The best short fiction from around the world. Thirty-four stories, six continents, and a cast that runs from Haruki Murakami to Samanta Schweblin — edited by National Book Award winner Rabih Alameddine and John Freeman.
For a long time, it was the norm for three quarters of the stories in international anthologies to be American or English. In this collection, the work of thoughtful and accomplished translators opens the door wide for those curious about what lies beyond the Western canon and classroom.
Writers from six continents, ranging from new voices to literary icons, each offer a window into a distinct point of view — both transcending and illuminating their place of origin. They offer not only captivating prose, but a reminder of the power of the imagination across space and time.
In 'Super-Frog Saves Tokyo', Haruki Murakami presents a man who believes a giant amphibian is enlisting him to protect his city from an impending earthquake. In 'War of the Clowns', Mozambique's Mia Couto sketches a perfect allegory for our divided culture. In the predecessor story to her novel The Vegetarian, Nobel laureate Han Kang depicts a protagonist undergoing an unlikely transformation in a Seoul high-rise. Here too, Salman Rushdie brings us to unsettled rural India, Olga Tokarczuk to a circus exhibit, Abdellah Taïa to the queer Arab world, and Ted Chiang to a far-off galaxy.
The full table of contents
-
Haruki Murakami — Super-Frog Saves Tokyo
-
Nona Fernández — The Illumination of Santiago
-
Gunnhild Øyehaug — Apples
-
Mariana Enriquez — My Sad Dead
-
Mia Couto — War of the Clowns
-
Colm Tóibín — One Minus One
-
Mieko Kawakami — The Flower Garden
-
Edwidge Danticat — Night Women
-
Rabih Alameddine — The July War
-
Scholastique Mukasonga — Cattle Praise Song
-
Tahmima Anam — Garments
-
Eka Kurniawan — Rotten Stench
-
Rawaa Sonbol — Amira Who Knows
-
Zanta Nkumane — Petite Mort
-
Jamaica Kincaid — Girl
-
Han Kang — The Fruit of My Woman
-
Can Xue — Vertical Motion
-
Zoë Wicomb — You Can't Get Lost in Cape Town
-
Diao Dou — Squatting
-
Carol Bensimon — Sparks
-
Ted Chiang — Exhalation
-
Olga Tokarczuk — The Ugliest Woman in the World
-
Marie NDiaye — The Good Denis
-
Mo Yan — Frogs
-
Lana Bastašić — On the Occasion of Our Fourth Divorce Anniversary
-
Pedro Lemebel — Loba Lamar's Last Kiss
-
Salman Rushdie — The Free Radio
-
Abdellah Taïa — The Wounded Man
-
Paxima Mojavezi — Forty-Eight Steps
-
Linnea Axelsson — Magnificat
-
Adania Shibli — An Ambitious Good-Hearted Leftist
-
Aleksandar Hemon — Islands
-
Cristina Rivera Garza — Offside
-
Samanta Schweblin — An Unlucky Man
About the editors
Rabih Alameddine has written nine books that have been translated into more than twenty languages. His most recent awards include the 2019 Dos Passos Prize, the 2021 Lannan Literary Award for Fiction, the 2022 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, and the 2025 National Book Award.
John Freeman is the author and editor of more than a dozen books, including The Penguin Book of the Modern American Short Story and California Rewritten.
A landmark anthology
Featuring Nobel laureates (Han Kang, Olga Tokarczuk, Mo Yan), Booker winners, and some of the most exciting new voices writing today, this is an essential volume for any serious reader of world literature — and a magnificent gift.
