MEP
Álvaro Amaro
Portugal
Álvaro Amaro
Portugal
Non-fiction
How Democracies Die
| 2018
How Democracies Die
Non-fiction
USA | 2018
Donald Trump's presidency has raised a question that many of us never thought we'd be asking: Is our democracy in danger? Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt have spent more than twenty years studying the breakdown of democracies in Europe and Latin America, and they believe the answer is yes. Democracy no longer ends with a bang--in a revolution or military coup--but with a whimper: the slow, steady weakening of critical institutions, such as the judiciary and the press, and the gradual erosion of long-standing political norms. The good news is that there are several exit ramps on the road to authoritarianism. The bad news is that, by electing Trump, we have already passed the first one.
Drawing on decades of research and a wide range of historical and global examples, from 1930s Europe to contemporary Hungary, Turkey, and Venezuela, to the American South during Jim Crow, Levitsky and Ziblatt show how democracies die--and how ours can be saved.
MEP
Álvaro Amaro
Portugal
Álvaro Amaro
Portugal
MEP
Dietmar Köster
Germany
Dietmar Köster
Germany
Non-fiction
Unsere Revolution. Wir brauchen eine gerechte Gesellschaft
| 2017
Unsere Revolution. Wir brauchen eine gerechte Gesellschaft
Our Revolution. A Future to Believe in
Non-fiction
USA | 2017
Throughout the Presidential campaign, Bernie Sanders galvanized voters with his progressive platform and vision for America. In the book, Sanders shares experiences from the campaign trail and outlines his ideas for continuing a political revolution.
MEP
Dietmar Köster
Germany
Dietmar Köster
Germany
MEP
Marita Ulvskog
Sweden
Marita Ulvskog
Sweden
Short stories
Too much happiness
| 2009
Too much happiness
Short stories
Canada | 2009
With clarity and ease, Alice Munro once again renders complex, difficult events and emotions into ten superb stories that shed light on the unpredictable ways in which men and women accommodate and often transcend what happens in their lives.
MEP
Marita Ulvskog
Sweden
Marita Ulvskog
Sweden
MEP
Ana Gomes
Portugal
Ana Gomes
Portugal
Fiction
O returno
| 2011
O returno
The return
Fiction
Portugal | 2011
Rui is fifteen years old. He has lived in Luanda all his life and has never even visited the far-away Motherland, although he has heard many stories. Long after their neighbours have packed and left, his family are accepting that they too must return. But just before they leave for the airport, Rui’s father is arrested, and the family must go on without him.
On arrival in Portugal, Rui, his mother and sister are crammed into a luxury hotel by the sea, along with hundreds of other families. But these families are hardly welcome back in the Motherland, and as he tries to find his way in this new, uncertain life, Rui must also confront his mother’s rapidly declining health and the lingering spectre of his father’s unknowable fate.
MEP
Ana Gomes
Portugal
Ana Gomes
Portugal
MEP
Ana Gomes
Portugal
Ana Gomes
Portugal
Fiction
Sinais de Fogo
| 1978
Sinais de Fogo
Signs of Fire
Fiction
Portugal | 1978
Set in Portugal at the time of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. Jorge is a student staying on holiday with his uncle in Figueira. His uncle gives shelter to two Spaniards, fugitives from the Portuguese police. If the two men are captured they will be returned to certain death.
MEP
Ana Gomes
Portugal
Ana Gomes
Portugal
MEP
Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finland
Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finland
Non-Fiction
The Road to Unfreedom
| 2018
The Road to Unfreedom
Non-Fiction
USA | 2018
In this forceful and unsparing work of contemporary history, Snyder goes beyond the headlines to expose the true nature of the threat to democracy. By showcasing the stark choices before us--between equality or oligarchy, individuality or totality, truth and falsehood--Snyder restores our understanding of the basis of our way of life, offering a way forward in a time of terrible uncertainty.
MEP
Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finland
Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finland
MEP
Carlos Zorrinho
Portugal
Carlos Zorrinho
Portugal
Fiction
O terrorista elegante e outras histórias
| 2019
O terrorista elegante e outras histórias
The Elegant Terrorist and other stories
Fiction
Brazil | 2019
Mia Couto and José Eduardo Agualusa release 'The Elegant Terrorist and Other Stories', the first four-handed work written by the two authors. This project is born from their friendship and brings together three short stories based on theater plays written together by the two. (Description from Platform Media)
MEP
Carlos Zorrinho
Portugal
Carlos Zorrinho
Portugal
MEP
Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finland
Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finland
Non-Fiction
The Future Is History
| 2017
The Future Is History
Non-Fiction
USA | 2017
Award-winning journalist Masha Gessen’s understanding of the events and forces that have wracked Russia in recent times is unparalleled. In The Future Is History, Gessen follows the lives of four people born at what promised to be the dawn of democracy. Each of them came of age with unprecedented expectations, some as the children and grandchildren of the very architects of the new Russia, each with newfound aspirations of their own–as entrepreneurs, activists, thinkers, and writers, sexual and social beings.
Gessen charts their paths against the machinations of the regime that would crush them all, and against the war it waged on understanding itself, which ensured the unobstructed reemergence of the old Soviet order in the form of today’s terrifying and seemingly unstoppable mafia state. Powerful and urgent, The Future Is History is a cautionary tale for our time and for all time.
MEP
Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finland
Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finland
MEP
Malin Bjork
Sweden
Malin Bjork
Sweden
Fiction
Das Parfum: Die Geschichte eines Mörders
| 1985
Das Parfum: Die Geschichte eines Mörders
Perfume: the Story of a Murderer
Fiction
Germany | 1985
An acclaimed bestseller and international sensation, Patrick Suskind's classic novel provokes a terrifying examination of what happens when one man's indulgence in his greatest passion—his sense of smell—leads to murder.
In the slums of eighteenth-century France, the infant Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born with one sublime gift—an absolute sense of smell. As a boy, he lives to decipher the odors of Paris, and apprentices himself to a prominent perfumer who teaches him the ancient art of mixing precious oils and herbs. But Grenouille's genius is such that he is not satisfied to stop there, and he becomes obsessed with capturing the smells of objects such as brass doorknobs and fresh-cut wood. Then one day he catches a hint of a scent that will drive him on an ever-more-terrifying quest to create the "ultimate perfume"—the scent of a beautiful young virgin. Told with dazzling narrative brilliance, Perfume is a hauntingly powerful tale of murder and sensual depravity.
MEP
Malin Bjork
Sweden
Malin Bjork
Sweden
Expert pick
Fiction
Antes que o Café Arrefeça
| 2015
Antes que o Café Arrefeça
Before the Coffee Gets Cold
Fiction
Japan | 2015
What would you change if you could go back in time?
In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a café which has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time.
In Before the Coffee Gets Cold, we meet four visitors, each of whom is hoping to make use of the café’s time-travelling offer, in order to: confront the man who left them, receive a letter from their husband whose memory has been taken by early onset Alzheimer's, to see their sister one last time, and to meet the daughter they never got the chance to know.
But the journey into the past does not come without risks: customers must sit in a particular seat, they cannot leave the café, and finally, they must return to the present before the coffee gets cold . . .
Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s beautiful, moving story explores the age-old question: what would you change if you could travel back in time? More importantly, who would you want to meet, maybe for one last time?
Lisbon Public Library
Portugal
MEP
Seán Kelly
Ireland
Seán Kelly
Ireland
Memoir
The Choice
| 2018
The Choice
Memoir
Ireland | 2018
A profound and inspirational memoir, Dublin footballer Philly McMahon wrote after the loss of his brother John. The book traces his and John’s paths, from his earliest recollections of their childhood through the maelstrom of Ballymun’s heroin epidemic.
MEP
Seán Kelly
Ireland
Seán Kelly
Ireland
The book is a highly moving and gripping read. Philly is insightful and compassionate. As former president of the GAA, I found it very inspiring to read of the strength that he drew from sport in such troubling circumstances.
MEP
Helga Trüpel
Germany
Helga Trüpel
Germany
Sociology
Resonanz: Eine Soziologie der WeltbeziehungGebundene
| 2016
Resonanz: Eine Soziologie der WeltbeziehungGebundene
"Resonance: a sociology of wellbeing"
Sociology
Germany | 2016
If acceleration is the problem, resonance is perhaps the solution. This is, brought to the shortest possible formula, the core thesis of the new book of Hartmut Rosa, which can be read as the founding document of a sociology of good life.
MEP
Helga Trüpel
Germany
Helga Trüpel
Germany
MEP
Nils Torvalds
Finland
Nils Torvalds
Finland
Non-fiction
Die Gesellschaft der Singularitäten
| 2017
Die Gesellschaft der Singularitäten
The Societies of Singularities
Non-fiction
Germany | 2017
In this major new book, Andreas Reckwitz examines the causes, structures and consequences of the society of singularities in which we now live. The transformation from industrial to cultural capitalism, the rise of digital technologies and their 'culture machine' and the emergence of an educated, urban new middle class form a powerful engine for the singularization of the social. In late modernity, what is singular is valorized and stirs the emotions, while what is general has to remain in the background, and this has profound social consequences. The society of singularities systematically produces devaluation and inequality: winner-takes-all markets, job polarization, the neglect of rural regions and the alienation of the traditional middle class. The emergence of populism and the rise of aggressive forms of nationalism which emphasize the cultural authenticity of one's own people thus turn out to be the other side of singularization.
This prize-winning book offers a new perspective on how modern societies have changed in recent decades and it will be of great value to anyone interested in the forces that are shaping our world today.
MEP
Nils Torvalds
Finland
Nils Torvalds
Finland
MEP
Istvan Ujhelyi
Hungary
Istvan Ujhelyi
Hungary
Non-fiction
No one is too small to make a difference
| 2019
No one is too small to make a difference
Non-fiction
Sweden | 2019
No One Is Too Small to Make A Difference brings you Greta in her own words, for the first time. Collecting her speeches that have made history across the globe, from the United Nations to Capitol Hill and mass street protests, her book is a rallying cry for why we must all wake up and fight to protect the living planet, no matter how powerless we feel. Our future depends upon it.
MEP
Istvan Ujhelyi
Hungary
Istvan Ujhelyi
Hungary
MEP
Eva Maydell
Bulgaria
Eva Maydell
Bulgaria
Short stories
East of the West: A Country in Stories
| 2011
East of the West: A Country in Stories
Short stories
USA / Bulgaria | 2011
A grandson tries to buy the corpse of Lenin on eBay for his Communist grandfather. A failed wunderkind steals a golden cross from an Orthodox church. A boy meets his cousin (the love of his life) once every five years in the river that divides their village into east and west. These are Miroslav Penkov's strange, unexpectedly moving visions of his home country, Bulgaria, and they are the stories that make up his beguiling and deeply felt debut.
MEP
Eva Maydell
Bulgaria
Eva Maydell
Bulgaria
MEP
Artis Pabriks
Latvia
Artis Pabriks
Latvia
Non-fiction
Viņš un viņa. Mīlestība, Attiecības, Sekss
| 2016
Viņš un viņa. Mīlestība, Attiecības, Sekss
"She and he. Love, relationship, sex"
Non-fiction
Latvia | 2016
A comprehensive analysis of human relationships by highly respected Latvian theologian Juris Rubenis.
MEP
Artis Pabriks
Latvia
Artis Pabriks
Latvia
MEP
Josep-Maria Terricabras
Spain
Josep-Maria Terricabras
Spain
Classics
Tirant lo Blanc
| 1490
Tirant lo Blanc
Classics
Spain | 1490
A sweeping epic of chivalry and high adventure, Tirant lo Blanc describes with great precision and verve land and sea battles, duels, hunts, banquets, political maneuverings, and romantic conquests.
MEP
Josep-Maria Terricabras
Spain
Josep-Maria Terricabras
Spain
MEP
Karen Melchior
Denmark
Karen Melchior
Denmark
Fiction
House of Glass
| 2020
House of Glass
Fiction
United Kingdom | 2020
This thrilling family saga is filled with extraordinary twists, vivid characters, and famous cameos, illuminating the Jewish and immigrant experience in the World War II era. Addressing themes of assimilation, identity, and home, this powerful story about the past echoes issues that remain relevant today.
MEP
Karen Melchior
Denmark
Karen Melchior
Denmark
MEP
Catherine Stihler
UK
Catherine Stihler
UK
Non-fiction
The Twenty Year Crisis 1919-1939
| 1939
The Twenty Year Crisis 1919-1939
Non-fiction
UK | 1939
E. H. Carr's classic work on international relations was immediately recognized by friend and foe alike as a defining work. The author was one of the most influential and controversial intellectuals of the 20th century. The issues and themes he developed continue to have relevance to modern day concerns with power and its distribution in the international system.
MEP
Catherine Stihler
UK
Catherine Stihler
UK
MEP
Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finland
Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finland
Non-fiction
The Second Machine Age
| 2014
The Second Machine Age
Non-fiction
USA | 2014
A fundamentally optimistic book that alters how we think about issues of technological, societal, and economic progress. In The Second Machine Age MIT’s Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee—two thinkers at the forefront of their field—reveal the forces driving the reinvention of our lives and our economy.
MEP
Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finland
Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finland
MEP
Mady Delvaux
Luxembourg
Mady Delvaux
Luxembourg
Essays
Utopies réalistes
| 2017
Utopies réalistes
Utopia for Realists: How We Can Build the Ideal World
Essays
the Netherlands | 2017
We live in a time of unprecedented uncertainty. We have questions about the future, society, work, happiness, family and money, and yet no political party of the right or left is providing us with answers. We need a new movement, an utopy for realists.
MEP
Mady Delvaux
Luxembourg
Mady Delvaux
Luxembourg
Si vous êtes un homme ou une femme de gauche et si vous avez le moral en berne, lisez ce livre rafraîchissant de Rutger Bregman. Il rappelle que les utopies d’hier sont devenues des réalités aujourd’hui même si souvent il a fallu des siècles avant que des avancées remarquables n’aient été acquises, ainsi de l’abolition de l’esclavage ou encore le vote des femmes. Et donc pourquoi pas imaginer le revenu universel ? Bregman a fait ses recherches, il donne des exemples de projets qui ont réussi et explique pourquoi la pauvreté constitue un piège qui empêche de développer des stratégies de long terme.
MEP
Esther de Lange
the Netherlands
Esther de Lange
the Netherlands
Fiction
Mothering Sunday
| 2016
Mothering Sunday
Fiction
UK | 2016
Twenty-two year old Jane Fairchild, orphaned at birth, has worked as a maid at one English country estate since she was sixteen. And for almost all of those years she has been the secret lover to Paul Sheringham, the scion of the estate next door. On an unseasonably warm March afternoon, Jane and Paul will make love for the last time--though not, as Jane believes, because Paul is about to be married--and the events of the day will alter Jane's life forever.
MEP
Esther de Lange
the Netherlands
Esther de Lange
the Netherlands
Expert pick
Fiction
Tortilla Flat
| 1935
Tortilla Flat
Fiction
USA | 1935
Adopting the structure and themes of the Arthurian legend, Steinbeck created a "Camelot" on a shabby hillside above the town of Monterey,California and peopled it with a colorful band of knights. At the center of the tale is Danny, whose house, like Arthur's castle, becomes a gathering place for men looking for adventure, camaraderie, and a sense of belonging. These "knights" are paisanos, men of mixed heritage, whose ancestors settled California hundreds of years before. Free of ties to jobs and other complications of the American way of life, they fiercely resist the corrupting tide of honest toil in the surrounding ocean of civil rectitude.
As Steinbeck chronicles their deeds--their multiple loves, their wonderful brawls, their Rabelaisian wine-drinking--he spins a tale as compelling and ultimately as touched by sorrow as the famous legends of the Round Table, which inspired him.
Vincas Kudirka Public Library
Lithuania
MEP
Liliana Rodrigues
Portugal
Liliana Rodrigues
Portugal
História de Um Idiota Contada por Ele Mesmo
| 1986
História de Um Idiota Contada por Ele Mesmo
Story of an idiot told by himself
Spain | 1986
The protagonist of this novel is a twentieth-century idiot. Victim of the zoological folly of the European postwar period, our character is engaged in an eager and monothematic investigation on happiness, which leads him inexorably to ruin.
MEP
Liliana Rodrigues
Portugal
Liliana Rodrigues
Portugal
MEP
Miapetra Kumpula-Natri
Finland
Miapetra Kumpula-Natri
Finland
Fiction
Puhdistus
| 2008
Puhdistus
Purge
Fiction
Finland | 2008
When Aliide Truu, an older woman living alone in the Estonian countryside, finds a disheveled girl huddled in her front yard, she suppresses her misgivings and offers her shelter. Zara is a young sex-trafficking victim on the run from her captors, but a photo she carries with her soon makes it clear that her arrival at Aliide's home is no coincidence.
MEP
Miapetra Kumpula-Natri
Finland
Miapetra Kumpula-Natri
Finland
Expert pick
Fiction
Le royaume de pierre d'angle: l'art du naufrage
| 2019
Le royaume de pierre d'angle: l'art du naufrage
The Corner Stone Kingdom: The Art of Shipwreck
Fiction
France | 2019
After two years of sailing the seas with his crew, Prince Thibault finally decides to return home. There, on his native island, his father awaits him and counts on him to reign over the kingdom of Pierre d'Angle after his death. But along the way, a meeting will turn the Prince's existence upside down: a stowaway, Ema, a runaway slave. Together, they will have to face the dangers that threaten Pierre d'Angle. The first volume of a saga, "The Kingdom of Pierre d'Angle" is a moving journey to the heart of a story: that of an island, its people and their secrets.
Bordeaux Public Library
France
Expert pick
Fiction
Скриени желби, немирни патувања
| 2020
Скриени желби, немирни патувања
Hidden Desires, Restless Travels
Fiction
North Macedonia | 2020
"Hidden Desires, Restless Travels” is a mosaic novel in which the stories of fifty people from different geographical meridians intersect with the stories of the four characters based in Skopje, North Macedonia. The book is a mix of stories, intertwined among themselves, pictured in details, with specific atmosphere. This is a novel about the interaction between the personal and the external, about the way the atmosphere and situations shape our inner landscapes, about the need to tell stories and find the glow and the lie in them. The combination of an unbiassed camera view and personally colored storytelling creates an unusual tone, which causes the reader to be left in front of the open door of interpretation. Thematically, the book deals with some of the dominant themes in modern society: the relationship between the real and the virtual, the question of professional success and success in the art world, the relationship between external success and the search for oneself that has one form on the outside and another on the inside.
EU Prize for Literature
MEP
Karlo Ressler
Croatia
Karlo Ressler
Croatia
Non-fiction
The Organised Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload
| 2014
The Organised Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload
Non-fiction
USA | 2014
With lively, entertaining chapters on everything from the kitchen junk drawer to health care to executive office workflow, Levitin reveals how new research into the cognitive neuroscience of attention and memory can be applied to the challenges of our daily lives.
MEP
Karlo Ressler
Croatia
Karlo Ressler
Croatia
MEP
Inese Vaidere
Latvia
Inese Vaidere
Latvia
Non-fiction
Skylarks and Rebels
| 2017
Skylarks and Rebels
Non-fiction
Germany | 2017
Skylarks and Rebels is a story about the fate of Latvia in the 20th century as told by Rita Laima. Laima, a Latvian-American, chose to leave behind the comforts of life in America to explore the land of her ancestors, which in the 1980s languished behind the Iron Curtain. In writing about her own experiences in a totalitarian state, Soviet-occupied Latvia, Laima delves into her family's past to understand what happened to her fatherland and its people during and after World War II. She also pays tribute to some of Latvia's remarkable people of integrity who risked their lives to oppose the brutal and destructive Soviet state.
MEP
Inese Vaidere
Latvia
Inese Vaidere
Latvia
This is an unusual autobiographical book about a young woman who leaves the USA in 1980 and moves to the Soviet-occupied Latvia. She vibrantly illustrates the difficult life under the Soviet regime. As you read this book, I also recommend you to watch the documentary film “Soviet Story" which provides further insights into the true nature of the Soviet regime
MEP
Kaja Kallas
Estonia
Kaja Kallas
Estonia
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Fiction
The Circle
| 2013
The Circle
Fiction
USA | 2013
When Mae Holland is hired to work for the Circle, the world’s most powerful internet company, she feels she’s been given the opportunity of a lifetime. She can’t believe her luck - even as life beyond the campus grows distant, even as a strange encounter with a colleague leaves her shaken, even as her role at the Circle becomes increasingly public. What begins as the captivating story of one woman’s ambition and idealism soon becomes a heart-racing novel of suspense, raising questions about memory, history, privacy, democracy, and the limits of human knowledge.
MEP
Kaja Kallas
Estonia
Kaja Kallas
Estonia
MEP
Pernille Weiss
Denmark
Pernille Weiss
Denmark
Children's Book
De tre grottornas berg
| 2003
De tre grottornas berg
Three Cave Mountain
Children's Book
Sweden | 2003
Mina wakes up one night to find that a crocodile has bitten her on the bottom. Her tired parents don't recognise the seriousness of the situation, but Mina's Grandpa knows what to do. He takes Mina, her sister, and their cousins on a dangerous journey up Three Cave Mountain.
