Overview
The best in short fiction from around the world, from celebrated anthologist and author John Freeman and award-winning novelist Rabih Alameddine
In The Penguin Book of the International Short Story, writers from different nations, languages, and sensibilities come together to create a globe-spanning and long overdue tour of modern fiction. In “Super-Frog Saves Tokyo,” Haruki Murakami brings us a man who believes a giant toad is enlisting him to protect his city from an impending earthquake. In “War of Clowns,” Mozambique’s Mia Cuoto sketches a perfect allegory for our divided culture. In the predecessor story to her iconic novel The Vegetarian, Han Kang’s protagonist quietly undergoes an unlikely transformation. A Colm Tóibín character thinks, “I do not even believe in Ireland,” while Carol Bensimon reflects from Brazil, “All great ideas seem like bad ones at some point.” Salman Rushdie brings us to unsettled rural India, Olga Tokarczuk to an ugly woman exhibit at the circus, Abdallah Taia to the queer Arab world, Ted Chiang to a far-off galaxy.
As it turns out, America is far from the center of the literary universe. The anthology is reminiscent of iconic director Bong Joon Ho’s line about overcoming “the one-inch-tall barrier of subtitles” to enter a new world of film—through the work of thoughtful and accomplished translators, the writing gathered here opens the door wide for readers, writers, and educators curious for what lies beyond the Western canon and classroom. With writers from six continents, ranging from new voices to literary celebrities, each story is a window into a distinct point of view, transcending but illuminating its place of origin. They offer not only captivating prose but a reminder of the power of the imagination across space and time.
In The Penguin Book of the International Short Story, writers from different nations, languages, and sensibilities come together to create a globe-spanning and long overdue tour of modern fiction. In “Super-Frog Saves Tokyo,” Haruki Murakami brings us a man who believes a giant toad is enlisting him to protect his city from an impending earthquake. In “War of Clowns,” Mozambique’s Mia Cuoto sketches a perfect allegory for our divided culture. In the predecessor story to her iconic novel The Vegetarian, Han Kang’s protagonist quietly undergoes an unlikely transformation. A Colm Tóibín character thinks, “I do not even believe in Ireland,” while Carol Bensimon reflects from Brazil, “All great ideas seem like bad ones at some point.” Salman Rushdie brings us to unsettled rural India, Olga Tokarczuk to an ugly woman exhibit at the circus, Abdallah Taia to the queer Arab world, Ted Chiang to a far-off galaxy.
As it turns out, America is far from the center of the literary universe. The anthology is reminiscent of iconic director Bong Joon Ho’s line about overcoming “the one-inch-tall barrier of subtitles” to enter a new world of film—through the work of thoughtful and accomplished translators, the writing gathered here opens the door wide for readers, writers, and educators curious for what lies beyond the Western canon and classroom. With writers from six continents, ranging from new voices to literary celebrities, each story is a window into a distinct point of view, transcending but illuminating its place of origin. They offer not only captivating prose but a reminder of the power of the imagination across space and time.
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