European noir

The 8th Annual Festival of European Literature starts on November 15 in New York, with this year’s title being Crime Scene: Europe. Noir fiction writers participating include Zygmunt Miłoszewski (Poland), Ana Maria Sandu (Romania), Stefan Slupetzky (Austria), José Carlos Somoza (Spain), Caryl Férey (France), Jan Costin Wagner (Germany) and Dan Fesperman (US).

“Europe is in the midst of a crime wave—a surge of creative and innovative detective fiction that pays its respects to the traditions of noir while incorporating the psychological novel, the political thriller, and the border-crossings that reflect the increasingly globalized culture of the EU.”

There will also be film screenings accompanying the readings and discussions, including the film adaptation of Zygmunt Miłoszewski’s police thriller Entanglement, whose sequel, A Grain of Truth, is due out in English translation in 2012. Other films include the 1948 Czech classic Conscience and the adaptation of Alexander Lernet-Holenia’s novel Ich war Jack Mortimer, the 1953 US-Austrian co-production Stolen Identity. Another film which is supposed to be powerful and chilling (but which I have only seen clips of) is the adaptation of Jan Costin Wagner’s The Silence.

The literary events are all free. For more information on the program go here. For more information on the participating authors go here.

And speaking of European noir I will have a review upcoming of the novel Budapest Noir by Vilmos Kondor to be published in January 2012.