MEP
Pernille Weiss
Denmark
Pernille Weiss
Denmark
Expert pick
Fiction
대도시의 사랑법
| 2019
대도시의 사랑법
Love in the Big City
Fiction
Korea | 2019
Love in the Big City is an energetic, joyful, and moving novel that depicts both the glittering nighttime world of Seoul and the bleary-eyed morning-after. Young is a cynical yet fun-loving Korean student who pinballs from home to class to the beds of recent Tinder matches. He and Jaehee, his female best friend and roommate, frequent nearby bars where they push away their anxieties about their love lives, families, and money with rounds of soju and ice-cold Marlboro Reds that they keep in their freezer. Yet over time, even Jaehee leaves Young to settle down, leaving him alone to care for his ailing mother and to find companionship in his relationships with a series of men, including one whose handsomeness is matched by his coldness, and another who might end up being the great love of his life.
1 City 19 Books
MEP
Carlos Zorrinho
Portugal
Carlos Zorrinho
Portugal
Fiction
Livro do Desassossego
| 1982
Livro do Desassossego
The book of diquiet
Fiction
Portugal | 1982
This unique collection of short, aphoristic paragraphs comprises the "autobiography" of Bernardo Soares, one of Pessoa's alternate selves. Part intimate diary, part prose poetry, part descriptive narrative, The Book of Disquiet is one of the greatest works of the twentieth century.
MEP
Carlos Zorrinho
Portugal
Carlos Zorrinho
Portugal
I really recommend you to read this book because it is the most important work of a poet that merges the Portuguese identity with our universal soul.
MEP
Seán Kelly
Ireland
Seán Kelly
Ireland
Fiction
That They May Face the Rising Sun
| 2001
That They May Face the Rising Sun
Fiction
Ireland | 2001
John McGahern brings to vivid life the world and the people of a contemporary Irish village.It is a village flirting with the more sophisticated trappings of modernity but steeped in the traditions of its unforgettable inhabitants and their lives. With deceptive simplicity and eloquence, the author reveals the fundamental workings of human nature as it encounters the extraordinary trials and pleasures, terrors and beauty, of ordinary life.
MEP
Seán Kelly
Ireland
Seán Kelly
Ireland
MEP
Malin Björk
Sweden
Malin Björk
Sweden
Fiction
Homegoing
| 2016
Homegoing
Fiction
USA | 2016
Two half-sisters, Effia and Esi, are born into different villages in eighteenth-century Ghana. Effia is married off to an Englishman and lives in comfort, while her sister, Esi, is imprisoned and sold with thousands of others into the Gold Coast's booming slave trade, and shipped off to America, where her children and grandchildren will be raised in slavery.
MEP
Malin Björk
Sweden
Malin Björk
Sweden
Expert pick
Fiction
Other People’s Countries: A Journey Into memory
| 2014
Other People’s Countries: A Journey Into memory
Fiction
UK | 2014
This book evolved out of stories the author told his children: stories about the Belgian border town of Bouillon, where his mother came from, and where he has been going three times a year since he was a child – first with his parents and now with his son and daughter. A stunning piece of lyrical writing.
Literature Across Frontiers
MEP
Mikuláš Peksa
Czech Republic
Mikuláš Peksa
Czech Republic
Non-fiction
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
| 2018
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
Non-fiction
USA | 2018
In this masterwork of original thinking and research, Shoshana Zuboff provides startling insights into the phenomenon that she has named surveillance capitalism. The stakes could not be higher: a global architecture of behavior modification threatens human nature in the twenty-first century just as industrial capitalism disfigured the natural world in the twentieth.
MEP
Mikuláš Peksa
Czech Republic
Mikuláš Peksa
Czech Republic
MEP
Dietmar Köster
Germany
Dietmar Köster
Germany
Non-fiction
Rückkehr nach Reims
| 2009
Rückkehr nach Reims
Returning to Reims
Non-fiction
France | 2009
A remarkable book of sociological inquiry and critical theory, of interest to anyone concerned with the direction of leftist politics in the contemporary world, and to anyone who has ever experienced how sexual identity can clash with other parts of one's identity.
MEP
Dietmar Köster
Germany
Dietmar Köster
Germany
Expert pick
Non-fiction
Die kleinste gemeinsame Wirklichkeit. Wahr, falsch, plausibel - die größten Streitfragen wissenschaftlich geprüft.
| 2021
Die kleinste gemeinsame Wirklichkeit. Wahr, falsch, plausibel - die größten Streitfragen wissenschaftlich geprüft.
The smallest common reality. True, False, Plausible? Scientifically tested for the biggest issues
Non-fiction
Germany | 2021
The well-known science journalist Dr. Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim examines burning issues in our society with analytical acumen and incorruptible logic. With facts and scientific knowledge, she counters half-truths, fakes and conspiracy myths - and shows where we can rightly argue for lack of evidence.
Berlin Central and Regional Library
Germany
MEP
Inese Vaidere
Latvia
Inese Vaidere
Latvia
Poetry
The 1001st Blackish-Blue Night
| 2018
The 1001st Blackish-Blue Night
Poetry
Lavtia | 2018
This is a book of transformations – as musicians and translators render one another’s interpretations, printed and sung poems become renderings, renderings become songs once again. It is precisely that element which is the most interesting in “The 1001st Blackish-Blue Night” – the aim of this collection is not to introduce Ziedonis himself to an English speaking audience, but rather – to discover the poetic potential of Ziedonis’ poetry to create new texts, to discover some of the many transformation possibilities of poetry language. (Description from Jumava)
MEP
Inese Vaidere
Latvia
Inese Vaidere
Latvia
Imants Ziedonis is probably the most influential and well-known Latvian poet of recent decades. In order to translate the poetry, the translator has to feel its melody and I believe Mr. Šteinbergs has succeeded at it. The artist Līga Kitchen has done a wonderful job with the illustrations which truly inspire to read the book.
MEP
Christophe Hansen
Luxembourg
Christophe Hansen
Luxembourg
Fiction
Die Mutationen
| 2019
Die Mutationen
Fiction
Luxembourg | 2019
The house fly Leon Sumsa wakes up one morning and finds itself in an “enormous vertebrate”, that is, a human being. The lion from Kurt Tucholsky's satire “The lion is going!” Mutates into a polar bear that explores hip Berlin. The model of the statue of Venus from Prosper Mérimée's story "La Venus d`Ille" works as a young slave in a "company" that has striking parallels with today's working world. The "anecdote from the last Prussian war" (Kleist) is moved to the future, where the last four people fight each other. Ingeborg Bachmann's "Invocation of the Big Bear" is crossed with Lovecraft's Cthulhu myth and the result is a poem that sounds strange after Gottfried Benn.
MEP
Christophe Hansen
Luxembourg
Christophe Hansen
Luxembourg
MEP
Miapetra Kumpula-Natri
Finland
Miapetra Kumpula-Natri
Finland
Fiction
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
| 2017
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
Fiction
India | 2017
Anjum, who used to be Aftab, unrolls a threadbare carpet in a city graveyard that she calls home. A baby appears quite suddenly on a pavement, in a crib of litter. The enigmatic Tilottama is as much of a presence as she is an absence in the lives of the three men who love her. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness is at once an aching love story and a decisive remonstration.
MEP
Miapetra Kumpula-Natri
Finland
Miapetra Kumpula-Natri
Finland
In the summer it’s worth getting out of Europe for a little while. Roy’s second book isn’t a light read, instead it deals with some of the darkest episodes of modern Indian history, but the excellent narration makes one want to keep reading and not look away.
MEP
Mikuláš Peksa
Czech Republic
Mikuláš Peksa
Czech Republic
Non-fiction
Swarmwise: The Tactical Manual to Changing the World
| 2016
Swarmwise: The Tactical Manual to Changing the World
Non-fiction
Sweden | 2016
Swarmwise is a tactical guide to changing the world using cost-efficient swarm methodology. It is a leadership handbook that outlines how the Swedish Pirate Party was able to beat the competition on less than one percent of their election budget, and shows how any cash- and time-strapped manager can copy the methodology, whether the goal is social, business, or political.
MEP
Mikuláš Peksa
Czech Republic
Mikuláš Peksa
Czech Republic
Expert pick
Fiction
Ženy aj muži, zvieratá
| 2020
Ženy aj muži, zvieratá
Women and Men, Animals
Fiction
Slovakia | 2020
Pupala´s latest book manages to subtly link seemingly unconnected short stories into a greater, carefully composed whole in a way that is hard to define. At the same time, it provides fresh proof of the author’s ability to evoke a powerful drama in a realistic and yet very modern way within a very short space.With this book Richard Pupala continues his sophisticated and finely drawn yet distinctive reflections on important social themes. His focus is mostly on people on the margins of society, outsiders, or children from broken families, and the subjective way they come to terms with objectively difficult circumstances. The men, but more often women and children, for whom the author has quite astoundingly profound empathy and “on whose behalf” he is able to speak, are people who are often disadvantaged, under threat or deprived of opportunities for getting ahead in life in the way they would like to. In his latest book Pupala eschews any “literary” crutches. Instead, he offers a profound and – in the best sense of the word – realistic and consistently direct “Hemingwayesque” perspective on the dramatic circumstances of “ordinary” lives.
EU Prize for Literature
Expert pick
Fiction
A Casa-Comboio
| 2010
A Casa-Comboio
The Train House
Fiction
Portugal | 2010
An Indo-Portuguese family. A century of history. Four generations that evoke 450 years of mythical adventure, in which distant India was Portuguese. In the background, the departure, chance and luck of those who are constantly forced to pack their bags, uprooting, restlessness, the unexpected, the unpredictability of the intersecting destinations. The image given by the title is instructive: a house in motion. A unique poetic beauty. A real revelation.
Lisbon Public Library
Portugal
MEP
Victor Negrescu
Romania
Victor Negrescu
Romania
Non-fiction
Dependență și dezvoltare. Economia politică a capitalismului românesc
| 2014
Dependență și dezvoltare. Economia politică a capitalismului românesc
Dependence and development. Political economy of the Romanian capital
Non-fiction
Romania | 2014
Romanian modern economic history unfolds in eight chapters covering the period from the dawn of the local capitalist state, in mid-19th century, to the contemporary state policies, in the aftermath of the 2008 Great Depression.
MEP
Victor Negrescu
Romania
Victor Negrescu
Romania
I really recommend you to read this book because it is offering an impressive perspective on the development of the Romanian economy since the Independence time. Cornel Ban did a great job emphasizing the mechanisms of development and underdevelopment during different ages of the Romanian history like the economic dependence on the Austrian Empire, Inter-War period, Communism and transition to capitalism.
Expert pick
Fiction
The Song of Achilles
| 2011
The Song of Achilles
Fiction
USA | 2011
Achilles, "the best of all the Greeks," son of the cruel sea goddess Thetis and the legendary king Peleus, is strong, swift, and beautiful, irresistible to all who meet him. Patroclus is an awkward young prince, exiled from his homeland after an act of shocking violence. Brought together by chance, they forge an inseparable bond, despite risking the gods' wrath.
They are trained by the centaur Chiron in the arts of war and medicine, but when word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, all the heroes of Greece are called upon to lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause, and torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows. Little do they know that the cruel Fates will test them both as never before and demand a terrible sacrifice.
1 City 19 Books
Expert pick
Fiction
O Reino Transcendente
| 2020
O Reino Transcendente
Transcendent Kingdom
Fiction
USA | 2020
Gifty is a fifth-year candidate in neuroscience at Stanford School of Medicine studying reward-seeking behavior in mice and the neural circuits of depression and addiction. Her brother, Nana, was a gifted high school athlete who died of a heroin overdose after a knee injury left him hooked on OxyContin. Her suicidal mother is living in her bed. Gifty is determined to discover the scientific basis for the suffering she sees all around her.
But even as she turns to the hard sciences to unlock the mystery of her family's loss, she finds herself hungering for her childhood faith and grappling with the evangelical church in which she was raised, whose promise of salvation remains as tantalizing as it is elusive. Transcendent Kingdom is a deeply moving portrait of a family of Ghanaian immigrants ravaged by depression and addiction and grief--a novel about faith, science, religion, love. Exquisitely written, emotionally searing, this is an exceptionally powerful follow-up to Gyasi's phenomenal debut.
Lisbon Public Library
Portugal
MEP
Agnes Jongerius
the Netherlands
Agnes Jongerius
the Netherlands
Children Book
Tow-Truck Pluck
| 1971
Tow-Truck Pluck
Children Book
the Netherlands | 1971
Pluck has a little red tow truck. He drives it all over town looking for a place to live. Then Dolly the pigeon tells him that the tower of the Pill Building is empty...
MEP
Agnes Jongerius
the Netherlands
Agnes Jongerius
the Netherlands
Expert pick
Fiction
Kūnai
| 2020
Kūnai
Bodies
Fiction
Lithuania | 2020
Short and effective texts describe attempts at love, desire for meaning, our bodies, us who are so animally isolated in this cosy but alienated world, confused by the abundance of information, social media and the possibility of hiding from reality. The author fights these feelings with irony and cruel laughter; the protagonists of her stories cling to whatever, even the most banal of emotions.
Europe Readr
MEP
Emmanuel Maurel
France
Emmanuel Maurel
France
Non-fiction
Accélération: une critique sociale du temps
| 2005
Accélération: une critique sociale du temps
Social Acceleration: A New Theory of Modernity
Non-fiction
Germany | 2005
Hartmut Rosa advances an account of the temporal structure of society from the perspective of critical theory. He identifies three categories of change in the tempo of modern social life: technological acceleration, evident in transportation, communication, and production; the acceleration of social change, reflected in cultural knowledge, social institutions, and personal relationships; and acceleration in the pace of life, which happens despite the expectation that technological change should increase an individual's free time.
MEP
Emmanuel Maurel
France
Emmanuel Maurel
France
MEP
Julie Ward
UK
Julie Ward
UK
Anthology
Syria Speaks: Art and Culture from the Frontline
| 2014
Syria Speaks: Art and Culture from the Frontline
Anthology
UK | 2014
Syria Speaks is a celebration of a people determined to reclaim their dignity, freedom and self-expression. It showcases the work of over fifty artists and writers who are challenging the culture of violence in Syria. Their literature, poems and songs, cartoons, political posters and photographs document and interpret the momentous changes that have shifted the frame of reality so drastically in Syria.
MEP
Julie Ward
UK
Julie Ward
UK
Expert pick
Fiction
Aleskandra
| 2021
Aleskandra
Fiction
Netherlands | 2021
Lisa Weeda tells an exceptional family history, which begins with her grandmother Aleksandra. In 1942 she is deported from Ukraine and put to work in Germany in the war industry. Her granddaughter Lisa later travels to her grandmother's hometown and, on the wings of her imagination, meets her great-grandfather Nikolaj, who has been waiting for his daughter for almost three-quarters of a century. Together with him she goes in search of traces of her cousin, who was murdered during the recently flared conflict in eastern Ukraine. Aleksandra is the story of a family between East and West who just can't get away from an area that never seems to find peace.
1 City 19 Books
MEP
Eva Maydell
Bulgaria
Eva Maydell
Bulgaria
Fiction
Остров Крах
| 2016
Остров Крах
The Crack-Up Island
Fiction
Bulgaria | 2016
The Crack-Up Island presents two women telling their singular stories. They barely know each other, yet a magic liaison exists between them, because one of them is a newly self-initiated amateur astrologer and reads in the stars that a coming crack-up is threatening the other. Each of the women knows only her part of the story and the narrative pieces have to be fitted into one whole by the reader, like in a puzzle.
MEP
Eva Maydell
Bulgaria
Eva Maydell
Bulgaria
Laureate of the European Literature Prize 2017
MEP
Roberta Metsola
Malta
Roberta Metsola
Malta
Non-Fiction
After the Fall
| 2021
After the Fall
Non-Fiction
USA | 2021
Equal parts memoir and reporting, After the Fall is a hugely ambitious and essential work of discovery. Throughout, Rhodes comes to realize how much America’s fingerprints are on a world we helped to shape: through the excesses of our post-Cold War embrace of unbridled capitalism, post-9/11 nationalism and militarism, mania for technology and social media, and the racism that shaped the backlash to the Obama presidency. At the same time, he learns from a diverse set of characters - from Obama to rebels to a rising generation of leaders - how looking squarely at where America has gone wrong only makes it more essential to fight for what America is supposed to be at home - for our own country, and the entire world.
MEP
Roberta Metsola
Malta
Roberta Metsola
Malta
MEP
Brando Benifei
Italy
Brando Benifei
Italy
Fiction
The Picture of Dorian Gray
| 1890
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Fiction
USA | 1890
Written in his distinctively dazzling manner, Oscar Wilde’s story of a fashionable young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty is the author’s most popular work. The tale of Dorian Gray’s moral disintegration caused a scandal when it first appeared in 1890, but though Wilde was attacked for the novel’s corrupting influence, he responded that there is, in fact, “a terrible moral in Dorian Gray.” Just a few years later, the book and the aesthetic/moral dilemma it presented became issues in the trials occasioned by Wilde’s homosexual liaisons, which resulted in his imprisonment. Of Dorian Gray’s relationship to autobiography, Wilde noted in a letter, “Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks me: Dorian what I would like to be—in other ages, perhaps.
MEP
Brando Benifei
Italy
Brando Benifei
Italy
MEP
Hannu Takkula
Finland
Hannu Takkula
Finland
Fiction
Lapinpoika
| 2016
Lapinpoika
"Lapland Son"
Fiction
Finland | 2016
Simo lives in a small village in Lapland, taking care of an ill uncle. One day he meets a brautiful girl by the lake and his life is changed forever. The book follows Simo as he moves to Helsinki, and depicts life in Finalnd and Lapland from the 1970s to the 1990s.
MEP
Hannu Takkula
Finland
Hannu Takkula
Finland
MEP
Radosław Sikorski
Poland
Radosław Sikorski
Poland
Non-fiction
Napoleon: The Man Behind the Myth
| 2018
Napoleon: The Man Behind the Myth
Non-fiction
United Kingdom | 2018
Based on primary sources in many European languages, and beautifully illustrated with portraits done only from life, this magnificent book examines how Napoleone Buonaparte, the boy from Corsica, became ‘Napoleon’; how he achieved what he did, and how it came about that he undid it.
MEP
Radosław Sikorski
Poland
Radosław Sikorski
Poland
Expert pick
Graphic Novel
Toen David zijn stem verloor
| 2012
Toen David zijn stem verloor
When David lost his Voice
Graphic Novel
Belgium | 2012
The moment his granddaughter Louise is born, David learns that he has cancer. But words were never his forte, and he’d rather keep quiet about his illness, the pain and the end that awaits him – much to the frustration of the women in his life. They wait, powerless, for the silent but inexorable end.
Passa Porta
Expert pick
Fiction
Eiti
| 2010
Eiti
Fiction
Lithuania | 2010
The novel, which takes the reader to the South of France, tells in a picturesque language about a lone observer's stay in a foreign land, his experiences and unexpected encounters, a quiet existence unfolding here, far from the noise of today's civilization.
Vincas Kudirka Public Library
Lithuania
MEP
Inese Vaidere
Latvia
Inese Vaidere
Latvia
Fiction
The Wrong Side of Goodbye
| 2016
The Wrong Side of Goodbye
Fiction
USA | 2016
In this #1 New York Times bestseller, California's newest private investigator, Detective Harry Bosch, must track down a missing heir while helping a police department connect the dots on a dangerous cold case.
MEP
Inese Vaidere
Latvia
Inese Vaidere
Latvia
The author’s use of language is very skilful – he manages to set scenes and describe events in a very vivid and captivating way. It is certainly a good book to read in your free time.
Expert pick
Fiction
De pierre et d'os
| 2019
De pierre et d'os
Of stone and bone
Fiction
France | 2019
In this remote world, one night, a fractured sea ice separates a young Inuit woman from her family. Uqsuralik is left to her own devices, plunged into darkness and the polar cold. She has no other solution to survive than to move forward, to find refuge. Thus begins for her, in extreme conditions, the path of a quest which, beyond the vastness of the arctic space, will reveal to her her inner world.
Bordeaux Public Library
France
MEP
Miapetra Kumpula-Natri
Finland
Miapetra Kumpula-Natri
Finland
Fiction
The Sorrow of Belgium
| 1983
The Sorrow of Belgium
Fiction
Belgium | 1983
A searing, scathingly funny portrait of a wartime Belgium and one boy's coming of age-emotionally, sexually, and politically. Epic in scope, by turns hilarious and elegiac, The masterwork of one of the world's greatest contemporary authors.
MEP
Miapetra Kumpula-Natri
Finland
Miapetra Kumpula-Natri
Finland
Sometimes it feels like the EU bubble segregates us MEPs from the Belgian culture, and my project for this spring has been to read books from Belgian authors. Hugo Claus’ best-known work about the German occupation of Belgium and it’s aftermath is really worth reading.
