Reading Benjamin's fiction probably is better served if you have at least some understanding of his critical positions beyond just his often anthologized essay. These are more for pondering than entertainment, whether you have a philosophy background or not.

I am catching up on books because of an illness so am going off of what I remember and a few notes I made at the time. My apologies for the brevity.

My knowledge of Water Benjamin was in the context of his essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction", so I was very interested to hear there was a collection of fictional short stories by the same philosopher. Perhaps without this context, the same books would not have had this appeal, but I appreciate the historical value and am always intrigued by the "lesser-known side of".