ReBerth: Stories from Cities on the Edge

Jim Hinks is an author and the recipient of the Curtis Brown First Novel Award and the Jerwood/Arvon Scholarship and the editor of Brace: A New Generation in Short Fiction. He is a former professor of creative writing at the University of Leeds. Franco Bianchini is a professor of cultural policy and planning at the University of Leeds. He has acted as an advisor and researcher for the Arts Council England and the Council of Europe, and the European Commission. Jude Bloomfield is a senior visiting research fellow in the department of sociology at the University of East London. She is a freelance writer and researcher on urban cultures and European citizenship.

Featuring several authors hailing from "cities on the edge"--European port cities including Liverpool, Bremen, Gdansk, Istanbul, Marseilles, and Naples--this stirring collection of short stories explores these landscapes of change, from their social tensions, scars of war, and economic decline to their citizens' attempts at regeneration and startling means to thriving and surviving. In Gdansk, a German exile returns to his childhood home in search of a valuable coin collection left behind during World War II. In Naples, a young woman desperate to escape the slums becomes a Camorra mole and eventually a political powerbroker. In Liverpool, a young Spanish soccer player arrives to fulfill his dream of playing in the Premiership, but in the backstreets of Anfield he meets a local resident with a very different perspective on the game. A look at the their shared history of dissent, diversity, and economic reinvention, this riveting compilation examines the tragedy of these cities once known as gateways to the world and as harbors of wealth and innovation.