MEP
Maite Pagazaurtundúa Ruiz
Spain
Maite Pagazaurtundúa Ruiz
Spain
Fiction
Del color de la leche
| 2012
Del color de la leche
The Colour of Milk
Fiction
UK | 2012
Mary is a sharp-tongued farm girl, and she will do anything to learn to read and write. But as she does so through four seasons of one extraordinary year, she discovers that nothing comes for free.
MEP
Maite Pagazaurtundúa Ruiz
Spain
Maite Pagazaurtundúa Ruiz
Spain
MEP
Artis Pabriks
Latvia
Artis Pabriks
Latvia
Fiction
Svina garša
| 2015
Svina garša
"Lead taste"
Fiction
Latvia | 2015
The everyday life in the first years of the war (1939 - 1941) in Riga as seen from the eyes of an ordinary man: Matīsa Birkena, a painter who, in spite of everything, is in search for love. A novel about people, friendship,evil, courage and, of course, about love. This book is part of a novel series called "We. Latvia, XX century", which helps the reader understand the complex history of Latvia in the XX cetury.
MEP
Artis Pabriks
Latvia
Artis Pabriks
Latvia
MEP
Catherine Stihler
UK
Catherine Stihler
UK
Poetry
The Clinic, Memory: New and Selected Poems
| 2017
The Clinic, Memory: New and Selected Poems
Poetry
UK | 2017
Elaine Feinstein has selected poems from the last half century of her writing life. They range widely: tender, early lyrics from ‘In a Green Eye’; elegies for her father and close friends, amused reflections on ageing and longer poems such as ‘Gold’, based on the life of Lorenzo da Ponte, Mozart’s librettist, or the lot of refugees in ‘Migration’.
MEP
Catherine Stihler
UK
Catherine Stihler
UK
MEP
Malin Björk
Sweden
Malin Björk
Sweden
Fiction
Jag heter inte Miriam
| 2014
Jag heter inte Miriam
"I am not called Miriam"
Fiction
Sweden | 2014
When the family gathered around Miriam's bed to celebrate her 85th birthday, they think that she has gone mad. Why does she says she’s not called Miriam? The truth behind the tattoo on Miriam's arm, about how she became Miriam, begin to slowly come up and it's a totally different story than the one family expects. It is a story of self-deception, shame and exclusion, on Europe's painful history, about the situation of Roma and Sweden in the postwar period.
MEP
Malin Björk
Sweden
Malin Björk
Sweden
MEP
Liudas Mažylis
Lithuania
Liudas Mažylis
Lithuania
Fiction
Kai Kaunas buvo Kaunas
| 2019
Kai Kaunas buvo Kaunas
When Kaunas was Kaunas
Fiction
Lithuania | 2019
The book "When Kaunas was Kaunas“ written by a historian Giedre Mileryte-Japartiene takes its readers back to some beautiful summer days of 1938 and shows the ‚temporary capital‘ Kaunas in eyes of a local official of that time. The man takes a train from Klaipeda to Kaunas to manage the affairs in Ministry of Finance, as well as to spend some good time in a city that was then rapidly becoming more beautiful and modern than ever before. Let‘s take that adventurous yet mysterious trip to the temporary capital Kaunas together.
MEP
Liudas Mažylis
Lithuania
Liudas Mažylis
Lithuania
MEP
Liudas Mažylis
Lithuania
Liudas Mažylis
Lithuania
Non-fiction
Gulag: A History
| 2003
Gulag: A History
Non-fiction
USA | 2003
The Gulag--a vast array of Soviet concentration camps that held millions of political and criminal prisoners--was a system of repression and punishment that terrorized the entire society, embodying the worst tendencies of Soviet communism. In this magisterial and acclaimed history, Anne Applebaum offers the first fully documented portrait of the Gulag, from its origins in the Russian Revolution, through its expansion under Stalin, to its collapse in the era of glasnost. Applebaum intimately re-creates what life was like in the camps and links them to the larger history of the Soviet Union. Immediately recognized as a landmark and long-overdue work of scholarship, Gulag is an essential book for anyone who wishes to understand the history of the twentieth century.
MEP
Liudas Mažylis
Lithuania
Liudas Mažylis
Lithuania
MEP
Mady Delvaux
Luxembourg
Mady Delvaux
Luxembourg
Fiction
Olga
| 2018
Olga
Far in the future, the World Controllers have created the ideal society. Through clever use of genetic engineering, brainwashing and recreational sex and drugs, all its members are happy consumers. Bernard Marx seems alone harbouring an ill-defined longing to break free.
Fiction
Germany | 2018
Olga, the protagonist of the new book, is an orphan raised by her grandmother at the start of the 20th century. She falls in love against all the odds with Herbert, a local aristocrat. In her thoughts and letters, Olga stays close to Herbert throughout her life.
MEP
Mady Delvaux
Luxembourg
Mady Delvaux
Luxembourg
Olga ist ein besinnlicher Roman. Eigentlich ist es eine außergewöhnliche Liebesgeschichte zwischen zwei Außenseitern und zugleich ein Panorama über ein Jahrhundert Deutschland, über die verschiedenen Ideologien, die dieses Jahrhundert geprägt haben und die Art, wie die Menschen damit umgehen konnten und mussten.
MEP
Eva Maydell
Bulgaria
Eva Maydell
Bulgaria
Fiction
Физика на тъгата
| 2011
Физика на тъгата
The physics of sorrow
Fiction
Bulgaria | 2011
Incredibly moving—such as with the story of his grandfather accidentally being left behind at a mill—and extraordinarily funny—see the section on the awfulness of the question “how are you?”—Physics is a book that you can inhabit, tracing connections, following the narrator down various “side passages,” getting pleasantly lost in the various stories and empathizing with the sorrowful, misunderstood Minotaur at the center of it all. (Description from Open Letter Books)
MEP
Eva Maydell
Bulgaria
Eva Maydell
Bulgaria
MEP
Guillaume Balas
France
Guillaume Balas
France
Fiction
The Alexandria quartet
| 1960
The Alexandria quartet
Fiction
UK | 1960
Lawrence Durrell's celebrated tetralogy from the 1950s, was defined by its author as "an investigation of modern love", but has often been regarded by its readers more as an evocation of a city – the Greco-Arab, multi-ethnic Alexandria of its title. Almost infinite variations of love are certainly explored in its 1,000-odd pages, and the presence of Alexandria certainly permeates the work, but the legendary fascination of the quartet is essentially existential. The work itself is greater than its themes, and casts a spell that is neither precisely emotional nor specifically topographic.
MEP
Guillaume Balas
France
Guillaume Balas
France
MEP
Carlos Zorrinho
Portugal
Carlos Zorrinho
Portugal
Essay
Uma beleza que nos pertence
| 2019
Uma beleza que nos pertence
A Beauty that Belongs to Us
Essay
Portugal | 2019
A collection of aphorisms and quotes by José Tolentino Mendonça - about the meaning of life, the beauty of things, the presence of God. (Description translated from Quetzal)
MEP
Carlos Zorrinho
Portugal
Carlos Zorrinho
Portugal
MEP
Michaela Šojdrová
Czech Republic
Michaela Šojdrová
Czech Republic
Non-fiction
Průmysl lži
| 2017
Průmysl lži
Industry Lies
Non-fiction
Czech Republic | 2017
Alexandra Alvarová has been involved in political propaganda and marketing for 20 years and will show you through this book how unreliable, emotionally labile, and naive is our brain in making opinions. A unique read that goes behind the backdrop of big power games, where billions turn.
MEP
Michaela Šojdrová
Czech Republic
Michaela Šojdrová
Czech Republic
Expert pick
Fiction
Animal
| 2021
Animal
Fiction
USA | 2021
Joan has spent a lifetime enduring the cruel acts of men. But when one of them commits a shocking act of violence in front of her, she flees New York City in search of Alice, the only person alive who can help her make sense of her past. In the sweltering hills above Los Angeles, Joan unravels the horrific event she witnessed as a child—that has haunted her every waking moment—while forging the power to finally strike back.
1 City 19 Books
MEP
Esther de Lange
Netherlands
Esther de Lange
Netherlands
Fiction
KliFi
| 2021
KliFi
Cliff
Fiction
the Netherlands | 2021
The vultures hover over the republic of the Netherlands. After an overwhelmingly hot summer, the country is hit by a hurricane for the first time in its history. Retired librarian Jákob Hemmelbahn witnesses a local disaster that killed dozens of people. Jákob wants to record the stories of the survivors, but is hindered by a threatening censor. Looking away and denying has become an art under the new political order. Jákob cheats, revolts and dreams of great deeds.
KLIFI is a lyrical story set in a postponed present where nuance has gone underground and reason lunatic into hatred. But above all, it is a plea for listening to each other, the power of stories, difficult friendships and love.
MEP
Esther de Lange
Netherlands
Esther de Lange
Netherlands
MEP
Esther de Lange
Netherlands
Esther de Lange
Netherlands
Non-fiction
La grande illusion
| 2021
La grande illusion
The Great Illusion
Non-fiction
France | 2021
On June 23, 2016, to everyone's amazement, the British chose to leave the European Union. Why this unprecedented rupture and thwarting all forecasts? How to organize this divorce? What new relationship to build between the UK and the Union?
From the start of the talks, Michel Barnier, chief Brexit negotiator, sought the unity of the 27 Member States and the European Parliament.
Here we are for the first time at the heart of a complex and historic negotiation of 1,600 days, constantly oscillating between consensus and tensions, hopes and doubts, transparency and lies, to reach an unexpected agreement that will permanently change the face of the 'Europe.
From Brussels to London, from Dublin to Nicosia, this newspaper takes us behind the scenes of a diplomatic theater where a real war of nerves sometimes took place.
An exceptional testimony to the reverse of Brexit, to Europe and to those who make it.
MEP
Esther de Lange
Netherlands
Esther de Lange
Netherlands
MEP
Malin Bjork
Sweden
Malin Bjork
Sweden
Autobiography
Le Consentement
| 2020
Le Consentement
Consent
Autobiography
France | 2020
Already an international literary sensation, an intimate and powerful memoir of a young French teenage girl’s relationship with a famous, much older male writer—a universal #MeToo story of power, manipulation, trauma, recovery, and resiliency that exposes the hypocrisy of a culture that has allowed the sexual abuse of minors to occur unchecked.
MEP
Malin Bjork
Sweden
Malin Bjork
Sweden
MEP
Deidre Clune
Ireland
Deidre Clune
Ireland
Fiction
Night Boat to Tangiers
| 2019
Night Boat to Tangiers
Fiction
USA | 2019
In the dark waiting room of the ferry terminal in the sketchy Spanish port of Algeciras, two aging Irishmen — Maurice Hearne and Charlie Redmond, longtime partners in the lucrative and dangerous enterprise of smuggling drugs — sit at night, none too patiently. It is October 23, 2018, and they are expecting Maurice’s estranged daughter (or is she?), Dilly, to either arrive on a boat coming from Tangier or depart on one heading there. This nocturnal vigil will initiate an extraordinary journey back in time to excavate their shared history of violence, romance, mutual betrayals and serial exiles, rendered with the dark humor and the hardboiled Hibernian lyricism that have made Kevin Barry one of the most striking and admired fiction writers at work today.
MEP
Deidre Clune
Ireland
Deidre Clune
Ireland
Definitely one that you have to immerse yourself in and follow the thought process . A conversation between two Irish gangsters in their autumn years and looking back .
Expert pick
Non-fiction
Šikmý kostel
| 2020
Šikmý kostel
The Leaning Church
Non-fiction
Czech Republic | 2020
The novel presents a comprehensive picture of a village and a historic period. The story takes place at the turn of the last century between 1894 and 1921. The novel describes the life and fate of the inhabitants of the originally shepherd's village. Thanks to coal mining, it became a modern town with rich houses, but eventually it lost all its property and fame just as quickly when the locals began to die out of tuberculosis. Today, only the leaning church (also the title of the book) reminds the town with a turbulent and sad history. The personal stories of the main characters take place in the background of big events such as the First World War. The book is based on a description of the real events of Czech history and forces the reader, with its naturalistic description, to think about the values that life brings us today. The book is the first part of a planned trilogy.
National Library of the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
Expert pick
Fiction
Os Transparentes
| 2012
Os Transparentes
Transparent City
Fiction
Portugal | 2012
In a crumbling apartment block in the Angolan city of Luanda, families work, laugh, scheme, and get by. In the middle of it all is the melancholic Odonato, nostalgic for the country of his youth and searching for his lost son. As his hope drains away and as the city outside his doors changes beyond all recognition, Odonato’s flesh becomes transparent and his body increasingly weightless.
A captivating blend of magical realism, scathing political satire, tender comedy, and literary experimentation, Transparent City offers a gripping and joyful portrait of urban Africa quite unlike any before yet published in English, and places Ondjaki, indisputably, among the continent’s most accomplished writers.
Lisbon Public Library
Portugal
MEP
Nils Torvalds
Finland
Nils Torvalds
Finland
Non-Fiction
Das russische Imperium: Von den Romanows bis zum Ende der Sowjetunion
| 2020
Das russische Imperium: Von den Romanows bis zum Ende der Sowjetunion
Non-Fiction
Germany | 2020
This book is a contemporary testimony: a history of Russia from its rise to become a major European power until the fall of the Soviet empire in 1991. In his last lecture in Tübingen, Dietrich Geyer, one of the most important German historians of Eastern Europe, discussed the history of Russia's accession to the throne of the Romanovs from 1613 to the collapse of the Soviet empire. The book speaks of the rulers of the Tsarist Empire, of nobles and peasants, of empire building and nationality politics, of the revolution and its consequences. Geyer's portrayal is an attempt to make the basic features of Russian statehood and mentality visible. With his own linguistic power, the wealth of knowledge from five decades of research on Russia and great sovereignty, Geyer leads the reader through four centuries of Russian and European history.
MEP
Nils Torvalds
Finland
Nils Torvalds
Finland
MEP
Malin Björk
Sweden
Malin Björk
Sweden
Memoir
En storm kom från paradiset
| 2012
En storm kom från paradiset
A Storm Blew in from Paradise
Memoir
Sweden | 2012
A Storm Blew in from Paradise is both the story of Anyuru's father, P, a Ugandan pilot who deserted, and of Anyuru himself. Both men grew up without their fathers, an emotional void that had a serious impact on their lives. P makes a promising start as a fighter-pilot, but he soon finds himself a refugee, on the run like a hunted animal - while his only dream is to fly. Anyuru, growing up as a first-generation Swede, can't seem to leave the past behind, either.
MEP
Malin Björk
Sweden
Malin Björk
Sweden
Expert pick
Fiction
Swing Time
| 2016
Swing Time
Fiction
UK | 2016
Two brown girls dream of being dancers--but only one, Tracey, has talent. The other has ideas: about rhythm and time, about black bodies and black music, about what constitutes a tribe, or makes a person truly free. It's a close but complicated childhood friendship that ends abruptly in their early twenties, never to be revisited, but never quite forgotten, either.
PL2020
Expert pick
Fiction
The Every
| 2021
The Every
Fiction
USA | 2021
Delaney Wells is an unlikely new hire at the Every. A former forest ranger and unwavering tech skeptic, she charms her way into an entry-level job with one goal in mind: to take down the company from within. With her compatriot, the not-at-all-ambitious Wes Makazian, they look for the Every's weaknesses, hoping to free humanity from all-encompassing surveillance and the emoji-driven infantilization of the species. But does anyone want what Delaney is fighting to save? Does humanity truly want to be free?
Studded with unforgettable characters, outrageous outfits, and lacerating set-pieces, this companion to The Circle blends absurdity and terror, satire and suspense, while keeping the reader in apprehensive excitement about the fate of the company--and the human animal.
1 City 19 Books
MEP
Radosław Sikorski
Poland
Radosław Sikorski
Poland
Non-fiction
Napoleon
| 2018
Napoleon
Non-fiction
UK | 2018
A landmark new biography that presents the man behind the many myths. The first writer in English to go back to the original European sources, Adam Zamoyski’s portrait of Napoleon is historical biography at its finest.
MEP
Radosław Sikorski
Poland
Radosław Sikorski
Poland
Expert pick
Fiction
Спитайте Мієчку
| 2021
Спитайте Мієчку
Ask Miyechka
Fiction
Ukraine | 2021
The story of “Ask Miyechka” features four generations of women captured during one summer. Two sisters, Mia and Lilia, come to their “shelter”, an old house of their grandmother where they have spent their childhood, in an attempt to put on hold their upcoming life-changing decisions: deciding on immigrating or staying, choosing between reliable man or wild love. Their grandmother, Thea, is nearing the end of her life and her daughter and the sisters’ mother are fearful to take the place of the oldest woman in the family.
The old house, overgrown with weeds, shrubs, and sprawling trees, seems to be frozen in time, lost in oblivion. Yet the sisters bring it back to life: new people come, new cats wander in, pumpkins are grown, and the porch is renovated. The house changes, along with the lives of the women who inhabit it as the summer nears its end.
In her novel, Eugenia Kuznetsova told a deeply intimate story about the relations between sisters, mothers, and daughters. Vivid dialogues, when the most sensitive things remain unspoken, but somehow felt, define the atmosphere of the story, and highlight the unique ties existing between the generations of women in the family.
EU Prize for Literature
Expert pick
Graphic Novel
My Boy
| 2006
My Boy
Graphic Novel
Belgium | 2006
A tiny little boy and his single father are the heroes of these unpredictable adventures that soon take a disastrous turn. The kid's small size makes him the ideal prey to crocodiles, the Pygmies' hostage, and in brief, the victim of numerous traps.
Passa Porta
Expert pick
Fiction
Sempre tornare
| 2021
Sempre tornare
Always return
Fiction
Italy | 2021
It is the summer of 1991, Daniele is seventeen and this is his first vacation alone with friends. Two weeks away from home, to be enjoyed to the fullest among beaches, discos, alcohol and girls. But there is something he hasn't come to terms with: himself. A small inconvenience on the night of August 15th is enough for Daniele to decide to leave the group and continue the journey on foot, alone, from the Riviera Romagnola towards Rome.
He will make all sorts of encounters: people who are worn out by loneliness but still capable of leaps of humanity, others who look over an abyss of madness, people defeated by life, or incurable bullies. And he will meet love, in Emma's blue eyes. But above all Daniele will meet himself, in an intense inner dialogue. He unceasingly interprets and questions everything that happens to him, with the urgency to devour the world typical of a seventeen years old, craving to understand everything and, above all, himself.
EU Prize for Literature
MEP
Milan Brglez
Slovenia
Milan Brglez
Slovenia
Fiction
In Ijuben Tudi
| 2017
In Ijuben Tudi
And Love Itself
Fiction
Slovenia | 2017
After the occupation of Yugoslavia by German forces in 1941, the Slovenian city of Maribor, historically a German-speaking town with a large German minority, is annexed to the Third Reich. In the city renamed Marburg an der Drau, neighbours and friends of yesterday are torn apart and a resistance movement is organised in the surrounding hills.
MEP
Milan Brglez
Slovenia
Milan Brglez
Slovenia
Expert pick
Fiction
The Midnight Library
| 2020
The Midnight Library
Fiction
UK | 2020
Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had made other choices . . . Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets?
A dazzling novel about all the choices that go into a life well lived, from the internationally bestselling author of Reasons to Stay Alive and How To Stop Time.
Berlin Central and Regional Library
Germany
MEP
Anne Sander
France
Anne Sander
France
Fiction
La Terre
| 1887
La Terre
The Earth
Fiction
France | 1887
When Jean Macquart arrives in the peasant community of Beauce, where farmers have worked the same land for generations, he quickly finds himself involved in the corrupt affairs of the local Fouan family. A fascinating portrayal of a struggling but decadent community.
MEP
Anne Sander
France
Anne Sander
France
MEP
Isabel Wiseler-Lima
Luxembourg
Isabel Wiseler-Lima
Luxembourg
Non-fiction
Chine, le grand paradoxe
| 2019
Chine, le grand paradoxe
Non-fiction
France | 2019
"For many Europeans, China is a threat. This fear is linked to our ignorance of this" complicated East ", often paradoxical. However, in fifty years, I have learned how exciting it is to build fruitful relationships with this immense culture.
Building authentic relationships with what has become the second economic power on the planet is a requirement for Europe, at a time when our increasingly unpredictable American ally does not hesitate to weaken the old continent for defend his interests. At a time when, above all, to resist the enduring conflict between China and the United States, the European nations must constitute a veritable third force so as not to be condemned to go out of history.
Five decades after Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber's American Challenge, I would like, by encouraging a better understanding of a country that will occupy an ever-increasing part of our future, to propose an "action book", likely to help a necessary European awakening. "
Jean-Pierre Raffarin
MEP
Isabel Wiseler-Lima
Luxembourg
Isabel Wiseler-Lima
Luxembourg
A book relevant to our times, realist, does not stop at describing and warning but shows paths.
