TE22 Potpourri

Trafika Europe 22—Potpourri Editors’ Welcome

The uncanny follows again with Swedish author Andrea Lundgren ’s short story “The Bird that Cries in the Night,” from the collection Nordic Fauna . Lundgren examines where civilization and nature, and people and animal converge. Acute observation of humans arises as well in Lada Vukić ’s novel Special Needs . No one understands Emil and his actions, but he notices all about the truth of life. Returning again to the noir genre, Danish author Heidi Amsinck ’s protagonist Jensen, in My Name Is Jensen , sets out to discoverwho is killing unhoused people in thewintry streets of Copenhagen. Italian author Antonella Lattanzi continues the hunt for a criminal in This Looming Day . The psychological state of a mother, Francesca, intertwines with the hunt for a kidnapper, in this intense psychological thriller. Impure Acts by ÁngeloNéstore questions gender roles, desire, and stereotype. Their poems are lyric and disrupt stereotypes and ideas of “normalcy”. The title story “Call Me Esteban” by Lejla Kalamujić follows and similarly explores concepts of identity and gender through pre- and post-war Sarajevo. Memory mingles with the present as a daughter searches for herself in her psyche after her mother’s death. Artwork in this issue is by Andrew Singer. Visit our Gift Shop for some exciting art products. We hope that you can take a moment to enjoy this lovely European potpourri of wonderful literary gems.

This issuepresentsapotpourri of fictionandpoetry fromacross Europe. Sit back and relish the mélange of genres, styles, and cultures presented to you here. We beginwith French-Malagasy author MichèleRakotoson ’s novel Lalana , which follows the journey of two young men around Madagascar as one struggles with complications related to AIDS. This rawness and intensity continues with an excerpt from Polish author Jacek Gutorow ’s poems from the collection Invisible . He reflects on life and nature through both allusions to well-known pieces of literature and attention to space. Germannovelist KathrinSchmidt ’s 2009GermanBook Prize- awarded novel, You’re Not Dying , putswords to the act of losing them. Inspired by her own medical history, Schmidt explores the process of regaining speech and memory during recovery from an aneurysm. Following that, a chilling noir tale, Cold as Hell , by Icelandic author Lilja Sigurðardóttir takes place in Reykjavic where we follow Áróra on the hunt for her estranged missing sister. Next, an exerpt from Catalan author Manuel Baixauli ’s novel UNKNOWN explores the world of an artist seeking success and risking failure. Then, French poet Isabelle Baladine Howald ’s Phantomb uses words and blank spaces to haunt the pages with multiple meanings.

Andrew Singer and Clayton McKee, Editors

6

7