This volume grew out of a conference on contemporary fiction held at the University of Trier in June 2017. We would like to thank all those who participated in this conference and provided stimulating input, in particular Ute Berns, Hilary Duffield, Xiaolu Guo, Mojca Krevel, Mike Witcombe, and Heiko Zimmermann. In addition, we would like to acknowledge our particular gratitude to Masja Horn and Christa Stevens at Brill and to Annekatrin Metz, Lea Franken, Paul Vincent, and Julia Wurr who assisted us in preparing the manuscript for publication.
Ralf Hertel and Eva-Maria Windberger
Trier, September 2020