MEP
Eero Heinäluoma
Finland
Eero Heinäluoma
Finland
Fiction
Täällä Pohjantähden alla 1–3
| 1962
Täällä Pohjantähden alla 1–3
Under the North Star 1-3
Fiction
Finland | 1962
The novel follows the life of a Finnish family from 1880, through the First World War, the Finnish Civil War and the Second World War, to about 1950. Through the lives of ordinary people, it describes the clash of ideals in Finland's language strife and the struggle between the Whites (nationalists) and the Reds (socialists) in the movement to Independence and Civil War.
MEP
Eero Heinäluoma
Finland
Eero Heinäluoma
Finland
MEP
Annie Schreijer-Pierik
Netherlands
Annie Schreijer-Pierik
Netherlands
Non-fiction
Op Vakantie!
| 2021
Op Vakantie!
On holiday!
Non-fiction
the Netherlands | 2021
When did we first go 'on vacation' and how did we travel? Wim Daniëls wrote an infectious book about the holidays of the past.
Nowadays we fly to a tropical destination for next to nothing. But not so long ago that was unaffordable for many. How did we go on holiday then? By bike, on foot, by train or even by car. With a roof rack on the roof, the stuff secured under a flapping tarp? Wim Daniëls describes how we used to go on holiday. About the first daredevils who already traveled Europe by bicycle at the beginning of the last century. And about the families who first went on a road trip in the fifties and sixties, on winding roads that led travelers through quiet villages. And about the people who sought out the sun in their own country. To the Wadden or to Zeeland, just camping with the tent. This cheerfully illustrated summer book takes you back to the summers of yesteryear.
MEP
Annie Schreijer-Pierik
Netherlands
Annie Schreijer-Pierik
Netherlands
MEP
Seán Kelly
Ireland
Seán Kelly
Ireland
Fiction
The Silent Patient
| 2019
The Silent Patient
Fiction
United Kingdom | 2019
Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.
MEP
Seán Kelly
Ireland
Seán Kelly
Ireland
Expert pick
Non-fiction
Marzahn, mon amour. Geschichten einer Fusspflegerin
| 2019
Marzahn, mon amour. Geschichten einer Fusspflegerin
Marzahn, mon amour: stories of a podiatrist
Non-fiction
Germany | 2019
Katja Oskamp is in her forties when life becomes boring for her. The child is out of the house, the husband is sick, the writing to which she has devoted herself until then: a field of disappointments. So she does something that would be tantamount to failure for others: She becomes a podiatrist in Berlin-Marzahn, once the largest prefabricated building area in the GDR. And write down what she hears - stories like those of Mr Paulke, one of the first residents of the district forty years ago, Mrs Guse, who walks backwards from the world, or Mr Pietsch, the ex-functionary with the plaid flat cap . Stories full of humanity and wit, marvels about people in themselves - viewed from their feet.
Berlin Central and Regional Library
Germany
MEP
Carlos Coelho
Portugal
Carlos Coelho
Portugal
Non-fiction
Ética para um Jovem
| 1995
Ética para um Jovem
Non-fiction
Spain | 1995
Thought and written to be read by teenagers, this book invites the reader to reflect and ask new questions about freedom of choice, responsibility, the value of friendship, love, respect, possession and power.
MEP
Carlos Coelho
Portugal
Carlos Coelho
Portugal
MEP
Helga Trüpel
Germany
Helga Trüpel
Germany
Biography
Wer war Ingeborg Bachmann?
| 2017
Wer war Ingeborg Bachmann?
Who was Ingeborg Bachmann?
Biography
Germany | 2017
Ingeborg Bachmann is a myth of German-speaking post-war literature. Her divine performances and the early fame, her relationships with Paul Celan and Max Frisch and not least her enigmatic, tragic death provide a glamorous image, brillianly depicted by Ina Hartwig.
MEP
Helga Trüpel
Germany
Helga Trüpel
Germany
MEP
Irena Joveva
Slovenia
Irena Joveva
Slovenia
Fiction
1984
| 1949
1984
Fiction
UK | 1949
Among the seminal texts of the 20th century, Nineteen Eighty-Four is a rare work that grows more haunting as its futuristic purgatory becomes more real. Published in 1949, the book offers political satirist George Orwell's nightmarish vision of a totalitarian, bureaucratic world and one poor stiff's attempt to find individuality. The brilliance of the novel is Orwell's prescience of modern life—the ubiquity of television, the distortion of the language—and his ability to construct such a thorough version of hell. Required reading for students since it was published, it ranks among the most terrifying novels ever written.
MEP
Irena Joveva
Slovenia
Irena Joveva
Slovenia
Although this novel is not exactly a summer easy read, I read it after a long time last summer and this year I will very likely read it as well. I recommend it because it talks about the desire for control, about potentiating emergencies, neglecting, manipulating, updating, and even erasing the past… In short, because it doesn’t necessarily talk about 1984.
Expert pick
Fiction
U jarku
| 2020
U jarku
In the Ditch
Fiction
Bosnia and Herzegovina | 2020
When the heroine’s / narrator’s mother runs into her room, interrupting the daughter watching her favourite crime series, the readers begin to discover the almost insane and chaotic world of the story made up of events such as the funeral of Aunt Stana, who chokes on a piece of chicken, shattering plans to sell the family home and land. The fictional world is filled with unusual visits to police stations and clinics, heroes who unsuccessfully attempt suicide, and those who erect monuments for themselves before they have died, or experience a personal renaissance after deciding to enter the world of smuggling. With each new page, Slađana Nina Perković creates a unique novelistic world built on the display of everyday life, only that everyday life, expressed in extremely sharp language and with a dose of black humour, is moved almost to the limits of absurdity and grotesque. One funeral and sale of a family home and land, the events almost automatically perceived as tragic or shocking, are transformed into the ridiculous that does not ignore tragedy and reality, but helps us understand a more complete picture of the world we inhabit.
EU Prize for Literature
MEP
Irena Joveva
Slovenia
Irena Joveva
Slovenia
Non-fiction
Plan B
| 2020
Plan B
Non-fiction
Slovenia | 2020
And so, instead of reciting figures and spewing forth yet more apocalyptic forecasts, Matjaž and I decided to highlight the communities and individuals who are bravely taking on the calamity. It is high time to add them all up, the members of the homo sapiens true elite who have chosen not to be swept away in the tide of indifference and arrogance, the visionary women and men who are not banking on miraculous salvation from elsewhere.
Our ambition has been to turn this book into a monument for these intrepid foot-soldiers on humanity's key front line, the ones who are amassing the knowledge, experience and technology that we will need if we are to have a prayer at all.
From Tilos, the first energy self-sufficient island in the Mediterranean, to the geothermal and thoroughly future-oriented Iceland. From the promising sea-power developments on the Orkney Islands in the north-east of Scotland, where surplus energy is already being converted into 'green' hydrogen, to the biomass-centred Austrian townlet of Güssing, whose inhabitants have taken the progressive route as far back as a quarter of a century ago, and who have by now managed to reinvent themselves as a key hub for the development and production of renewable-energy technology.
So here they all are, humbly requesting your consideration. From the Swiss-based Climeworks company, capturing carbon dioxide directly from the air to inject it into Iceland's underworld, to a number of self-sufficient Scandinavian villages and Iceland's holistic transformation. From the lithium constantly travelling between Bolivian salt flats and Chinese electric-car factories to the electric-mobility revolution in Norway. From the waste-incineration plant in Norway that plans to store the captured CO₂ in underwater caves, to all of the individuals and communities who are standing behind these projects, raising their voices to remind us that we must hold on to our hopes at all costs.
MEP
Irena Joveva
Slovenia
Irena Joveva
Slovenia
It is unfortunately a very actual book. Why unfortunately? Because he talks about the climate crisis, but also about the fact that a lot can be done if you want to. Because, as climatologist Lučka Kajfež Bogataj wrote, we do not have planet B, but we can have plan B.
MEP
Monica Macovei
Romania
Monica Macovei
Romania
Fiction
The Spinoza problem
| 2012
The Spinoza problem
Fiction
USA | 2012
By imagining the unexpected intersection of Spinoza’s life with Rosenberg’s, Yalom explores the mindsets of two men separated by 300 years. Using his skills as a psychiatrist, he explores the inner lives of Spinoza, the saintly secular philosopher, and of Rosenberg, the godless mass murderer.
MEP
Monica Macovei
Romania
Monica Macovei
Romania
The Spinoza Problem is a story based on historical facts wherein the heroic philosopher is persecuted in two eras. One governed by medieval superstition describing Baruch Spinoza’s life. The other one governed by totalitarian racism, dealing with the life of a Nazi.
Yalom juxtaposes the story of the seventeenth-century thinker Baruch Spinoza, whose philosophy led to his own excommunication from the Jewish community, with that of the rise and fall of the Nazi ideologue Alfred Rosenberg, who ordered his task force to plunder Spinoza’s ancient library in an effort to protect it and deal with the Nazis’ “Spinoza Problem.”
Alternating between Golden Age Amsterdam and Nazi Germany, the book tells the story of the inner lives of these two enigmatic men in a tale of influence and anxiety, the origins of good and evil, and the philosophy of freedom and the tyranny of terror.
Expert pick
Fiction
Dance Dance Dance
| 1988
Dance Dance Dance
Fiction
Japan | 1988
The book is a sequel to Murakami’s novel A Wild Sheep Chase. In 2001, Murakami said that writing Dance Dance Dance had been a healing act after his unexpected fame following the publication of Norwegian Wood and that, because of this, he had enjoyed writing Dance more than any other. The book was first published in 1988, but was not published in Czech translation until 2021. The hero of the story returns to Hokkaido, where years ago he experienced an adventure in search of a mysterious sheep and lost his girlfriend there. He decides he has to find her. By Haruki Murakami standards, Dance Dance Dance is a quick read with an identifiable plot. The novel explores alienation and human connection at the same time.
National Library of the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
MEP
Eva Maydell
Bulgaria
Eva Maydell
Bulgaria
Fiction
A good year
| 2004
A good year
Fiction
UK | 2004
Max Skinner has recently lost his job at a London financial firm and just as recently learned that he has inherited his late uncle's vineyard in Provence. On arrival he finds the climate delicious, the food even better, and two of the locals ravishing. Unfortunately, the wine produced on his new property is swill. Why then are so many people interested in it?
MEP
Eva Maydell
Bulgaria
Eva Maydell
Bulgaria
MEP
Karlo Ressler
Croatia
Karlo Ressler
Croatia
Non-fiction
Outliers
| 2008
Outliers
Non-fiction
USA | 2008
In this stunning book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers"--the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different?
His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band.
MEP
Karlo Ressler
Croatia
Karlo Ressler
Croatia
Expert pick
Fiction
Vaders die rouwen
| 2021
Vaders die rouwen
Fiction
Netherlands | 2021
All fathers suffer, but some just a little more than others. They fall short, miss their children or limp after their own fathers. In Fathers Who Mourn, the characters deal with illness, stalking, torture and minor everyday grief. As the fathers wriggle around, they are observed by their daughters, partners, companions and dogs. Bowie wonders why Hannibal keeps finding himself in precarious situations. Mr. Huh, one of the most tragic figures, sees horses everywhere: in his dreams and in his children. Revenge gets crazy, world news seeps in. Love and compassion are slowly but surely gaining ground.
1 City 19 Books
MEP
Esther de Lange
the Netherlands
Esther de Lange
the Netherlands
Fiction
A gyertyák csonkig égnek
| 1942
A gyertyák csonkig égnek
Embers
Fiction
Hungary | 1942
In a secluded woodland castle an old General prepares to receive a rare visitor, a man who was once his closest friend but who he has not seen in years. Over the ensuing hours host and guest will fight a duel of words and silences, accusations and evasions. They will exhume the memory of their friendship and that of the General’s beautiful, long-dead wife. And they will return to the time the three of them last sat together following a hunt in the nearby forest - a hunt in which no game was taken but during which something was lost forever.
MEP
Esther de Lange
the Netherlands
Esther de Lange
the Netherlands
Expert pick
Non-Fiction
Creative Quest
| 2018
Creative Quest
Non-Fiction
USA | 2018
In Creative Quest, Questlove synthesizes all the creative philosophies, lessons, and stories he’s heard from the many creators and collaborators in his life, and reflects on his own experience, to advise readers and fans on how to consider creativity and where to find it. He addresses many topics—what it means to be creative, how to find a mentor and serve as an apprentice, the wisdom of maintaining a creative network, coping with critics and the foibles of success, and the specific pitfalls of contemporary culture—all in the service of guiding admirers who have followed his career and newcomers not yet acquainted with his story.
Whether discussing his own life or channeling the lessons he’s learned from forefathers such as George Clinton, collaborators like D’Angelo, or like-minded artists including Ava DuVernay, David Byrne, Björk, and others, Questlove speaks with the candor and enthusiasm that fans have come to expect. Creative Quest is many things—above all, a wise and wide-ranging conversation around the eternal mystery of creativity.
1 City 19 Books
Expert pick
Fiction
Madama Lazare
| 2021
Madama Lazare
Fiction
Ireland | 2021
Madame Lazare is a novel which shifts in time and place between the Aran Islands, Paris and Brussels from the mid-twentieth century to the present day. Personal, family and cultural identity are brought into question as the plot unfolds and unusual family secrets are revealed. The two main characters are Levana and her frail grandmother Hana Lazare who, as a young Jewish refugee, had to flee her home in Estonia to avoid persecution. Hana has always avoided contact with other Jewish survivors from her native Estonia. As Hana slides into dementia in Paris her daughter begins to realise that all is not as it seems. Hana is saying unusual things and at times seems to speaking in an utterly unintelligible language. An Irish translator from the European Parliament helps unravel the strange words Levana has recorded her grandmother speaking.The book concludes in 2018 with Levana on the Aran islands and the full story of Madame Lazare’s past having been revealed. There is an explanation for her hidden life.
EU Prize for Literature
MEP
José Manuel Fernandes
Portugal
José Manuel Fernandes
Portugal
Non-fiction
Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945
| 2005
Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945
Non-fiction
UK | 2005
Almost a decade in the making, this much-anticipated grand history of postwar Europe from one of the world's most esteemed historians and intellectuals is a singular achievement. Postwar is the first modern history that covers all of Europe, both east and west, drawing on research in six languages to sweep readers through thirty-four nations and sixty years of political and cultural change-all in one integrated, enthralling narrative. Both intellectually ambitious and compelling to read, thrilling in its scope and delightful in its small details, Postwar is a rare joy.
MEP
José Manuel Fernandes
Portugal
José Manuel Fernandes
Portugal
MEP
Romana Tomc
Slovenia
Romana Tomc
Slovenia
Fiction
White panther
| 2018
White panther
Fiction
Slovenia | 2018
203BC. For the Karnian people, in the idyllic mountain passes of Slovenia, the Roman Empire is no longer a distant menace: the legions are massing on their borders. A powerful yet lyrical tale that combines the sweep of history with the human impact of empire and war.
MEP
Romana Tomc
Slovenia
Romana Tomc
Slovenia
MEP
Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finland
Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finland
Fiction
Manual de zoología fantástica
| 1957
Manual de zoología fantástica
Book of Imaginary Beings
Fiction
Argentina | 1957
A lavish feast of exotica brought vividly to life with art commissioned specifically for this volume, The Book of Imaginary Beings will delight readers of classic fantasy as well as Borges' many admirers.
MEP
Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finland
Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finland
Expert pick
Fiction
Trofee
| 2020
Trofee
Trophy
Fiction
Netherlands | 2020
Hunter White lives for the big game hunt. An immensely wealthy American share trader, he goes to Africa to shoot a rhinoceros, the last of the Big Five he has yet to bag. The hunt gives him, more than anything else, the feeling of being alive. Moreover, he believes trophy hunting creates not just job opportunities but an income the local population needs to combat poaching. When he discovers, after a disappointing rhinoceros hunt, that there is something called the ‘Big Six’, his hunting expedition takes a sinister turn. In ‘Trophy’ Schoeters takes us into the twisted mind of a Western hunter. White is guided by a morally dubious compass as he weighs up the value of a life, whether of a person or of an animal. In a stylistic tour de force, Schoeters builds the tension step by step and sets Hunter White, local tracker Dawid and young hunter !Ngate against each other in a gruesome and captivating game of chess. Her rhythmical style underscores the almost physical sense of threat created by the plot.
EU Prize for Literature
MEP
Tomasz Frankowski
Poland
Tomasz Frankowski
Poland
Non-Fiction
Sodoma: Enquête au coeur du Vatican
| 2019
Sodoma: Enquête au coeur du Vatican
In the Closet of the Vatican: Power, Homosexuality, Hypocrisy
Non-Fiction
France | 2019
In the Closet of the Vatican exposes the rot at the heart of the Vatican and the Roman Catholic Church today. This brilliant piece of investigative writing is based on four years' authoritative research, including extensive interviews with those in power.
MEP
Tomasz Frankowski
Poland
Tomasz Frankowski
Poland
This is a very important book, based on hundreds of interviews of churchmen, including 41 cardinals and nearly a hundred bishops, monsignors and priests, both diocesan and belonging to religious orders, as well as visits to over thirty countries, often multiple visits to multiple countries.
MEP
Guillaume Balas
France
Guillaume Balas
France
Fiction
Désert
| 1980
Désert
Desert
Fiction
France | 1980
Desert is a novel composed of two alternating narratives, set in counterpoint. The first takes place in the desert between 1909 and 1912 and evokes the migration of a young adolescent boy, Nour, and his people, the Blue Men. The second narrative relates the contemporary story of Lalla, a descendant of the Blue Men.
MEP
Guillaume Balas
France
Guillaume Balas
France
Expert pick
Fiction
Ch.
| 2021
Ch.
Ch.
Fiction
Lithuania | 2021
In the words of a stagehand Charles, the main character and narrator of his latest book, Ch. is a novel about the first real theatre, because in it, the performance lasts until the end - until death. Such theatres are said to appear during the darkest years of tribulation to atone for the sins of mankind. Upon entering the stage of the novel, the actors reenact the story of the torture of Saint Denis, the bishop of Paris, as was historically accurately depicted in medieval performances: they are being burned, whipped, fed to wild beast. This story can be read as an elegy of a father mourning his murdered daughter; as an allegory of purgatory, abundant in references to the Bible, Carolingian culture and fiction; as an imposter prophet’s warning about the end of European culture; or as an ode to cats who were sent to fight the Devil.
EU Prize for Literature
MEP
Maite Pagazaurtundúa Ruiz
Spain
Maite Pagazaurtundúa Ruiz
Spain
Non-fiction
Yihadismo
| 2016
Yihadismo
Jihadism
Non-fiction
Spain | 2016
What is behind jihadism? From Al Qaeda and the Arab Springs, passing through the creation of the Islamic State, Ballesteros tells the facts chronologically and instructively, with the sole purpose of clarifying a complicated phenomenon.
MEP
Maite Pagazaurtundúa Ruiz
Spain
Maite Pagazaurtundúa Ruiz
Spain
MEP
Merja Kyllönen
Finland
Merja Kyllönen
Finland
Non-fiction
This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate
| 2014
This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate
Non-fiction
USA | 2014
Forget everything you think you know about global warming. It's not about carbon – it's about capitalism. In her most provocative book yet, Naomi Klein, author of the global bestseller No Logo, exposes the myths that are clouding climate debate.
MEP
Merja Kyllönen
Finland
Merja Kyllönen
Finland
MEP
Anna Záborská
Slovakia
Anna Záborská
Slovakia
Children book
Veľká kniha slovenských rozprávok
| 2003
Veľká kniha slovenských rozprávok
Children book
Slovakia | 2003
Fifty of the most beautiful Slovak fairytales in a new collection curated by Slovak poet, playwright, writer, translator and children author Ľubomír Feldek
MEP
Anna Záborská
Slovakia
Anna Záborská
Slovakia
MEP
Josep-Maria Terricabras
Spain
Josep-Maria Terricabras
Spain
Fiction
Incèrta Glòria
| 1956
Incèrta Glòria
Fiction
Spain | 1956
Uncertain Glory was the first novel to tell the story of the Spanish Civil War from the losers' side. The novel's hero, Juli Soleras, perhaps the most compelling character in Catalan literature, is an anti-hero: half philosopher, half cynic, locked in an eternal struggle with himself. A thrilling epic that was censored heavily for a long time.
MEP
Josep-Maria Terricabras
Spain
Josep-Maria Terricabras
Spain
MEP
Miapetra Kumpula-Natri
Finland
Miapetra Kumpula-Natri
Finland
Fiction
Bolla
| 2019
Bolla
Fiction
Finland | 2019
Entwined with their story is the legend of the Bolla, a demonic serpent known as Kulshedra, which is traditionally released only once a year to devour everything in sight over the course of a single day; an unearthly tale that gives Arsim and Miloš a language through which to reflect on their desperate relationship.
MEP
Miapetra Kumpula-Natri
Finland
Miapetra Kumpula-Natri
Finland
MEP
Julie Ward
United Kingdom
Julie Ward
United Kingdom
Memoir
The Lightless Sky
| 2016
The Lightless Sky
Memoir
UK/Afghanistan | 2016
A gripping, inspiring, and eye-opening memoir of fortitude and survival—of a twelve-year-old boy’s traumatic flight from Afghanistan to the West—that puts a face to one of the most shocking and devastating humanitarian crises of our time.
MEP
Julie Ward
United Kingdom
Julie Ward
United Kingdom
MEP
Igor Šoltes
Slovenia
Igor Šoltes
Slovenia
Fiction
The bridge on the Drina
| 1945
The bridge on the Drina
Fiction
Bosnia and Herzegovina | 1945
A vivid depiction of the suffering history has imposed upon the people of Bosnia from the late sixteenth century to the beginning of World War I, The Bridge on the Drina won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1961.
MEP
Igor Šoltes
Slovenia
Igor Šoltes
Slovenia
MEP
Marita Ulvskog
Sweden
Marita Ulvskog
Sweden
Fiction
Hjortronlandet
| 1955
Hjortronlandet
Fiction
Sweden | 1955
This cheerful, sometimes heartbreaking novel, brings the reader in the hard and difficult life of a community of farmers in the north of Sweden. Life pulses in every row and every word becomes a protest against human condition.
MEP
Marita Ulvskog
Sweden
Marita Ulvskog
Sweden
MEP
Malin Björk
Sweden
Malin Björk
Sweden
Fiction
Sen for jag hem
| 2020
Sen for jag hem
Then I went home
Fiction
Sweden | 2020
Jana Kippo leaves Smalånger to participate in an exhibition in Stockholm. There, her past once again catches up with her, at the same time as new opportunities open up. Maybe it means a chance at a dignified life. With love and art as power. If it were not for John, Brother, Diana and the others calling from the north. With her first two books about Jana Kippo, I went down to brother and We went up with mother, Karin Smirnoff established herself as a narrator of rank praised for her distinctive style and deeply appreciated for her sense of the human. Then I Go Home is the dramatic third novel about Jana Kippo that completes the trilogy.
MEP
Malin Björk
Sweden
Malin Björk
Sweden
MEP
Brando Benifei
Italy
Brando Benifei
Italy
Non-fiction
World Order
| 2014
World Order
Non-fiction
USA | 2014
Drawing on his experience as one of the foremost statesmen of the modern era—advising presidents, traveling the world, observing and shaping the central foreign policy events of recent decades—Kissinger now reveals his analysis of the ultimate challenge for the twenty-first century: how to build a shared international order in a world of divergent historical perspectives, violent conflict, proliferating technology, and ideological extremism. A deep meditation on the roots of international harmony and global disorder.
MEP
Brando Benifei
Italy
Brando Benifei
Italy
MEP
Monica Macovei
Romania
Monica Macovei
Romania
Non-fiction
#rezist. Proteste împotriva OUG 13/2017
| 2017
#rezist. Proteste împotriva OUG 13/2017
#resist. Protests against GEO 13/2017
Non-fiction
Romania | 2017
An album documenting the protests against GEO 13/2017, the largest protest in the history of post-revolutionary Romania, with contributions from photographers, leading journalists, analysts and people of culture.
MEP
Monica Macovei
Romania
Monica Macovei
Romania
This book is a testimony of a moral revolution born out of indignation, a document about the civilization of dignity and the civism of principles. Over 600 people took the streets all over Romania in January-March 2017 against the Gov. decision to change the Criminal Codes to their benefits and escape of criminal sentences.The messages on the planters used by the protesters betray a fabulous creativity, humor, irony, honesty and intransigence. A true proof of the mobilizing power of words.
MEP
Mady Delvaux
Luxembourg
Mady Delvaux
Luxembourg
Fiction
Der Abschied des Hofbibliothekars
| 2017
Der Abschied des Hofbibliothekars
"The leave of the court’s librarian"
Fiction
Luxembourg | 2017
The former librarian of the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, Gaston Mannes, presents nine fictional essays about famous European intellectuals which served as court’s librarians. Based on several biographies and imitating the spelling style of their times he describes an often critical relationship between majesties and their personal librarians.
MEP
Mady Delvaux
Luxembourg
Mady Delvaux
Luxembourg
You should read this book if you adore the splendid libraries from the old days and if you want to ponder over the torturous relations between power and knowledge.
MEP
Catherine Stihler
UK
Catherine Stihler
UK
Non-fiction
The correspondence of Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia, Volume 2
| 2011
The correspondence of Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia, Volume 2
Non-fiction
UK | 2011
In this most political period of her life, Elizabeth devises, often unsuccessfully, ploys to gain financial, moral, and military support for the Palatine cause, frequently in direct opposition to her brother's wishes and demands. Her letters were the principal means by which she could exert her power on statesmen and military leaders.
MEP
Catherine Stihler
UK
Catherine Stihler
UK
MEP
Ivo Belet
Belgium
Ivo Belet
Belgium
Fiction
Le train
| 1961
Le train
The Train
Fiction
Belgium | 1961
When Nazi tanks approach the Ardennes in 1940, Marcel Ferón --a timid and happy man must abandon his home and confront the “Fate” that he has secretly awaited.
MEP
Ivo Belet
Belgium
Ivo Belet
Belgium
Written in 1961, but in a very fresh language. About the journey/escape of a young family that's on the run, through France, the first days after the outbreak of the 2nd World War.
MEP
Radosław Sikorski
Poland
Radosław Sikorski
Poland
Non-fiction
Talking to Strangers
| 2019
Talking to Strangers
Non-fiction
USA | 2019
Something is very wrong, Gladwell argues, with the tools and strategies we use to make sense of people we don't know. And because we don't know how to talk to strangers, we are inviting conflict and misunderstanding in ways that have a profound effect on our lives and our world.
MEP
Radosław Sikorski
Poland
Radosław Sikorski
Poland
MEP
Guillaume Balas
France
Guillaume Balas
France
Fiction
Mémoires d'Hadrien
| 1951
Mémoires d'Hadrien
Fiction
France | 1951
Marguerite Yourcenar reimagines the Emperor Hadrian's arduous boyhood, his triumphs and reversals, and finally, as emperor, his gradual reordering of a war-torn world, writing with the imaginative insight of a great writer of the twentieth century while crafting a prose style as elegant and precise as those of the Latin stylists of Hadrian's own era.
MEP
Guillaume Balas
France
Guillaume Balas
France
MEP
Carlos Zorrinho
Portugal
Carlos Zorrinho
Portugal
Fiction
Memorial do Convento
| 1982
Memorial do Convento
Baltasar and Blimunda
Fiction
Portugal | 1982
When King and Church exercise absolute power what happens to the dreams of ordinary people? From the recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature, a brilliant, enchanting novel of romance, deceit, religion, and magic set in eighteenth-century Portugal at the height of the Inquisition.
MEP
Carlos Zorrinho
Portugal
Carlos Zorrinho
Portugal
I love this book because it recovers the illusions, fantasies and aspirations of a Portugal that once dreamt of being great and eternal, despite being fragile and delicate.
MEP
Julie Ward
United Kingdom
Julie Ward
United Kingdom
Fiction
The Holy Woman
| 2001
The Holy Woman
Fiction
UK/Pakistan | 2001
Set in contemporary Pakistan, London and Egypt, the Holy Woman is a powerful and compelling family drama. A romantic story of love and betrayal set in a wealthy Muslim community, with all the pressures and conflicts that modern life and old traditions bring.
MEP
Julie Ward
United Kingdom
Julie Ward
United Kingdom
Expert pick
Fiction
Øyeblikk for evigheten
| 2022
Øyeblikk for evigheten
Moments for Eternity
Fiction
Norway | 2022
Birgitte Solheim is a cardiologist who has turned 90 years old – so old that most of her friends are dead. Lonely and frail, she spends most of her time in her apartment in Paris. Behind her, she has a long career in a male-dominated environment, and she has never prioritized having a family on her own. Now she is trying to reconcile with life, while observing people and the world. With wisdom, experiences, drive and humor, she does not give up her dream of love. Øyeblikk for evigheten (“Moments for Eternity” is a tender, bitter and surprisingly funny novel about loneliness, love and death. Who are you when you're old? Are you just a representative of a certain age?
EU Prize for Literature
MEP
Eero Heinäluoma
Finland
Eero Heinäluoma
Finland
Fiction
Puhdistus
| 2008
Puhdistus
Purge
Fiction
Finland | 2008
An international sensation, Sofi Oksanen's award-winning novel Purge is a breathtakingly suspenseful tale of two women dogged by their own shameful pasts and the dark, unspoken history that binds them.
Sofi Oksanen establishes herself as one the most important voices of her generation with this intricately woven tale, whose stakes are almost unbearably high from the first page to the last. Purge is a fiercely compelling and damning novel about the corrosive effects of shame, and of life in a time and place where to survive is to be implicated.
MEP
Eero Heinäluoma
Finland
Eero Heinäluoma
Finland
MEP
Miapetra Kumpula-Natri
Finland
Miapetra Kumpula-Natri
Finland
Non-fiction
Putinin trollit
| 2019
Putinin trollit
Putin's Trolls
Non-fiction
Finland | 2019
Russia is waging an online war against civilians. Every critical voice is the enemy. Resources are not saved and laws are ignored when it comes to silencing critics. The book presents in detail the black-and-white painting operations carried out in Finland and several other Western countries, which have been machined and approved by the Kremlin.
MEP
Miapetra Kumpula-Natri
Finland
Miapetra Kumpula-Natri
Finland
MEP
Miapetra Kumpula-Natri
Finland
Miapetra Kumpula-Natri
Finland
Fiction
Réparer les vivants
| 2014
Réparer les vivants
Mend the living / The heart
Fiction
France | 2014
After a fatal car accident a teenager is declared brain-dead shortly by the doctors, but his heart is still beating.The Heart takes place over the twenty-four hours surrounding the resulting heart transplant, as life is taken from a young man and given to a woman close to death. In gorgeous, ruminative prose, it examines the deepest feelings of everyone involved as they navigate decisions of life and death.
MEP
Miapetra Kumpula-Natri
Finland
Miapetra Kumpula-Natri
Finland
MEP
Tanja Fajon
Slovenia
Tanja Fajon
Slovenia
Non-fiction
Žižek's jokes
| 2014
Žižek's jokes
Non-fiction
UK | 2014
An entertaining but enlightening compilation of Zizekisms. This compact arrangement of jokes culled from Zizek's writings provides an index to certain philosophical, political, and sexual themes that preoccupy him.
MEP
Tanja Fajon
Slovenia
Tanja Fajon
Slovenia
MEP
Dennis Radtke
Germany
Dennis Radtke
Germany
Non-fiction
Beethoven. Een biografie
| 2009
Beethoven. Een biografie
Beethoven: der einsame Revolutionär (Deutsch)
Non-fiction
Netherlands | 2009
The meticulously documented and flamboyantly written book was received with great enthusiasm and is now in its seventh publication.
The relevance of Beethoven for modern times jumps out from each and every one of the more than 600 pages; in fact, on the basis of this portrait, some critics do not hesitate to compare him to a pop musician. (Description from Le Concert Olympique)
MEP
Dennis Radtke
Germany
Dennis Radtke
Germany
MEP
Julie Ward
UK
Julie Ward
UK
Non-fiction
In Limbo
| 2017
In Limbo
Non-fiction
UK | 2017
Imagine you left your native country and build a new life somewhere else, where you felt happy and totally integrated. Until the day when your new country decides to vote to leave the EU. A collection of powerful testimonies from EU citizens living in the UK after Brexit.
MEP
Julie Ward
UK
Julie Ward
UK
I have been trying not to read this book because I know it will make me cry. I hear these Brexit stories of distress, bewilderment and anxiety everyday in many different ways - in the emails people send me, in the meetings I attend, in the corridors and waiting areas of public buildings, on the train, on the radio, etc., and they resonate very strongly. In January the In Limbo team were involved in a children’s rights event in Liverpool and for the first time children also gave their testimonies. It was heartbreaking. Recently, I opened the book at a random page and read the words of Fr Graeme Richardson, an Anglican priest, “Leave was a vote against lives like ours, a good old English “Fuck You”.The “baked cake” of modern Britain has been smashed.” Summer is often full of cakes and so I have decided to read “In Limbo” in its entirety, although I will definitely need a lot of tissues.
MEP
Bogdan Wenta
Poland
Bogdan Wenta
Poland
Memoir
Shantaram
| 2003
Shantaram
Memoir
Australia | 2003
Shantaram is narrated by Lin, an escaped convict with a false passport who flees maximum security prison in Australia for the teeming streets of a city where he can disappear. Lin searches for love and meaning while running a clinic in one of the city's poorest slums, and serving his apprenticeship in the dark arts of the Bombay mafia. The search leads him to war, prison torture, murder, and a series of enigmatic and bloody betrayals.
MEP
Bogdan Wenta
Poland
Bogdan Wenta
Poland
An extraordinary, colorful and dynamic reading, a journey through life, a story about people who change forever, about love, friendship, sacrifice and courage.
MEP
Bogdan Wenta
Poland
Bogdan Wenta
Poland
Fiction
Patria
| 2016
Patria
"Homeland"
Fiction
Spain | 2016
The book presents an unforgettable story of two families, taking place in small rural village in the province Gipuzkoa, Basque Country where ETA established their totalitarian regime.
MEP
Bogdan Wenta
Poland
Bogdan Wenta
Poland
A couple weeks ago friend of mine - a Spanish MEP, gave me the novel "Patria" as a present. It is one of those books you must finish as soon as possible once you started reading.
MEP
Kaja Kallas
Estonia
Kaja Kallas
Estonia
Fiction
Kun kyyhkyset katosivat
| 2012
Kun kyyhkyset katosivat
When the doves disappeared
Fiction
Finland | 2012
A story of occupation, resistance, and collaboration in Estonia during and after World War II. The novel follows the experiences of three characters: Roland, a principled independence fighter; his cousin Edgar, who will do almost anything to hide his secrets and maintain his connection to those in power; and Edgar’s wife Juudit, who is buffeted in turns by her love for a German officer, her fear of returning to her unhappy, unconsummated marriage, and her bond with the idealistic Roland.
MEP
Kaja Kallas
Estonia
Kaja Kallas
Estonia
MEP
Seán Kelly
Ireland
Seán Kelly
Ireland
Fiction
The Guardians
| 2019
The Guardians
Fiction
USA | 2019
In the small Florida town of Seabrook, a young lawyer named Keith Russo was shot dead at his desk as he worked late one night. The killer left no clues. There were no witnesses, no one with a motive. But the police soon came to suspect Quincy Miller, a young black man who was once a client of Russo’s.
MEP
Seán Kelly
Ireland
Seán Kelly
Ireland
MEP
Inese Vaidere
Latvia
Inese Vaidere
Latvia
Non-Fiction
Dienasgrāmatas.Vasara.Ziema
| 2020
Dienasgrāmatas.Vasara.Ziema
Olympic diaries. Winter. Summer.
Non-Fiction
Latvia | 2020
12 Olympic Games. More than 5,000 articles, interviews, reports – all written by the outstanding sports journalist Arturs Vaiders. This book plays a big role of the history of Latvian sports. In Vaiders' diaries, time comes to life again. The book consists of stories, jokes and extensive dictionary of more than 2000 personal names. This book can be read as an exciting novel - here are the main characters, intrigue, fight, losses and victories. Everything is real, nothing is fictional. And it inspires. As Arturs writes: "For the first place! For a great LATVIA!".
MEP
Inese Vaidere
Latvia
Inese Vaidere
Latvia
MEP
Brando Benifei
Italy
Brando Benifei
Italy
Fiction
1984
| 1949
1984
Fiction
UK | 1949
Among the seminal texts of the 20th century, Nineteen Eighty-Four is a rare work that grows more haunting as its futuristic purgatory becomes more real. Published in 1949, the book offers political satirist George Orwell's nightmarish vision of a totalitarian, bureaucratic world and one poor stiff's attempt to find individuality. The brilliance of the novel is Orwell's prescience of modern life—the ubiquity of television, the distortion of the language—and his ability to construct such a thorough version of hell. Required reading for students since it was published, it ranks among the most terrifying novels ever written.
MEP
Brando Benifei
Italy
Brando Benifei
Italy
This book is built around the exchange between truth and lies. It's an interesting book that is very resounding with what we see today in the world.
MEP
Malin Björk
Sweden
Malin Björk
Sweden
Fiction
Vi for upp med mor
| 2019
Vi for upp med mor
We went up with mother
Fiction
Sweden | 2019
The mother has died and wants to be buried in her home village Kukkojärvi in northern Norrbotten. The twins Jana and her brother inherit her parents' home and quickly become aware that life in Kukkojärvi is very different. Most people live according to strict religious rules where the prohibitions are many. Those who do not align themselves with the line end up outside, like the carpenter Jussi and Magdalena. Brother is attracted by the village community, the large families and the men's obvious rights. Jana does her best to offer resistance, while she struggles to end the destructive relationship with john. When she becomes friends with her cousin Marta, her husband, who is a pastor, does not take their relationship lightly.
"We went up with mother" is a sequel to the acclaimed debut "My Brother". In incomparable prose, Karin Smirnoff continues to let us get acquainted with the various characters in sparsely populated areas, and the returnee janakippo.
MEP
Malin Björk
Sweden
Malin Björk
Sweden
MEP
Isabel Santos
Portugal
Isabel Santos
Portugal
Fiction
Para sempre
| 1983
Para sempre
Forever
Fiction
Portugal | 1983
In Para Sempre, "at the end of a life, entering his epilogue, a man already without a destination to fulfill meditates about his past and his future, on his return to an empty house where he spent part of his childhood, populated by ghosts that evoke the key moments of its existence. Filled with flashbacks to the past and the future (!), The real and detailed preview of the degradation of his old age and funeral urges Paulo to make the final attempt to find a meaning for life".
"Continuous and increasingly lonely journey around the only point in his universe: that of his childhood as an unfinished and unfinished monologue around the fiery and dreadful miracle of his own appearance in the middle of the world - mountain, stars, water, wind that it is an answer before it is desperate and useless questioning. "(Eduardo Lourenço)
MEP
Isabel Santos
Portugal
Isabel Santos
Portugal
MEP
Monica Macovei
Romania
Monica Macovei
Romania
Memoir
Ocolul Mării Negre în 90 de zile.
| 2016
Ocolul Mării Negre în 90 de zile.
Trip around the Black See. 7 countries, 8 borders and a lived coup d'etat
Memoir
Romania | 2016
In 2015 soldiers were to be seen almost everywhere around the Black Sea. Sabina Fati decided to go for a trip around the Black Sea via Ukraine, Russia, Crimea Abkhazia, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania, which resulted in a book that helps us clear our history, geopolitics and world culture in which we are placed.
MEP
Monica Macovei
Romania
Monica Macovei
Romania
After three months traveling around the Black Sea coast, Sabina Fati, writer, academic and Radio Free Europe Correspondent reflects in this book the people and politics of the countries along the Black Sea coast. This reporting trip took her through Romania, Ukraine, Crimea, Russia, Georgia, and Turkey. According to the author the geography of the Black Sea should unite those who live there, but instead politics divide people and they suffer as a result
MEP
Artis Pabriks
Latvia
Artis Pabriks
Latvia
Poetry
Epifānijas
| 1978
Epifānijas
Epiphanies
Poetry
Latvia | 1978
A collection of Epiphanies -- peculiar poems in prose, labeled with the ancient Greek name of the genre. Emotional-journalistic dialogues with the reader, philosophical reflections on life by famous Latvian poet Imants Ziedonis.
MEP
Artis Pabriks
Latvia
Artis Pabriks
Latvia
MEP
Mady Delvaux
Luxembourg
Mady Delvaux
Luxembourg
Fiction
Charlotte
| 2014
Charlotte
Fiction
France | 2014
The true story of Charlotte Salomon, a talented and gifted painter in love with a brilliant, eccentric musician.But the Nazis have come to power and, a Jew in Berlin, her life is narrowing – she is kept from her art, torn from her love and her family, chased from her country. And still she is not safe, not from the madness that has hunted her family, or the one gripping Europe . . .
MEP
Mady Delvaux
Luxembourg
Mady Delvaux
Luxembourg
You will like this poetic novel, powerful and sad, which retraces the tragic life of a female artist painter suffering from family demons and victim of the Nazis.
MEP
Emmanuel Maurel
France
Emmanuel Maurel
France
Fiction
Con le peggiori intenzioni
| 2005
Con le peggiori intenzioni
The Worst Intentions
Fiction
Italy | 2005
Daniel is the thirty-three-year-old heir to the dappled fortunes of the Sonninos, a wealthy Jewish-Italian family whose staggering rise and fall during the years spanning the end of World War II and the beginning of the twenty-first century provides the richly colored backdrop to this remarkable tragicomedy. Daniel has inherited his grandfather's extravagant passions and his father's servility, as well as the excesses of his social class. He is also the victim of a crippling infatuation with Gaia, fountainhead of his erotic fantasies and fetishes.
This novel will be justly compared to the works of Philip Roth and Saul Bellow. An audacious, sumptuous saga about ritual and liberty, love and war, sex and betrayal, set in the opulent neighborhoods of contemporary Rome.
