sander pleij

Current Preoccupations, week 39 - The European Review of Books Any fool can see that the head of state is naked, that he is a complete phony — except for himself. Such appears to be the premise of The Emperor’s Clothes, a fairy tale I see referred to more and mor...

Any fool can see the head of state is naked, a complete phony.

I see The Emperor’s New Clothes referred to more often, and wondered: is it about the vanity of a leader? Or about citizens that keep nodding at what they know isn’t there?

europeanreviewofbooks.com/current-preo...

Texting with ... Lilia Topouzova - The European Review of Books I wanted to show that history and memory are inseparable—and that unsilencing is itself a method.

Lenin youth is made to salute an embalmed dictator, becomes Catholic schoolgirl, then historian of repression, and writer on sabbatical in Rome, with a book on the Bulgarian gulag — plus she met Pope Francis at the Biennale ✊

europeanreviewofbooks.com/texting-with...

europeanreviewofbooks.com/newsletter/

Eurovision?

This weekend it is Intervision: Russia + US + China + Brazil ao

And Europe?

Europe is busy perfecting its eye-roll routine…

Train punctuality:

🇩🇪 #Germany: 70%
🇵🇱 #Poland: 80%
🇺🇦 #Ukraine: 95%

Hard not to be humbled by this.

Oksana Forostyna reviews The Train Arrives on Time by Marichka Paplauskaite

europeanreviewofbooks.com/glory-to-the...

Sixteen children. A dynasty across Europe. Still haunting politics.

europeanreviewofbooks.com/queen-of-the...
(free)

One of the year’s best just got longlisted for the Booker:

One Boat, from @jcbuckley.bsky.social

Buckley’s writing really stands out.
I actually texted him this year, and asked:

‘How did you learn to write?’

europeanreviewofbooks.com/texting-with...

@cantavest.bsky.social

@aluckmann.bsky.social

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Beloved Blueskyans,
I need a little help
—there's a reward.

The ERB is growing: major universities across Europe and the US are subscribing. But we need more. Please forward, repost or email the text in the reply to who can subscribe.

If you help, I hereby grant you the title of INTELLECTUAL.

Magic

Sunday reading: “How to abandon an archive. When an authoritarian regime collapses, what happens to the archives of its secret police?” europeanreviewofbooks.com/how-to-aband... on the archives of Syrian secret services (via @europeanreview.bsky.social, by @uungor.bsky.social and Ali Ajasem)

Unpaywalled: The European review of love itself.

In « The great schizophrenia » Nikianna Dinenis unpacks Marlen Haushofer’s Killing Stella & the enemy hiding in those we have to love.

Read « The great schizophrenia » here: europeanreviewofbooks.com/the-great-sc...

@sanderpleij.bsky.social texted with Daniel Gascón, Madrid-based editor of @letraslibres.com, a Spanish-language literary magazine. Daniel tips the writer Mariano Gistain.

Read it here: europeanreviewofbooks.com/texting-with...

Adult content. People! We have adult content. Go to our website!
Free adult content, now what about that?

Now how to explain this? I need some scholarly advice here @fuchsflrn.bsky.social

To top up the irony: Jonathan Franzen told @Perlentaucher in 2005: « Meine literarischen Vorbilder sind deutsch: Kafka die Nummer eins, dann Karl Kraus, Goethe, Thomas Mann. »

How about Thomas Mann’s Buddenbrooks, Gabrielle Target’s Effingers, Günter Grass’s Die Blechttrommel.
Apparently Franzen is the hotter recommendation, the greater muse.

Schönwald is promoted as « Großer Familien-Roman in der Tradition amerikanischer Literatur », and « in der Tradition von Jonathan Franzen ».
The author said it is the novel « that I always wanted to read in German, but only found in American literature. »

Thread on Philippe Oehmke’s Schönwald. This enjoyable novel sheds light on an intriguing aspect of the German (and European) publishing psyche.

A 43,000-year-old Neanderthal fingerprint made headlines recently. But in Issue Four, Christy Wampole in her review of Trenton Holliday’s Cro-Magnon had already asked: what is « art before art »?

Read it in our Library: europeanreviewofbooks.com/art-before-a...

« When Americans rip off other people, nobody notices. »

We texted with Nell Zink, an American novelist based in Germany, about her novel Sister Europe and the fading hegemony of American cultural influence.

Read it here: bit.ly/nell-zink

P.S. those are @sanderpleij.bsky.social notes.

We asked readers how they feel about ripping open the print edition. It resulted in what we fondly dubbed « the great ripping debate ». There’s a good mix of considerable joy, some frustration, and the occasional papercut.

Here’s our designer Patrick showing one way to do it: with postcards.

How to write about « our » way of life’s dependence on the suffering of other living beings? That’s in Tania Roettger’s review of two novels by Lorenna Simmel and Munir Hachemi, who each sign up for agricultural jobs.

On learning to hate chickens, now before the paywall: bit.ly/on-chickens

« Definitely need him in ERB!!! »
That was in @sanderpleij.bsky.social editorial note after texting with Milan-based novelist @vincenzo.bsky.social.

Read their brilliant conversation on narrative-less present (and beyond) here: europeanreviewofbooks.com/texting-with...

What is to be done with the Syrian gulag’s enormous archive? So ask @uungor.bsky.social and Ali Aljasem, scholars of modern Syria. That’s what generated this extraordinary essay from Issue Eight.

How to abandon an archive – now in front of the paywall. europeanreviewofbooks.com/how-to-aband...

« Drop the need to tear open pages in the print edition. It kills me » – that's some of the feedback we received from you. Thank you for getting back to us!

We believe it's time we share some of the best methods for ripping open the pages. Here’s our editor Fernanda to demonstrate what can be done.

How to write? How to write a novel, a character?

After his chat with British author Jonathan Buckley, @sanderpleij.bsky.social made a few notes. One read: « Mesmerising. »

Read the full conversation here: europeanreviewofbooks.com/texting-with...