Granta 149: Europe: Strangers in the Land

Granta: The Magazine of New Writing #149

by Sigrid Rausing (Editor)

Granta 149: New Europe includes essays by Elif Shafak, UKON, Andrew Miller, Will Atkins, Lara Feigel, Katherine Angel, Michael Hofmann, Joseph Koerner, Tom McCarthy and many more. It harks back to the 1989 issue of the same name, themed around the response to the fall of the Berlin wall. Through the lenses of exile and migration, we ask ourselves what it means to be European now.

Featuring a photoessay by Bruno Fert who steps inside the temporary homes of refugees in camps in Greece and France.

Genres: Essays, Fiction, Short Stories, Poetry, Anthologies, Art

264 pages, Paperback

First published November 11, 2019

About the author

Sigrid Rausing is Editor and Publisher of Granta magazine and Publisher of Granta and Portobello Books. She is the author of History, Memory and Identity in Post-Soviet Estonia: The End of a Collective Farm and Everything is Wonderful, which has been translated into four different languages.

Reviews

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

An issue of Granta magazine that focuses on Europe. It contains the usual mix of prose, poetry and photography. In this issue, several writers were asked to select and then reflect (briefly) on a quote about Europe: this means we get 10 short pieces from the likes of Tom McCarthy and Orhan Pamuk (I am picking the names familiar to me, not necessarily the most interesting articles). Mixed in with this are longer articles by, again going by familiar names, the likes of Antonio Munoz Molina, Anne Carson, Tash Aw, Andrew Miller and Elif Shafak. Ulf Karl Olov Nilsson's piece entitled "The Poetics of Trauma" is particularly moving as it discusses the impact of trauma on individuals and on their language.

It is clear that the Holocaust still casts a huge shadow over the continent, alongside the more contemporary migrant/refugee crisis. Some of the reading is difficult.

Overall, a very interesting collection of work that clearly can only sample a huge topic.

[Paul Dembina · Rating 3 out of 5]

As is usual with this sort of collection it's a mixed bag.

But what is "as usual" is my not understanding the poetry at all. I really don't get it.

[Kaltmamsell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Endlich wieder eine richtig gute Ausgabe Granta (nicht dass die anderen schlecht gewesen wären, aber das Niveau dieses Literaturmagazins ist halt so hoch, dass ich verwöhnt bin): Das Thema Europa wird mit Familienerinnerungen an den Holocaust bearbeitet und wie viele Generationen die Shoa prägt, mit Geschichten, die sich ganz selbstverständlich über mehrere Länder Europas erstrecken, mit journalistischen Langstrecken in Foto oder Text zum aktuellen Thema Einwanderung und Flucht. Weniger ergiebig war für mich das Sonderformat der verstreuten Kurzstatements über Europa von verschiedenen, teils sehr namhaften Autorinnen und Autoren.

[Fabrice Conchon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a little disappointed by this issue of Granta, mostly because of all the stories presented, there was not a single work of fiction, you have essays, memoirs, reportages, travelogues, op-eds, but not a single fictional narrative.

That said, there are stories that really struck my mind that really justify reading the whole lot, for instance the very interesting (for French people like me) On being French and Chinese by Tash Aw that gives an insight of the very discrete Chinese community in France and how the new generation is becoming "more French", that is adopting the French integration model, moving away from Chinese communautarism inherited from the elder.

The second breathtaking story is the last one, On the island of the black river, by William Atkins, telling the journey of the author to the remote Russian island of Sakhalin, following the traces of writer Anton Chekhov who did the same journey in 1890. I love Chekhov, I am fascinated by the wilderness of Eastern Siberia and Atkins manages fantastically to put together Chekhov's journey 130 years ago, his own journey today, and interesting facts of the life and history of the island.

[Chris]

A rich, timely collection of reflections and recollections of Europe. It seems to reflect on how Europeans, being from a place of many nationalities and borders that swell and contract through time and politic, are always confronting “the other” and discovering their own exile.
Ludmila Ulitskaya graced me with “It is hard to know how to answer a person who is both ignorant and speaks with unassailable self-assurance.”
Tash Aw has an insightful essay on being French and Chinese. Anne Carson’s “Visitors Rev. 4” was curious, hauntingly familiar, and then satisfactorily obvious. Adam Weymouth’s consideration of the migrants of Turkey, Greece and Lesbos is compassionate and compelling. Elif Shafak writes of a personal exile, one partly proclaimed because he was left-handed. William Atkins traces Chekhov’s travels to Sakhalin Island and writes beautifully of the island, its nature, its history and its history as a penal colony, its convicts, Chekhov’s reflections, and its current political and cultural life.