MEP
Emmanuel Maurel
France
Emmanuel Maurel
France
Expert pick
Fiction
Los días perfectos
| 2021
Los días perfectos
Perfect Days
Fiction
Spain | 2021
Luis, a journalist who’s tired of his job and his marriage, is planning to attend a conference in Austin, Texas. The trip is merely an alibi to cover his meeting with Camila, who has become the only thing that motivates him in his life. But just as he is about to leave, he receives a message from her: “It’s over but we’ll always have our memories.” Heartbroken and at loose ends in Austin, he takes refuge in a university archive, where he happens upon the letters William Faulkner wrote to his lover Meta Carpenter. Reading the correspondence helps him to reconstruct his memories of his own love affair and to reflect on his tedious marriage, but also to wonder how one should live to make every day count. With much truth and humor, and an enormous narrative skill, Jacobo Bergareche will draw readers in with this unique and captivating novel that explores the universal nature of both the ardor of falling in love and the inevitable routine of long-term relationships. A book of exceptional solidity and originality that proves Bergareche is an author who has come into his own.
EU Prize for Literature
MEP
Milan Zver
Slovenia
Milan Zver
Slovenia
Fiction
To noč sem jo videl
| 2010
To noč sem jo videl
That Night I Saw Her
Fiction
Slovenia | 2010
A love story in time of war told from the perspecive of five different characters, this is a novel about a few years in the life and mysterious disappearance of Veronika Zarnik, a young bourgeois woman from Ljubljana, sucked into the whirlwind of a turbulent period in history.
MEP
Milan Zver
Slovenia
Milan Zver
Slovenia
MEP
Malin Björk
Sweden
Malin Björk
Sweden
Short stories
Любовь пчел трудовых
| 1923
Любовь пчел трудовых
Love of Worker Bees
Short stories
USSR | 1923
Love of Worker Bees consists of a remarkable novel and two striking short stories.The novel is both a moving love story and a rare graphic portrait of Russian life after the October revolution in 1917. The heroine, Vasilia, struggles to come to terms with her passionate love for her husband and the new world that is coming into being around her. The two stories, "Three Generations" and "Sisters," provide more poignant and fascinating insights into the situation of women.
MEP
Malin Björk
Sweden
Malin Björk
Sweden
MEP
Petra De Sutter
Belgium
Petra De Sutter
Belgium
Fiction
The tattooist of Auschwitz
| 2018
The tattooist of Auschwitz
Fiction
United Kingdom | 2018
A vivid, harrowing, and ultimately hopeful re-creation of Lale Sokolov's experiences as the man who tattooed the arms of thousands of prisoners with what would become one of the most potent symbols of the Holocaust, The Tattooist of Auschwitz is also a testament to the endurance of love and humanity under the darkest possible conditions.
MEP
Petra De Sutter
Belgium
Petra De Sutter
Belgium
Expert pick
Non-fiction
Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think
| 2018
Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think
Non-fiction
UK | 2018
In Factfulness, Professor of International Health and a man who can make data sing, Hans Rosling, together with his two long-time collaborators Anna and Ola, offers a radical new explanation of why this happens, and reveals the ten instincts that distort our perspective.
It turns out that the world, for all its imperfections, is in a much better state than we might think. But when we worry about everything all the time instead of embracing a worldview based on facts, we can lose our ability to focus on the things that threaten us most.
Inspiring and revelatory, filled with lively anecdotes and moving stories, Factfulness is an urgent and essential book that will change the way you see the world.
Berlin Central and Regional Library
Germany
MEP
Bogdan Wenta
Poland
Bogdan Wenta
Poland
Non-fiction
De Crisiskaravaan: Achter de Schermen van de Noodhulpindustrie
| 2010
De Crisiskaravaan: Achter de Schermen van de Noodhulpindustrie
The Crisis Caravan: What's Wrong with Humanitarian Aid?
Non-fiction
the Netherlands | 2010
A no-holds-barred, controversial exposé of the financial profiteering and ambiguous ethics that pervade the world of humanitarian aid. In a narrative that is impassioned, gripping, and even darkly absurd, journalist Linda Polman takes us to war zones around the globe: from the NGO-dense operations in "Afghaniscam" to the floating clinics of Texas Mercy Ships proselytizing off the shores of West Africa to show the often compromised results of aid workers' best intentions.
MEP
Bogdan Wenta
Poland
Bogdan Wenta
Poland
As member of DEVE Committee in the European Parliament, “The Crisis Caravan” by Linda Polman is a very interesting reading. Excellently written, very depressing and shocking evaluation of activities taken by humanitarian aid organizations and the whole industry connected with organizing humanitarian aid. It leaves the reader with questions for a long time.
MEP
Hugues Bayet
Belgium
Hugues Bayet
Belgium
Fiction
1984
| 1949
1984
Fiction
UK | 1949
Winston Smith works for the Ministry of truth in London, chief city of Airstrip One. Big Brother stares out from every poster, the Thought Police uncover every act of betrayal. A terrifying vision of a totalitarian future in which everything and everyone is slave to a tyrannical regime.
MEP
Hugues Bayet
Belgium
Hugues Bayet
Belgium
MEP
Hugues Bayet
Belgium
Hugues Bayet
Belgium
Fiction
L'attentat
| 2005
L'attentat
The Attack
Fiction
Algeria | 2005
Dr. Amin Jaafari, an Arab-Israeli citizen, is a surgeon at a hospital in Tel Aviv. Respected and admired, he represents integration at its most successful. But one night there is a deadly bombing in a local restaurant and his wife's body is found among the dead, with massive injuries that suggest she might be the attacker.
MEP
Hugues Bayet
Belgium
Hugues Bayet
Belgium
MEP
Michela Giuffrida
Italy
Michela Giuffrida
Italy
Fiction
Il Gattopardo
| 1958
Il Gattopardo
The Leopard
Fiction
Italy | 1958
A story of a decadent and dying aristocracy threatened by the forces of revolution and democracy. Set against the political upheavals of Italy in the 1860s, it focuses on Don Fabrizio, a Sicilian prince of immense sensual appetites, wealth, and great personal magnetism.
MEP
Michela Giuffrida
Italy
Michela Giuffrida
Italy
MEP
Emmanuel Maurel
France
Emmanuel Maurel
France
Fiction
Le Royaume
| 2014
Le Royaume
The Kingdom
Fiction
France | 2014
The sensational international bestseller from one of France's most fêted writers - an epic novel telling the story of Christianity as it has never been told before, and one man's crisis of faith.
MEP
Emmanuel Maurel
France
Emmanuel Maurel
France
MEP
Liliana Rodrigues
Portugal
Liliana Rodrigues
Portugal
Fiction
Admirável Mundo Novo
| 2013
Admirável Mundo Novo
Brave New World
Fiction
UK | 2013
Far in the future, the World Controllers have created the ideal society. Through clever use of genetic engineering, brainwashing and recreational sex and drugs, all its members are happy consumers. Bernard Marx seems alone harbouring an ill-defined longing to break free.
MEP
Liliana Rodrigues
Portugal
Liliana Rodrigues
Portugal
MEP
Dennis Radtke
Germany
Dennis Radtke
Germany
Non-fiction
Verbrannte Erde: Stalins Herrschaft der Gewalt
| 2012
Verbrannte Erde: Stalins Herrschaft der Gewalt
Scorched Earth: Stalin's Reign of Terror
Non-fiction
Germany | 2012
Detailed, well-documented, and including many new details on the workings of the Stalinist state, this powerful work encompasses the dictator's brutal reign from his achievement of total power in 1929 to his death in 1953.
MEP
Dennis Radtke
Germany
Dennis Radtke
Germany
MEP
Radosław Sikorski
Poland
Radosław Sikorski
Poland
Fiction
Lucky Bastard
| 1998
Lucky Bastard
Fiction
USA | 1998
John Fitzgerald Adams, a charming liar and womanizer who is convinced that he is the bastard son of JFK, runs for President in a campaign organized and financed by a foreign secret service. A darkly entertaining study of sex and power in the era of the Clinton White House.
MEP
Radosław Sikorski
Poland
Radosław Sikorski
Poland
MEP
Anne Sander
France
Anne Sander
France
Fiction
Le charlatan
| 1967
Le charlatan
The Charlatan
Fiction
USA | 1967
With this new unpublished novel, Singer offers us a formidable story conducted at full speed, but also a great book on exile, uprooting, and the pain of uncertainty as for the fate of those who remained in Poland. (Description from Babelio)
MEP
Anne Sander
France
Anne Sander
France
MEP
Tomasz Frankowski
Poland
Tomasz Frankowski
Poland
Non-Fiction
Vetulani. Piękny umysł, dzikie serce
| 2022
Vetulani. Piękny umysł, dzikie serce
Vetulani. A beautiful mind, a wild heart
Non-Fiction
Poland | 2022
Outstanding neurobiologist, atheist, provocateur, supporter of the legalization of marijuana
The first biography of Jerzy Vetulani
MEP
Tomasz Frankowski
Poland
Tomasz Frankowski
Poland
MEP
Hannu Takkula
Finland
Hannu Takkula
Finland
Fiction
Di familye Mushkat
| 1950
Di familye Mushkat
The family Moskat
Fiction
USA | 1950
In the topsy-turvy years between the dawn of the twentieth century and the dark days of 1939, the Moskat family battled on. But like many Jewish families in Poland they can no longer turn a blind eye to the dwindling of their fortunes. In Warsaw, where saints mingle with swindlers, tough Zionists argue with mystic philosophers, and medieval rabbis rub shoulders with ultra-modern painters, life is inexorably changing. Secularism and war inch nearer and the family Moskat clings on.
MEP
Hannu Takkula
Finland
Hannu Takkula
Finland
MEP
Esther de Lange
Netherlands
Esther de Lange
Netherlands
Non-fiction
De Bourgondiërs
| 2019
De Bourgondiërs
The Burgundians
Non-fiction
Netherlands | 2019
‘The Burgundians’ takes the reader on a journey through a thousand years of European history, calling at cities such as Dijon, Paris, Lille, Ghent, Bruges and Delft, up to the time when the Seventeen Provinces arose and the Burgundian Empire came to an end. It tells a scintillating account of pyres and banquets, plagues and jousts, Joan of Arc, Jan van Eyck, Philip the Good and the Golden Fleece. (Description from Flanders Literature)
MEP
Esther de Lange
Netherlands
Esther de Lange
Netherlands
MEP
Viviane Reding
Luxembourg
Viviane Reding
Luxembourg
Essays
La vraie vie
| 2016
La vraie vie
The Real Life
Essays
France | 2016
At Socrate's time, the philosphers were accused of corrupting the youth. Adopting this point of view, Alain Badiou comes to corrupt youth by talking about what life can offer, why it is absolutely necessary to change the world and why it is necessary to take some risks.
MEP
Viviane Reding
Luxembourg
Viviane Reding
Luxembourg
Une relecture de Socrate
MEP
José Inácio Faria
Portugal
José Inácio Faria
Portugal
Fiction
Os Maias
| 1888
Os Maias
Fiction
Portugal | 1888
The talented heir to a notable family in Lisbon, who aspires to serve his fellow man in his chosen profession of medicine, and in politics, but enters a society affected by powerful international influences that trouble and frustrate him.
MEP
José Inácio Faria
Portugal
José Inácio Faria
Portugal
MEP
Tomasz Frankowski
Poland
Tomasz Frankowski
Poland
Non-fiction
Zapiski na paczce papierosów
| 2018
Zapiski na paczce papierosów
Notes on a Pack of Cigarettes
Non-fiction
Poland | 2018
Thanks to Pawlak, we look behind the scenes of the literary life of the Polish People's Republic and contemporary Poland, we get to know the everyday life of martial law, we accompany the author in his political and writer's battles, and together with the boys from the backyard of the 70s, we overthrow guilty wine, burning 3.50 a pack. (Description translated)
MEP
Tomasz Frankowski
Poland
Tomasz Frankowski
Poland
Pawlak presents the rebellious fervour and overall reality of the last century with great humour and sensitivity. The book is a collection of specific memories and events from the past which can be read fairly quickly. It is unsettling to recall that what may seem funny to us today, was in fact the very harsh reality of everyday life for many people in the past.
Expert pick
Fiction
A Boneca de Kokoschka
| 2010
A Boneca de Kokoschka
Kokoschka's Doll
Fiction
Portugal | 2010
The painter Oskar Kokoschka was so in love with Alma Mahler that, when the relationship ended, he had a life-size doll built with all the details of his beloved. The letter to the puppet maker, which was accompanied by several drawings with indications for their manufacture, included which skin wrinkles he found essential. Kokoschka, far from hiding his passion, walked the doll around town and took it to the opera. But one day, fed up with her, he broke a bottle of red wine over her head and the doll was thrown away. It was from there that it became central to the fate of many people who survived the four tons of bombs that fell on Dresden during World War II.
Lisbon Public Library
Portugal
MEP
Victor Negrescu
Romania
Victor Negrescu
Romania
Fiction
Historia de Mayta
| 1984
Historia de Mayta
The real life of Alejandro Mayta
Fiction
Peru | 1984
The Peru of the near future is in the throes of an insurgency. A revolutionary army is taking on the failing government and the US Marines, and the cities have become vast garbage-strewn slums. In the midst of this, the narrator attempts to reconstruct the story of his friend, a modern revolutionary. The novel probes the long and checkered history of radical politics in Latin America.
MEP
Victor Negrescu
Romania
Victor Negrescu
Romania
I love this book because, even if the topic is no longer relevant for our global political environment, it capture some aspects that each socialist should consider: pure idealism, pursue of equality or fighting for human rights. Also, another important lesson that one can learn reading this book is that our small ideological differences should not stop us from acting together for common main objectives.
MEP
Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finland
Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finland
Non-fiction
Planetary Health: Human Health in an Era of Global Environmental Change
| 2019
Planetary Health: Human Health in an Era of Global Environmental Change
Non-fiction
United Kingdom | 2019
A comprehensive publication covering key concepts in this emerging field, Planetary Health reviews ideas and approaches to the subject such as natural capital, ecological resilience, evolutionary biology, One Earth and transhumanism.
MEP
Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finland
Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finland
MEP
Emmanuel Maurel
France
Emmanuel Maurel
France
Non-fiction
Danube
| 1986
Danube
Non-fiction
Italy | 1986
A triumphant celebration of a river that has forever been at the center of the great movements of history.
In this fascinating journey through the history and culture of the Danube, Claudio Magris, whose knowledge is encyclopedic and curiosity limitless, invites the reader to accompany him along the whole course of the river, from the Bavarian hills through Austro-Hungary and the Balkans to the Black Sea. In each town he raises the ghosts that inhabit the houses and monuments: Kafka and Freud; Wittgenstein and Marcus Aurelius; Lukcs, Heidegger, and Cline; Canetti and Ovid. He also encounters a host of more obscure but no less intriguing personalities--philosophers, novelists, diplomats, and patriots--on an odyssey that brings middle-European culture to life in its most picturesque and evocative forms.
MEP
Emmanuel Maurel
France
Emmanuel Maurel
France
MEP
Roberta Metsola
Malta
Roberta Metsola
Malta
Non-Fiction
The Road to Unfreedom
| 2018
The Road to Unfreedom
Non-Fiction
USA | 2018
In this forceful and unsparing work of contemporary history, Snyder goes beyond the headlines to expose the true nature of the threat to democracy. By showcasing the stark choices before us--between equality or oligarchy, individuality or totality, truth and falsehood--Snyder restores our understanding of the basis of our way of life, offering a way forward in a time of terrible uncertainty.
MEP
Roberta Metsola
Malta
Roberta Metsola
Malta
MEP
Nils Torvalds
Finland
Nils Torvalds
Finland
Non-fiction
Suomen luontotyyppien uhanalaisuus
| 2018
Suomen luontotyyppien uhanalaisuus
Threatened Habitat types in Finland 2018: the Baltic Sea
Non-fiction
Finland | 2018
MEP
Nils Torvalds
Finland
Nils Torvalds
Finland
MEP
Merja Kyllönen
Finland
Merja Kyllönen
Finland
Fiction
Sandmannen
| 2012
Sandmannen
The Sandman
Fiction
Sweden | 2012
During a cold winter night in Stockholm a man is found walking alongside a railway bridge, suffering from hypothermia and legionella. After he's rushed to the hospital, it's discovered that, according to a death certificate, the man has been dead for over seven years. As Joona Linna investigates where the "dead man" has been all these years, some unexpected evidence leads to the reopening of a cold case. Danger is imminent.
MEP
Merja Kyllönen
Finland
Merja Kyllönen
Finland
MEP
Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finland
Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finland
Fiction
La Peste
| 1947
La Peste
The Plague
Fiction
France | 1947
A gripping tale of human unrelieved horror, of survival and resilience, and of the ways in which humankind confronts death, The Plague is at once a masterfully crafted novel, eloquently understated and epic in scope, and a parable of ageless moral resonance, profoundly relevant to our times. In Oran, a coastal town in North Africa, the plague begins as a series of portents, unheeded by the people. It gradually becomes an omnipresent reality, obliterating all traces of the past and driving its victims to almost unearthly extremes of suffering, madness, and compassion.
MEP
Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finland
Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finland
Expert pick
Fiction
Γενικά συμπτώματα
| 2021
Γενικά συμπτώματα
General Symptoms
Fiction
Greece | 2021
Five characters, one story: the unknown Greek volunteer at the vaccine experiments, the angry son of the bankrupt merchant, the bedridden mother, the clumsy coffee maker and the unemployed, ambitious journalist. Their footsteps seem ordinary, everyday - like the general symptoms of a virus, which we evolved with as we emerged together from caves to savannahs, fields and cities. All five heroes, in the midst of the pandemic, get caught up in a "good guy" civil war that breaks out in a neighborhood in Athens, with all the aftermath: the amortization of people, motivation, and other assets. All five become protagonists of the same murder. A novel of monologues, where everything - even crime and self-sacrifice - is done in the most conventional way: without the will of the perpetrator or with the wrong victim...
EU Prize for Literature
MEP
Isabel Santos
Portugal
Isabel Santos
Portugal
Fiction
O Cônsul
| 1991
O Cônsul
The Consul
Fiction
Portugal | 1991
Glassy footsteps resounded in the consulate's garden; perhaps it would be the echoes of the German cardas treading the stones of France, marching along the quay of Bordeaux. No, it wasn't the soldiers 'boots yet, but the boys' run over the gravel to shatter in the Consul's ears.
The crying and laughter of these children from the most varied nations, who were waiting around the house, knocking knockers, repeating in their senses all prolonged cries for help.
Reread the instructions sent by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He found no semicolon or comma that would forward the direction in order to allow him to grant visas, at least to those who were most in danger with the Nazis. How to do it without risking your career?
How can someone trapped in the world of things by a dozen mouths that ask for bread, and also by the very concrete chains of abundance, comfort and success, detach themselves from them by the abstract idea of doing well without looking at whom?
MEP
Isabel Santos
Portugal
Isabel Santos
Portugal
MEP
Esther de Lange
the Netherlands
Esther de Lange
the Netherlands
Fiction
Wildevrouw
| 2020
Wildevrouw
Fiction
Netherlands | 2020
Wildevrouw is a whirlwind, monumental novel about the longing for unity and the conquering of an inner truth, full of flesh and smells, full of jesters and blind people, full of merchants and loan sharks, profiteers and cheaters, midwives, cartographers, painters, printers and astrologers, in which desire and self-deception dance through the streets of a doomed city.
MEP
Esther de Lange
the Netherlands
Esther de Lange
the Netherlands
MEP
Karlo Ressler
Croatia
Karlo Ressler
Croatia
Non-fiction
Twilight of Democracy
| 2020
Twilight of Democracy
Non-fiction
UK | 2020
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author, professor, and historian offers an expert guide to understanding the appeal of the strongman as a leader and an explanation for why authoritarianism is back with a menacing twenty-first century twist.
MEP
Karlo Ressler
Croatia
Karlo Ressler
Croatia
MEP
Carlos Coelho
Portugal
Carlos Coelho
Portugal
Non-fiction
Europa de A a Z
| 2018
Europa de A a Z
Non-fiction
Portugal | 2018
A collection of expressions typical of 'European', a 'language' where FADO is not a song, because it means 'False and Authentic Documents Online', where PCP is not a political party, because it means 'Common Fisheries Policy', and where to nationalise means to give back to the Member States competences that were being exercised at European level.
MEP
Carlos Coelho
Portugal
Carlos Coelho
Portugal
MEP
Guillaume Balas
France
Guillaume Balas
France
Fiction
L'hibiscus pourpre
| 2003
L'hibiscus pourpre
Purple Hibiscus
Fiction
USA/Nigeria | 2003
Fifteen-year-old Kambili’s world is circumscribed by the high walls and frangipani trees of her family compound. When Nigeria begins to fall apart under a military coup, Kambili’s father sends her and her brother away to stay with their aunt. There they discover a life and love beyond the confines of their father’s authority.
MEP
Guillaume Balas
France
Guillaume Balas
France
MEP
Ruža Tomašić
Croatia
Ruža Tomašić
Croatia
Fiction
Cardinal of the Kremlin
| 1988
Cardinal of the Kremlin
Fiction
USA | 1988
A classic spy thriller, dealing with with CIA, KGB, spies and counter-intelligence, set in the Cold War during the race to build the first Star Wars missile defense system.
