep divides. There are the political tales – a Czech writer’s troubling portrait of a society dealing with its ghosts of times past, the Dutch writer whose examination of pedigree horse breeding reflects the ugliness of our own prejudices, the Slovenian novel which satirises the brainwashing effects of totalitarianism. And between them sits an acclaimed journalist and fiction writer from Turkey, whose work joins these two worlds.
The selected writers were: Norbert Gstrein – Austria (austrian cultural forum london); Miha Mazzini – Slovenia (Beletrina- Študentska Založba); Erwin Mortier – Belgium (Embassy of Belgium); Jordi Punti – Spain (Ramon Llull Institute); Ece Temelkuran – Turkey (Free Word Centre); Jachym Topol – Czech Republic (Czech Centre London); Brigit Vanderbeke – Germany (Peirene Press); Frank Westerman – Netherlands (Harvill Secker).
15 May 2013, British Library, London
Supported and initiated by EUNIC London and the European Commission Representation in the UK, facilitated by the Czech Centre London and produced by Speaking Volumes, with the participation of Foyles.
An evening of readings where the personal and the political sit side by side, shift places and remind us all of the joy and pain of being alive: