The Europa Challenge is on!

The Europa Challenge logo to the right signals an exciting opportunity to explore the ficiton of one of my favorite imprints. Begun by two book people I respect and adore, Marie of Boston Bibliophile and the one and only Miss Liberty, the Europa Challenge Blog has a variety of challenges and will be a celebration of individual titles and the entire catalog of the imprint.

The way that the name of Europa Editions came to my attention symbolizes exactly what I treasure about it: I realized that the same publisher was the source of both dark, well-written crime fiction that had been translated into English, and one of the most fascinating, satisfying novels I've ever read: Jane Gardam's Old Filth.


Well, any imprint that publishes this wide a range of fiction, a range that matches my own interests, is one to remember.

Although I am signing on to the Perpetual Challenge of reading all of Europa Editions's catalog, my intial focus will be on works by three authors that showcase the variety and the quality of this imprint:
Carlo Lucarelli is a distinctive Italian crime fiction voice, and his remarkable De Luca trilogy is a terrific introduction. Set in the waning days of the Facist regime at the end of WWII, it features a policeman who has to navigate both crime and politics, and their inevitable collaborations, to solve his caseload. The three novels are Carte Blanche, The Damned Season and Via Delle Oche.

The next stop on this fictional itinerary is France, for Jean-Claude Izzo's haunting Marseille trilogy. This hard-boiled threesome is built around the saga of Fabio Montale, and comparisons to Chandler and Ellroy are not off-base. The titles are Total Chaos, Chourmo and Solea. I may include two more Izzo titles in this particiular segment of the author challenge: The Lost Sailors, also set in Marseille, and his last novel, A Sun for the Dying.

Rounding out this authorial challenge will be the novel that made me a Europa Editions complete fangirl, Old Filth, and Gardam's follow-up, The Man in the Wooden Hat. The latter chronicles the early years of Old Filth and his wife, Betty. Old Filth, which stands for "Failed in London Try Hong Kong", is a character who reminds me of those in Staying On, the coda to Paul Scott's Jewel in the Crown quartet, plus any number of characters on the periphery of Iris Murdoch's tales.

I've set no time limit for this author challenge because of continuing ed, work and other review commitments, but will be posting here and at the Europa Challenge Blog on my progress. If I can write intelligibly about the books as they're finished, I should complete the Europa Haver or possibly the Europa Amante challenge for 2011. It's a journey I'm excited to be making; I hope some of you will be making your own travels through this imprint's titles as well.