MEP
Ruža Tomašić
Croatia
Ruža Tomašić
Croatia
MEP
Inese Vaidere
Latvia
Inese Vaidere
Latvia
Fiction
18
| 2014
18
Fiction
Latvia | 2014
Two Latvians, two different eras - almost a century in between. One in the autumn of 1917 is not at all sure if it would be worthwhile for Latvians to try to establish their own country. There is still time until November 18, 1918, his thoughts may change, as long as the question "Why?"
The second comes to the same question in the second decade of the 21st century. What in 1918 seemed to many to be answered and taken for granted suddenly does not seem so. This is the story of an impossible meeting between the two of them.
"The obsession of the archaeologist, the patience of the scientist, the routine of the worm, latent anarchism, tenderness against the paradox and the muted steps of the pleasures of life in the twilight anfilads of ancient buildings. That's what Pauls Bankovskis appears to me in an instant - a job and one place. ”
(Gundega Repše)
The novels of the series are created within the framework of the SCCF's target program "National Identity".
MEP
Inese Vaidere
Latvia
Inese Vaidere
Latvia
The historical novel “18” has an interesting structure; it is like a tree with its roots in the past and the branches in the present. It makes the reader think about the contemporary significance of past events. The number “18” in the title makes a reference to 18 November 1918 when Latvia was established as an independent country.
Expert pick
Fiction
ბუნკერი
| 2020
ბუნკერი
Bunker
Fiction
Georgia | 2020
Mila, who lost hope for her husband is planning her future without him, without Gena. Their daughter, Zema who is working for police system decides that revenge is the only purpose she will ever serve. Lazare – the youngest member of the family, who follows the left wing ideas, suddenly is forced to give up on his principles.
The new novel of Iva Pezuashvili is a saga about Simoniani family who flea from Karabakh war to Tbilisi, in city of corruption, violence and dirty politics. The story develops in 24 hours, all the conflicts, drama and challenges pour down on the family altogether, on the top of this, the demons and the people from the past start to awake to once again, remind Gena, that if something rotten is buried deep under, there is no chance for bright future.
EU Prize for Literature
MEP
Istvan Ujhelyi
Hungary
Istvan Ujhelyi
Hungary
Non-fiction
Michael Jordan: the life
| 2014
Michael Jordan: the life
Non-fiction
USA | 2014
Basketball journalist Roland Lazenby spent almost thirty years covering Michael Jordan's career in college and the pros. He witnessed Jordan's growth from a skinny rookie to the instantly recognizable global ambassador for basketball whose business savvy and success have millions of kids still wanting to be just like Mike. Yet Lazenby also witnessed the Michael Jordan whose drive and appetite are more fearsome and more insatiable than any of his fans could begin to know. Michael Jordan: The Life explores both sides of his personality to reveal the fullest, most compelling story of the man who is Michael Jordan.
Lazenby draws on his personal relationships with Jordan's coaches; countless interviews with Jordan's friends, teammates, and family members; and interviews with Jordan himself to provide the first truly definitive study of Michael Jordan: the player, the icon, and the man.
MEP
Istvan Ujhelyi
Hungary
Istvan Ujhelyi
Hungary
MEP
Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finland
Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finland
Non-Fiction
Women Who Run With The Wolves
| 1992
Women Who Run With The Wolves
Non-Fiction
USA | 1992
Within every woman there is a wild and natural creature, a powerful force, filled with good instincts, passionate creativity, and ageless knowing. Her name is Wild Woman, but she is an endangered species. Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D., Jungian analyst and cantadora storyteller shows how women's vitality can be restored through what she calls "psychic archeological digs" into the ruins of the female unconsious. Using multicultural myths, fairy tales, folk tales, and stories, Dr. Estes helps women reconnect with the healthy, instinctual, visionary attributes of the Wild Woman archetype.
Dr. Estes has created a new lexicon for describing the female psyche. Fertile and life-giving, it is a psychology of women in the truest sense, a knowing of the soul.
MEP
Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finland
Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finland
MEP
Marc Angel
Luxembourg
Marc Angel
Luxembourg
Fiction
Soldados de Salamina
| 2001
Soldados de Salamina
Soldiers of Salamis
Fiction
Spain | 2001
At the end of the Spanish Civil War, the writer Rafael Sánchez Mazas, one of the founders of the Phalanx, escaped from the execution squad. A soldier discovers him hiding behind bushes and points his rifle at him. He looks him in the eye for a long time and shouts to his superiors: "There is no one around here!" The value he sees beyond the seeming historical anecdote prompts a journalist, sixty years later, to cling to the fate of the two adversaries who have played their lives in this single glance.
He paints a portrait of the old-fashioned gentleman dreaming of establishing a regime of reborn poets and condottieres, when the providential figure of an old republican soldier arises. The trainee Catalan apprentice, veteran of all wars, recounts: the camps of Argelès, the Foreign Legion, eight years of relentless combat against fascist barbarism. Would he be the heroic soldier? The man suggests that the real heroes are all dead, fallen on the field of honor, mostly forgotten; that wars would only be romantic for those who did not experience them. This book, which has shaken up Spain, is enjoying unprecedented international distribution.
MEP
Marc Angel
Luxembourg
Marc Angel
Luxembourg
Expert pick
Fiction
Vel
| 2021
Vel
Fiction
Belgium | 2021
Esther and Rita cross paths in a drawing studio. They are connected as a draftsman and model, a relationship that revolves around vulnerability and physicality, about looking and being watched. Outside of that, they each lead their own lives. Both women are waiting for something and meanwhile trying to hold their own. VEL is a story about bodies and proximity. About aging, motherhood, beauty ideals, the desire for perfection, and the impact of time. About scars, shame, pride, sexuality, intimacy... and about life.
1 City 19 Books
Expert pick
Fiction
Tage wie diese. In Zeiten des Abstandes
| 2020
Tage wie diese. In Zeiten des Abstandes
Days like this. In times of distance
Fiction
Germany | 2020
The corona charity anthology. 35 crisis-proof texts that entertain, inspire and open up new perspectives - as a mental immune defense and mental strengthening. Fiction, essay and poetry. 35 authors support cultural workers threatened by the pandemic.
Berlin Central and Regional Library
Germany
MEP
Sergio Gaetano Cofferati
Italy
Sergio Gaetano Cofferati
Italy
Non-fiction
Il puzzle Moro
| 2018
Il puzzle Moro
The Moro puzzle
Non-fiction
Italy | 2018
A compelling story of unpublished testimonies and documents, offering a new perspective on the most important post-war political crime in the EU: the murder of Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro
MEP
Sergio Gaetano Cofferati
Italy
Sergio Gaetano Cofferati
Italy
MEP
Brando Benifei
Italy
Brando Benifei
Italy
Fiction
L'amica geniale
| 2011
L'amica geniale
My brilliant friend
Fiction
Italy | 2011
Through the lives of the fiery and unforgettable Lila, and the bookish narrator, Elena, in a poor neighborhood in the outskirts of Naples at the beginning of the 1950s, Ferrante tells the story of a neighborhood, a city, and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between her protagonists.
MEP
Brando Benifei
Italy
Brando Benifei
Italy
MEP
Nils Torvalds
Finland
Nils Torvalds
Finland
Non-Fiction
Culture, Nation and Identity: The Ukrainian-Russian Encounter (1600-1945)
| 2003
Culture, Nation and Identity: The Ukrainian-Russian Encounter (1600-1945)
Non-Fiction
Canada | 2003
The editors of Culture, Nation, and Identity, representing the Seminar for East European History at Cologne University, the Harriman Institute at Columbia University, and CIUS Press at the University of Alberta, invited seventy specialists to examine the Russian-Ukrainian encounter in four chronological symposia, from the seventeenth century to the present. Historians and Slavists from Canada, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, and the United States employ diverse methodologies to examine the many spheres in which Russians and Ukrainians and their identities and cultures interacted. Contributors: Olga Anrievsky, Paul Bushkovitch, David A. Frick, George G. Grabowicz, Oleh S. Ilnytzkyj, Andreas Kappeler, Zenon E. Kohut, Stanislav Kulchytsky, Dieter Pohl, Marc Raeff, Yuri Shapoval, Frank E. Sysyn, Hans-Joachim Torce, Mark von Hagen, Christine D. Worobec, Serhy Yekelchyk, Victor M. Zhivov.
MEP
Nils Torvalds
Finland
Nils Torvalds
Finland
MEP
Isabel Wiseler-Lima
Luxembourg
Isabel Wiseler-Lima
Luxembourg
Fiction
Le Petit Prince
| 1943
Le Petit Prince
The Little Prince
Fiction
France | 1943
Moral allegory and spiritual autobiography, The Little Prince is the most translated book in the French language. With a timeless charm it tells the story of a little boy who leaves the safety of his own tiny planet to travel the universe, learning the vagaries of adult behaviour through a series of extraordinary encounters. His personal odyssey culminates in a voyage to Earth and further adventures.
MEP
Isabel Wiseler-Lima
Luxembourg
Isabel Wiseler-Lima
Luxembourg
A classical one for older kids and adults who didn’t lost the spirit of their younger years
MEP
Antanas Guoga
Lithuania
Antanas Guoga
Lithuania
Non-fiction
Homo Deus
| 2015
Homo Deus
Non-fiction
USA/Israel | 2015
In this vivid, challenging book Yuval Noah Harari examines the implications of our newly upgraded condition, from our dogged pursuit of status and happiness to our constant quest to overcome death by pushing the boundaries of science
MEP
Antanas Guoga
Lithuania
Antanas Guoga
Lithuania
MEP
Maite Pagazaurtundúa Ruiz
Spain
Maite Pagazaurtundúa Ruiz
Spain
Non-fiction
Contra el fanatismo
| 2002
Contra el fanatismo
Non-fiction
Israel | 2002
A unique insight into the true nature of fanaticism and proposes a reasoned and respectful approach to resolving the Israeli Palestinian conflict.
MEP
Maite Pagazaurtundúa Ruiz
Spain
Maite Pagazaurtundúa Ruiz
Spain
Expert pick
Fiction
La Vengeance m'appartient
| 2021
La Vengeance m'appartient
Revenge is mine
Fiction
France | 2021
Susane, forty-two, a lawyer recently installed in Bordeaux, receives a visit from Gilles Principaux. She thinks she recognizes in this man the one she met when she was ten years old, and him fourteen - but she has forgotten everything about what really happened that day in the young boy's room. Only the dazzling evidence of a passion remains.
But Gilles Principaux comes to see Me Susane so that she can defend his wife Marlyne, who has committed an atrocious crime… Who is, in truth, Gilles Principaux?
Bordeaux Public Library
France
MEP
Luděk Niedermayer
Czech Republic
Luděk Niedermayer
Czech Republic
Fiction
Na jih od hranic, na západ od slunce
| 2008
Na jih od hranic, na západ od slunce
South of the Border, West of the Sun
Fiction
Japan | 2008
During his childhood, Hajime's sole companion was Shimamoto, also an only child. Together they spent long afternoons listening to her father's record collection. But when his family moved away, the two lost touch. Now Hajime is in his thirties,he has a loving wife and two daughters, and success running a jazz bar. But one day Shimamoto comes back
MEP
Luděk Niedermayer
Czech Republic
Luděk Niedermayer
Czech Republic
For me, Murakami is the Japanese Kundera, I like several of his books, but this one the most
Expert pick
Non-Fiction
Real Estate
| 2021
Real Estate
Non-Fiction
UK | 2021
From one of the great thinkers and writers of our time, comes the highly anticipated final instalment in Deborah Levy's critically acclaimed 'Living Autobiography'
'I can't think of any writer aside from Virginia Woolf who writes better about what it is to be a woman' Observer on The Cost of Living
Following the international critical acclaim of The Cost of Living, this final volume of Deborah Levy's 'Living Autobiography' is an exhilarating, thought-provoking and boldly intimate meditation on home and the spectres that haunt it.
1 City 19 Books
MEP
Milan Brglez
Slovenia
Milan Brglez
Slovenia
Non-Fiction
Stolen Focus
| 2022
Stolen Focus
Non-Fiction
United Kingdom | 2022
Why have we lost our ability to focus? What are the causes? And, most importantly, how do we get it back? For Stolen Focus, internationally bestselling author Johann Hari went on a three-year journey to uncover the reasons why our teenagers now focus on one task for only 65 seconds, and why office workers on average manage only three minutes. He interviewed the leading experts in the world on attention, and learned that everything we think about this subject is wrong. We think our inability to focus is a personal failing - a flaw in each one of us. It is not. This has been done to all of us by powerful external forces. Our focus has been stolen. Johann discovered there are twelve deep cases of this crisis, all of which have robbed some of our attention. He shows us how in a thrilling journey that ranges from Silicon Valley dissidents, to a favela in Rio where attention vanished, to an office in New Zealand that found a remarkable way to restore our attention. Crucially, he learned how - as individuals, and as a society - we can get our focus back, if we are determined to fight for it.
MEP
Milan Brglez
Slovenia
Milan Brglez
Slovenia
MEP
Helga Trüpel
Germany
Helga Trüpel
Germany
Fiction
All the Rivers
| 2016
All the Rivers
Fiction
Germany | 2016
When Liat meets Hilmi on a blustery autumn afternoon in Greenwich Village, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Charismatic and handsome, Hilmi is a talented young artist from Palestine. Liat, an aspiring translation student, plans to return to Israel the following summer. Despite knowing that their love can be only temporary, that it can exist only away from their conflicted homeland, Liat lets herself be enraptured by Hilmi
MEP
Helga Trüpel
Germany
Helga Trüpel
Germany
MEP
Tomasz Frankowski
Poland
Tomasz Frankowski
Poland
Fiction
Bieguni
| 2007
Bieguni
Flights
Fiction
Poland | 2007
From the incomparably original Polish writer Olga Tokarczuk, Flights interweaves reflections on travel with an in-depth exploration of the human body, broaching life, death, motion, and migration. Chopin’s heart is carried back to Warsaw in secret by his adoring sister. A woman must return to her native Poland in order to poison her terminally ill high school sweetheart, and a young man slowly descends into madness when his wife and child mysteriously vanish during a vacation and just as suddenly reappear. Through these brilliantly imagined characters and stories, interwoven with haunting, playful, and revelatory meditations, Flights explores what it means to be a traveler, a wanderer, a body in motion not only through space but through time. Where are you from? Where are you coming in from? Where are you going? we call to the traveler. Enchanting, unsettling, and wholly original, Flights is a master storyteller’s answer.
MEP
Tomasz Frankowski
Poland
Tomasz Frankowski
Poland
MEP
Karen Melchior
Denmark
Karen Melchior
Denmark
Fiction
In the end, it was all about love
| 2021
In the end, it was all about love
Fiction
UK | 2021
In The End, It Was All About Love is a journey of loss and self-acceptance that takes its nameless narrator all the way through bustling Berlin to his roots, a quiet village on the Uganda-Sudan border. It is a bracingly honest story of love, sexuality and spirituality, of racism, dating, and alienation; of fleeing the greatest possible pain, and of the hopeful road home.
MEP
Karen Melchior
Denmark
Karen Melchior
Denmark
MEP
Esther de Lange
the Netherlands
Esther de Lange
the Netherlands
Non-Fiction
Een Europees pandemonium
| 2021
Een Europees pandemonium
Non-Fiction
Netherlands | 2021
In A European pandemonium, Luuk van Middelaar poses the question: what can Europe do to convert its strategic vulnerability into political strength, and not to be a mere plaything on the world stage in a flaring battle between East and West?
A book about the historical experience of a dramatic pandemic and its geopolitical impact.
MEP
Esther de Lange
the Netherlands
Esther de Lange
the Netherlands
MEP
Antanas Guoga
Lithuania
Antanas Guoga
Lithuania
Fiction
The Underground Railroad
| 2016
The Underground Railroad
Fiction
USA | 2016
Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hellish for all the slaves but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood - where even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape.
MEP
Antanas Guoga
Lithuania
Antanas Guoga
Lithuania
MEP
Viviane Reding
Luxembourg
Viviane Reding
Luxembourg
Fiction
Les loyautés
| 2018
Les loyautés
Fiction
France | 2018
Theo, the child of divorce, brings his friend Mathis on dangerous paths. His teacher Hélène - who was abused as a child, worries that Theo might be in danger in his family. Mathis' mother, needs support to protect her son. The loyalties are all the invisible links that connect and chain these four characters one to the other.
MEP
Viviane Reding
Luxembourg
Viviane Reding
Luxembourg
Découverte des démons silencieux
MEP
Helga Stevens
Belgium
Helga Stevens
Belgium
Biography
De levens van Jan Six
| 2016
De levens van Jan Six
The lives of Jan Six
Biography
the Netherlands | 2016
This is the story of Jan Six, his family and his many lives. His portrait is considered to be the best that his friend Rembrandt ever made, it still hangs - uniquely - in the family house on the Amstel. the story of an Amsterdam elite family through four centuries. But it is also the story of a city and the spirit of the times, of ambitions and limitations, of grandeur and the eternal fear of the decline.
MEP
Helga Stevens
Belgium
Helga Stevens
Belgium
This family history spans a period from mid 16th century until now. It was a rich family of weavers which fled French Flanders during the Contrareformation and Inquisition and found refuge in Amsterdam. Soon the Six family became part of the ‘governing elite’ of Amsterdam. Their “adventures” were intertwined with the history of the city of Amsterdam in particular and the Netherlands in general. A good way to refresh our memory of that part of our common history. The book also shows that actually little has changed over time: persecution on the basis of belief/religion or opinion, migration, corruption, greed (the one percent!), and abuse of power, etc.
MEP
Álvaro Amaro
Portugal
Álvaro Amaro
Portugal
Non-fiction
Identity
| 2018
Identity
Non-fiction
USA | 2018
Demand for recognition of one's identity is a master concept that unifies much of what is going on in world politics today. The universal recognition on which liberal democracy is based has been increasingly challenged by narrower forms of recognition based on nation, religion, sect, race, ethnicity, or gender, which have resulted in anti-immigrant populism, the upsurge of politicized Islam, the fractious "identity liberalism" of college campuses, and the emergence of white nationalism. Populist nationalism, said to be rooted in economic motivation, actually springs from the demand for recognition and therefore cannot simply be satisfied by economic means. The demand for identity cannot be transcended; we must begin to shape identity in a way that supports rather than undermines democracy.
Identity is an urgent and necessary book--a sharp warning that unless we forge a universal understanding of human dignity, we will doom ourselves to continuing conflict.
MEP
Álvaro Amaro
Portugal
Álvaro Amaro
Portugal
Expert pick
Picture book
Hr. Alting
| 2007
Hr. Alting
Mr. Everything
Picture book
Denmark | 2007
Mr Everything travels through the miraculous landscapes and chambers of the dream world, in which normal perception is upside down, because it is not always clear what is above and what is below, what is on the surface and what is in the depths. While looking at colourful images, readers can create their own story in the infinite freedom of imagination. The artist feeds on surreal painting and combines different traditions of illustration, thus producing a hypnotic effect.
Europe Readr
MEP
Luděk Niedermayer
Czech Republic
Luděk Niedermayer
Czech Republic
Fiction
Žert
| 1967
Žert
The Joke
Fiction
Czech Republic | 1967
Milan Kundera's first novel about a joke that will change forever the main charcter's life. Ludvik Jahn, attempting to show his girlfriend a bit of charm and a sense of humor, wrote in a postcard to her: "Optimism is the opium of mankind! A healthy spirit stinks of stupidity! Long live Trotsky!"
MEP
Luděk Niedermayer
Czech Republic
Luděk Niedermayer
Czech Republic
One of my favourite books, I have read it several times and I plan on reading it once again. I might even add something else from Kundera.
Expert pick
Fiction
Last Summer in the City
| 1970
Last Summer in the City
Fiction
Italy | 1970
The first novel from award-winning author Gianfranco Calligarich to be published in English, Last Summer in the City is a witty and despairing classic of Italian literature. Biting, tragic, and endlessly quotable, this translated edition features an introductory appreciation from longtime fan New York Times bestselling author André Aciman.
In a city smothering under the summer sun and an overdose of la dolce vita, Leo Gazarra spends his time in an alcoholic haze, bouncing between run-down hotels and the homes of his rich and well-educated friends, without whom he would probably starve. At thirty, he’s still drifting: between jobs that mean nothing to him, between human relationships both ephemeral and frayed. Everyone he knows wants to graduate, get married, get rich—but not him. He has no ambitions whatsoever. Rather than toil and spin, isn’t it better to submit to the alienation of the Eternal City, Rome, sometimes a cruel and indifferent mistress, sometimes sweet and sublime? There can be no half measures with her, either she’s the love of your life or you have to
leave her.
First discovered by Natalia Ginzburg, Last Summer in the City is a forgotten classic of Italian literature, a great novel of a stature similar to that of The Great Gatsby or The Catcher in the Rye. Gianfranco Calligarich’s enduring masterpiece has drawn comparisons to such writers as Truman Capote, Ernest Hemingway, and Jonathan Franzen and is here made available in English for the first time.