[Michael Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Remarkable issue of Granta exploring Europe - its history, its people, its collective traumas. The issue felt particularly timely given the recent departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union.

The essays and creative non-fiction - which constituted most of the issue - makes the issue shine. From the Holocaust to authoritarian Turkey to the more recent migrant crisis, the collection felt simultaneously historically grounded and contemporary. I particularly enjoyed Joseph Leo Koerner’s Maly Trostinets and Lara Feigel’s We Do Not Know Each Other, which brilliantly unearth the layered family traumas that continue to linger decades after the Holocaust; and Ulf Karl Olov Nilsson’s The Poetics of Trauma, a deeply moving essay exploring personal trauma linked to the migrant crisis and the potential and limits of psychoanalysis and linguistics to heal.

[Alistair · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the most well-curated issues of Granta I've had, with the theme obvious throughout, broad enough to have multiple angles but kept close enough to be linked. Mind you, I dont tend to read them so quickly usually... maybe I'm just not focussed enough to notice it.
Made up only of memoir and essays (or so I'd thought, turned out a couple were fictional), which usually I dont like as much as the fiction, this drew from the corners of Europe with a nice variety of angles - the shortcomings of a deportation assessment in Sweden, a travelogue to Siberia, the war and holocaust inevitably, being chinese and French, the narrow gap at the edges between Europe and Africa - it was appropriate and, at this time of global crisis, timely.
Definitely one of the better.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

This the first of a subscription given to me as a birthday present, and the first of Granta I've read as a book, rather than dipped into random online offerings. The European theme and variety of thoughts - on someone like me whose Englishness is 98% - the other ~2% a celebrated Scottish - opened my eyes to the ways of experiencing such a mix; an uncertainty, at times, of 'where I belong' and offered much in the way of thought-provoking comment as well as good, and at times soaringly uplifting writing.

[Jasdeep Singh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved William Atkins's trip to Sakhalin Island. Elif Shafak's exile, and so many other writings.

[Johan Sanders · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mijn favorieten:

"Our Home is Mortal Too" Katherine Angel

"We Do Not Know Each Other" Lara Feigel

"Exile" Elif Shafak

[Ray Quirolgico · Rating 5 out of 5]

This issue explores locating oneself in places we identify as homes and packs a correspondingly strong emotional wallop, complete with intriguingly mysterious photo essays.

[Made._.Moiselle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This will be one of my favourite Granta editions.

[Jemma]

Really lovely and thoughtful anthology. Planning on looking into more issues of Granta

[Susan Emmet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought provoking anthology of expected mix of fiction, poetry, memoir/non-fiction and photography.
I was most struck by the photos by Bruno Fert with a revealing intro by Nam Le. What is seen and known when humans aren't depicted. Absence is presence, at least for a little while. Making surroundings echo who you are, at least for a little while.
Also moving and clear - Koerner's "Maly Trostinets" and a trip to recover knowledge of the past - family, friends lost to the Holocaust. Hard-nosed writing, unsentimental and truthful.
William Atkins' journey to Sakhalin to find out what he could about Anton Chekhov's journey there in 1890. Again, hard questions about authoritarian regimes and Mother/Fatherland genocide.
"Binidittu" by Nicola Lo Calzo (with intro by Daisy Lafarge) is a second amazing collection of photos that force consideration of European colonization, both Catholic and Christian, and the presence of immigrants in the whiteness. Jarring sense of then and now, of black and white, of history overlayered by inaccuracy.
This issue is full of thought and hard assessment. Good work, Granta!

[Therese Brink · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of interesting stories. Most stories revolve around the question of what does it mean to be a European? Who is in? Who is out?

[Annette Morris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this eclectic collection of writing, photography and paintings by some amazing authors and artists. Found it informative and pertinent to the current political climate.