Elsewhere: Stories from Small Town Europe edited by Maria Crossan: book review

Elsewhere (2012) is a collection of ten stories from small towns around Europe, set in contemporary times. Crossan states that ’71 per cent of Europeans currently live outside the continent’s 500 largest cities’ – which is more than two-thirds of the population living in small towns.

But first, what is the definition of ‘small town’ and ‘small town writing’? Crossan’s definition of a small town is ‘one up from “village” and a couple down from “city”’ but one up, and a couple down from what? Population? Collective mindset? Small town writing goes beyond setting – it’s about internal politics, expectations, obligations, ‘where who you know determines what you can do, and everyone’s business is fair game for everyone else.’

There are tales from Sweden, Norway, England, France, Croatia, Ireland, Iceland, Germany, Poland, Turkey – but rarely is the actual small town mentioned.

Themes and elements include ‘down-at-heel’ pubs, the local bus, ‘hale and hearty’ food, music as the ‘perfect opiate’, neighbours, ailing relatives, paternity doubts, views of eternity, weather, a house-husband, white lies – and even a story about Martina.

I like the story ‘Calcutta’ by Ingo Schulze, dedicated to the writer Gunther Grass, about Martina, with sentences like: ‘We both think Martina’s hair-do is silly. From a distance it looks like she’s wearing a beret.’ And ‘It was always Martina who heard the mouse’ … ‘I think Martina likes having hardly any housework to do.’ The story is not just about Martina – it’s about mice and mosquitoes too.

The collection juxtaposes stories about ‘reasons to love a small town’ with ‘the possibility of escape.’ This is an interesting idea with fascinating stories from acclaimed European writers.

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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of: Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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