Since its inaugural appearance in 2010, Best European Fiction has become an essential resource for readers, critics, and publishers interested in contemporary European literature. In this, the ninth installment of the series, the anthology continues its commitment to bringing together some of the most exciting prose writing in Europe today. Best European Fiction 2018 is a compendium of stories by both established writers and newcomers, ranging from Ireland to Eastern Europe, ripe for the discovery of curious readers around the world.

Exquisitely crafted essays on medieval criminal slang, ancient Greek prostitution, laughter, anarchy and more from the endlessly influential Marcel Schwob “All over the world,” wrote Jorge Luis Borges, “there are devotees of the writer Marcel Schwob who constitute little secret societies.” Spicilege, Schwob’s last book published under his name, constitutes the handbook to these societies—to Schwob’s work, to himself as erudite scholar and author, and to the twilight of the era of French Symbolism. Schwob was, as Paul Léautaud described him, a “living library,” and the...