Vincas Kudirka Public Library
Lithuania
MEP
Malin Björk
Sweden
Malin Björk
Sweden
Fiction
Jag for ner till bror
| 2018
Jag for ner till bror
My Brother
Fiction
Sweden | 2018
Jana is returning to see her twin brother Bror, still living in the small family farmhouse in the rural north of Sweden. It's decrepit and crumbling, and Bror is determinedly drinking himself to an early grave. They're both damaged by horrific childhood experiences, buried deep in the past, but Jana cannot keep running.
Alive with the brutality and beauty of the landscape, MY BROTHER is a novel steeped in darkness and violence - about abuse, love, complicity, and coming to terms with the past. It's the story of a homecoming without a home: a story of forgiveness.
MEP
Malin Björk
Sweden
Malin Björk
Sweden
MEP
Julie Ward
UK
Julie Ward
UK
Autobiography
My Brief History
| 2013
My Brief History
Autobiography
UK | 2013
Hawking’s improbable journey, from his postwar London boyhood to his years as one of the most brilliant comsmologist and theoretical physicist of our age. Clear-eyed, intimate, and wise, My Brief History opens a window for the rest of us into Hawking’s personal cosmos.
MEP
Julie Ward
UK
Julie Ward
UK
I am in awe of Hawking as I don’t do numbers and he was a Professor of Mathematics. His achievement is far more than intellectual as he managed to confound the laws of probability by living and working for decades following being diagnosed with a rare form of Motor Neurone disease aged 21. He was given 3 years to live but survived to 76. As a disability rights campaigner I know how important it is to have role models and champions. I love that Hawking was so unconfined. He did stuff about stars and space, black holes and gravity. He was also a committed European
MEP
Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finland
Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finland
Non-fiction
5 Minds for the Future
| 2005
5 Minds for the Future
Non-fiction
USA | 2005
In Five Minds for the Future, bestselling author Howard Gardner shows how we will each need to master "five minds" that the fast-paced future will demand:
- The disciplined mind, to learn at least one profession, as well as the major thinking (science, math, history, etc.) behind it
- The synthesizing mind, to organize the massive amounts of information and communicate effectively to others
- The creating mind, to revel in unasked questions—and uncover new phenomena and insightful apt answers
- The respectful mind, to appreciate the differences between human beings - and understand and work with all persons
- The ethical mind, to fulfill one's responsibilities as both a worker and a citizen
Without these "minds," we risk being overwhelmed by information, unable to succeed in the workplace, and incapable of the judgment needed to thrive both personally and professionally.
Complete with a substantial new introduction, Five Minds for the Future provides valuable tools for those looking ahead to the next generation of leaders - and for all of us striving to excel in a complex world.
MEP
Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finland
Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finland
MEP
Hugues Bayet
Belgium
Hugues Bayet
Belgium
Non-fiction
King kong théorie
| 2006
King kong théorie
Non-fiction
France | 2006
Virginie Despentes explodes common attitudes about sex and gender, and shows how modern beauty myths are ripe for rebelling against. A highly charged account of women's lives today.
MEP
Hugues Bayet
Belgium
Hugues Bayet
Belgium
MEP
Brando Benifei
Italy
Brando Benifei
Italy
Fiction
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
| 1968
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Fiction
USA | 1968
It was January 2021, and Rick Deckard had a license to kill.
Somewhere among the hordes of humans out there, lurked several rogue androids. Deckard's assignment--find them and then..."retire" them. Trouble was, the androids all looked exactly like humans, and they didn't want to be found!
MEP
Brando Benifei
Italy
Brando Benifei
Italy
A classic of science-fiction.
MEP
Brando Benifei
Italy
Brando Benifei
Italy
Fiction
Resistere non serve a niente
| 2012
Resistere non serve a niente
Resistance is futile
Fiction
Italy | 2012
This is the story of Tommaso, a former obese child brilliant in maths who turned into a finance juggler full of good intentions. He moves in a world where money commands and deforms, where possession is the only value, the body is like a currency and violence is a commercial advantage. Siti depicts in this book the famous “grey zone” that lays between finance and crime, where yielding bankers, rogue brokers, corrupted politicians and second-generation criminals roam free in their natural habitat.
MEP
Brando Benifei
Italy
Brando Benifei
Italy
MEP
Nils Torvalds
Finland
Nils Torvalds
Finland
Non-fiction
European breeding bird atlas
| 2020
European breeding bird atlas
Non-fiction
Spain | 2020
MEP
Nils Torvalds
Finland
Nils Torvalds
Finland
Expert pick
Non-Fiction
Changer: méthode
| 2021
Changer: méthode
Non-Fiction
France | 2021
Young prodigy of literature translated and known throughout the world even before he was 25, the one who wrote four autobiographical books around his poor childhood, violence, humiliation finally tells how Eddy Bellegueule became Édouard Louis . In the wake of Annie Ernaux and Didier Eribon, Louis recounts – with an elegiac style – his “Odyssey” from one world to another and the price to pay to reinvent himself so radically. Poignant portrait as a defector.
1 City 19 Books
MEP
Istvan Ujhelyi
Hungary
Istvan Ujhelyi
Hungary
Non-fiction
Equilibrium Institute: Hungary 2030 - A future Vision for Hungarians
| 2020
Equilibrium Institute: Hungary 2030 - A future Vision for Hungarians
Non-fiction
Hungarian | 2020
This volume is the product of close to two years of research and it presents the political, economic and social vision proposed by the Equilibrium Institute. The volume was edited by Tamás Boros, the Director of the Equilibrium Institute, and Gábor Filippov, the Equilibrium Institute’s Director of Research.
Hungary 2030 focuses on three main objectives:
Based on the prevailing and historical facts and trends, it provides a comprehensive analysis of the state of Hungary today and its outlook in the near-future.
It outlines an alternative realistic vision of the future for Hungarians, with the prospect of a more successful, more competitive and happier Hungary.
It sketches the normative and public policy framework that could help realize this future vision within the span of a decade.
Hungary 2030 is not a conservative, socialist, liberal or green political manifesto; it is a forward-looking action plan for the future. It provides a pragmatic policy framework based on widely held values that anyone can relate to regardless of their political background – provided they share our interest in Hungary’s future and the commitment of the Equilibrium Institute’s team to actively help our country.
MEP
Istvan Ujhelyi
Hungary
Istvan Ujhelyi
Hungary
MEP
Irena Joveva
Slovenia
Irena Joveva
Slovenia
Fiction
Đorđić se vrača
| 2021
Đorđić se vrača
Đorđić Returns
Fiction
Slovenia | 2021
August 2017. The European Basketball Championship begins and Marko Đorđić arrives in Fužine unannounced. For the first time since moving to Bosnia more than a decade ago, he is returning indefinitely, perhaps even forever. But he doesn't really know what to do in Fužine. His father Radovan has a tumor on his stomach and is waiting for surgery, his mother Ranka is caring for him and he is becoming a nervous wreck, and his friends, Adi, Aco and Dejan, are scattered around this wonderful new world, to which he himself more than obviously does not belong. more. Adi drowns in drugs, Aco surrenders to crime, and Dejan is lost in Slovenske Konjice. Old friends are thus bound only by memories. With each new day, with each new victory of the Slovenian national basketball team, it becomes clear that Marko no longer has his place in Slovenia. A decade of living in Bosnia, marked by nationalism and war trauma.
MEP
Irena Joveva
Slovenia
Irena Joveva
Slovenia
I highly recommend! Again, the author did not disappoint with his wit, but while reading you will not only laugh, but you will probably also think about many things. P.S .: First you will have to - if you haven’t already - read a first book, also superb, Čefurji raus.
MEP
Carlos Zorrinho
Portugal
Carlos Zorrinho
Portugal
Fiction
As Intermitências da Morte
| 2005
As Intermitências da Morte
Death at Intervals
Fiction
Portugal | 2005
In an unnamed country, on the first day of the New Year, people stop dying. There is great celebration and people dance in the streets. They have achieved the great goal of humanity: eternal life. Soon, though, the residents begin to suffer. Undertakers face bankruptcy, the church is forced to reinvent its doctrine, and local 'maphia' smuggle those on the brink of death over the border where they can expire naturally.
Death does return eventually, but with a new, courteous approach – delivering violet warning letters to her victims. But what can death do when a letter is unexpectedly returned? (Description from Penguin Random House UK)
MEP
Carlos Zorrinho
Portugal
Carlos Zorrinho
Portugal
Expert pick
Picture book
Mijn Straat
| 2012
Mijn Straat
My Street
Picture book
Belgium | 2012
My street is home to families from different cultures and parts of the world: Morocco, China and Israel, Congo and India. Their children grow up with a variety of influences and in harmony with each other. With their details of the interior, the illustrations offer an insight into the diversity and peculiarities, and at the same time the similarity and universality of the family and working environments of a multicultural European city. A picture book with a positive message for all generations.
Europe Readr
MEP
Petra De Sutter
Belgium
Petra De Sutter
Belgium
Fiction
Los enamoramientos
| 2011
Los enamoramientos
The Infatuations
Fiction
Spain | 2011
Each day before work María Dolz stops at the same café. There she finds herself drawn to a couple who is also there every morning. Observing their seemingly perfect life helps her escape the listlessness of her own. But when the man is brutally murdered and María approaches the widow to offer her condolences, what began as mere observation turns into an increasingly complicated entanglement. Invited into the widow’s home, she meets–and falls in love with–a man who sheds disturbing new light on the crime. As María recounts this story, we are given a murder mystery brilliantly encased in a metaphysical enquiry, a novel that grapples with questions of love and death, chance and coincidence, and above all, with the slippery essence of the truth and how it is told.
MEP
Petra De Sutter
Belgium
Petra De Sutter
Belgium
MEP
Merja Kyllönen
Finland
Merja Kyllönen
Finland
Fiction
Tiikerinsilmä
| 2016
Tiikerinsilmä
Tigereye
Fiction
Finland | 2016
New York-trained bodyguard, Hilja Ilverkero is back. She’s recruited by 92-year-old business woman Lovisa Johnsonia, who made a fortune in textile and has no children. Who has attempted to murder Lovisa? Tiger Eye is an exciting and funny independent sequel to the crime “Bodyguard” series, by acclaimed Finnish author Leena Letholainen.
MEP
Merja Kyllönen
Finland
Merja Kyllönen
Finland
Expert pick
Fiction
Assembly
| 2021
Assembly
Fiction
UK | 2021
The narrator of Assembly is a black British woman. She is preparing to attend a lavish garden party at her boyfriend’s family estate, set deep in the English countryside. At the same time, she is considering the carefully assembled pieces of herself. As the minutes tick down and the future beckons, she can’t escape the question: is it time to take it all apart?
Assembly is a story about the stories we live within – those of race and class, safety and freedom, winners and losers.And it is about one woman daring to take control of her own story, even at the cost of her life. With a steely, unfaltering gaze, Natasha Brown dismantles the mythology of whiteness, lining up the debris in a neat row and walking away.
1 City 19 Books
MEP
Isabel Santos
Portugal
Isabel Santos
Portugal
Fiction
Мать
| 1907
Мать
Mother
Fiction
Russia | 1907
This novel tells the story of the common proletariat who protested against the czar and the capitalists which eventually led to the October Revolution. Pelageya is the wife of a factory worker who ignores the political upheaval in her country in favor of caring for her personal life. She represents hundreds of workers who are concerned with living their lives. Her son Pavel takes a different path and joins the revolution inspiring many Russians who were living under a capitalistic society in Russia. Gorky saw the "mother country" as supporting her children as they fought for their rights.
MEP
Isabel Santos
Portugal
Isabel Santos
Portugal
MEP
Arndt Kohn
Germany
Arndt Kohn
Germany
Non-fiction
Couchsurfing im Iran
| 2015
Couchsurfing im Iran
Couchsurfing in Iran
Non-fiction
Germany | 2015
A bikini party in the pilgrim town of Mashhad, an overnight stay next to the Bushehr nuclear power plant, a sadomasochistic secret meeting in Tehran: In Iran, Stephan Orth experiences adventures that no tour operator would ever write in his catalog.
MEP
Arndt Kohn
Germany
Arndt Kohn
Germany
Unerwartete Einblicke in eine Kultur, deren Diversität und Vielfalt in den Medien nur schwer rüberkommt
Expert pick
Non-Fiction
New Delhi-Borås: Den osannolika berättelsen om indiern som cyklade till Sverige för kärlekens skull
| 2013
New Delhi-Borås: Den osannolika berättelsen om indiern som cyklade till Sverige för kärlekens skull
Amazing Story of the Man Who Cycled from India to Europe for Love
Non-Fiction
Sweden | 2013
Pradyumna Kumar, known as PK, was born into a poor, untouchable family in a small village in eastern India. All his life he has kept a palm leaf bearing an astrologer’s prophecy: “You will marry a girl who is not from the village, not from the district, not even from our country; she will be musical, own a jungle and be born under the sign of the ox.” But not until PK attends art school in New Delhi do his stars begin to align. One evening, while drawing portraits in a park, he meets a young Swedish woman, Lotta von Schendin — and this brief meeting will change the courses of their lives forever.
This is the remarkable true story of how a young Indian man armed with nothing more than a handful of paintbrushes and a secondhand Raleigh bicycle made his way across Asia and Europe in search of the woman he loves.
1 City 19 Books
Expert pick
Fiction
De rest van ons leven
| 2022
De rest van ons leven
Fiction
Netherlands | 2022
Fredo Santoro migrates from Italy to England as a little boy. There he grew up in a warm Italian community of hairdressers and ice cream sellers, until the Second World War broke out and Mussolini sided with the Nazis. Italians are suddenly suspected in England and the government orders all men to be deported. Fredo hides and escapes the raids, but his father? A story about growing, with everything that goes with it: missing, searching, finding a home.
1 City 19 Books
Expert pick
Non-Fiction
Straatkat
| 2021
Straatkat
Stray Cat
Non-Fiction
Belgium | 2021
Yasmina grows up between two cultures. Her father comes from the Rif Mountains in Morocco, her mother was born and raised in a small Flemish village. In the family, the Bible and the Koran stand side by side and questions are never asked about the mishmash of languages, customs and religions. Yasmina walks through life like a street cat: curious and enthusiastic, but sometimes also afraid and insecure. She is an outsider. In the Flemish village, but also with her family in Molenbeek. She only finds peace in her family. When Yasmina's mother becomes terminally ill and dies, her only home slowly but surely disappears. Street Cat is about the loss of a mother and an identity. It is a moving search for a new home: from Belgium over Morocco and The Hague to Brussels. But above all, it is a testimony of love, self-reflection and that you have to create your own place under the stars.
1 City 19 Books
MEP
Marc Angel
Luxembourg
Marc Angel
Luxembourg
Fiction
Olive, Again
| 2019
Olive, Again
Fiction
USA | 2019
The iconic Olive struggles to understand not only herself and her own life but also the lives of those around her in the town of Crosby, Maine. Whether with a teenager coming to terms with the loss of her father, a young woman about to give birth during a hilariously inopportune moment, a nurse who confesses a secret high school crush, or a lawyer who struggles with an inheritance she does not want to accept, the unforgettable Olive will continue to startle us, to move us, and to inspire moments of transcendent grace.
MEP
Marc Angel
Luxembourg
Marc Angel
Luxembourg
MEP
Merja Kyllönen
Finland
Merja Kyllönen
Finland
Fiction
Tørst
| 2017
Tørst
Thirst
Fiction
Norway | 2017
Maverick detective Harry Holes is back, inextricably drawn back into the Oslo police force. A serial murderer has begun targeting Tinder daters—a murderer whose MO reignites Harry's hunt for a nemesis of his past.
MEP
Merja Kyllönen
Finland
Merja Kyllönen
Finland
MEP
Helga Stevens
Belgium
Helga Stevens
Belgium
Graphic Novel
Mikel
| 2016
Mikel
Graphic Novel
Belgium | 2016
The incredible story of Mikel, the candy seller who became a bodyguard in the Basque Country in order to fulfill his dream of being a writer.
MEP
Helga Stevens
Belgium
Helga Stevens
Belgium
About the situation in the Basque country when ETA was still active and murdering people. About a person who is recruited to become a personal body guard. Interesting book! A graphic novel which is something different.
Expert pick
Non-fiction
Dentro do Segredo - Uma viagem na Coreia do Norte
| 2012
Dentro do Segredo - Uma viagem na Coreia do Norte
Inside the Secret: A Journey in North Korea
Non-fiction
Portugal | 2012
On an unusual trip to North Korea, writer José Luís Peixoto discovers the country's main cities and attractions amidst the chants, statues and obelisks of the most closed regime in the world. In 2012, the North Korean government held huge celebrations for the centenary of the late dictator Kim Il-sung, father of the communist regime that has ruled the country since 1948. On this exceptional occasion, a group of Western tourists was allowed to travel for two weeks on a itinerary which included the capital, Pyongyang, and several places rarely visited by foreigners. The possibility of getting to know the daily life of North Koreans stimulated an old curiosity of Portuguese writer José Luís Peixoto. Radically opposed to any dictatorial government, Peixoto nevertheless embarked on the tour, pompously named The Kim Il-sung 100th Birthday Ultimate Mega Tour, to see and feel up close this country, banned from international society for its insistence on manufacturing nuclear weapons. The result of his experiences as a tourist in North Korea is this hybrid book of travel story and magical realism. Immersed in the hallucinatory personality cult that dominates every aspect of North Korean culture, Peixoto traveled the country under the smiling surveillance of guides and official portraits. A nightmarish atmosphere, which contrasts with the triumphalist discourse of the authorities, is the backdrop for this fantastic journey through dystopia invented by a cartoon dynasty of tyrants. The result of his experiences as a tourist in North Korea is this hybrid book of travel story and magical realism. Immersed in the hallucinatory personality cult that dominates every aspect of North Korean culture, Peixoto traveled the country under the smiling surveillance of guides and official portraits. A nightmarish atmosphere, which contrasts with the triumphalist discourse of the authorities, is the backdrop for this fantastic journey through dystopia invented by a cartoon dynasty of tyrants. The result of his experiences as a tourist in North Korea is this hybrid book of travel story and magical realism. Immersed in the hallucinatory personality cult that dominates every aspect of North Korean culture, Peixoto traveled the country under the smiling surveillance of guides and official portraits. A nightmarish atmosphere, which contrasts with the triumphalist discourse of the authorities, is the backdrop for this fantastic journey through dystopia invented by a cartoon dynasty of tyrants.
Lisbon Public Library
Portugal
MEP
Karen Melchior
Denmark
Karen Melchior
Denmark
Fiction
The Arc of the Swallow
| 2013
The Arc of the Swallow
Fiction
Denmark | 2013
Sissel-Jo Gazan’s bestselling and influential The Dinosaur Feather introduced Danish Crime lovers to the competitive and perfidious world of biological science. In this outstanding sequel, her ingenious research, complex characterisation and suspenseful plotting supercedes the promise of her internationally acclaimed breakthrough.
MEP
Karen Melchior
Denmark
Karen Melchior
Denmark
MEP
Inese Vaidere
Latvia
Inese Vaidere
Latvia
Autobiography
Pieci pirksti
| 2013
Pieci pirksti
Five Fingers
Autobiography
Latvia | 2013
Based on the author's life, and written in lush language that defies the narrative's many hardships, Five Fingers tells the story of a girl who moves between worlds in the hopes of finding a Latvia that she can call home.
MEP
Inese Vaidere
Latvia
Inese Vaidere
Latvia
The novel “Pieci pirksti” illustrates how the Soviet occupation has changed Latvia through the eyes of the five-year-old Laura who has just returned home from Siberia. It was easy for me to identify myself with her because my father was deported to Siberia, too
MEP
Malin Björk
Sweden
Malin Björk
Sweden
Fiction
Lisa och Lilly
| 2020
Lisa och Lilly
Lisa and Lilly
Fiction
Sweden | 2020
Lisa and Lilly slip away from home and meet for the first time on a warm summer evening at a secret dance at Årstaviken. Just over a year later, in September 1911, their connected bodies were found in Hammarby lake. Against a background of the dynamic time around the turn of the last century, in a Stockholm that was then more than anything else the city of women, young people and workers, we follow Lisa and Lilly during their dizzying last years in life.
In this love novel, based on real people and extensive research, Mian Lodalen gives redress to the two young working women's magnetic and forbidden love.
MEP
Malin Björk
Sweden
Malin Björk
Sweden
Expert pick
Fiction
The Great Godden
| 2020
The Great Godden
Fiction
UK | 2020
This is the story of one family, one dreamy summer – the summer when everything changes. In a holiday house by the sea, our watchful narrator sees everything, including many things they shouldn’t, as their brother and sisters, parents and older cousins fill hot days with wine and games and planning a wedding. Enter two brothers – irresistible, charming, languidly sexy Kit and surly, silent Hugo. Suddenly there’s a serpent in this paradise – and the consequences will be devastating.
1 City 19 Books
Expert pick
Fiction
Líbano Labirinto
| 2021
Líbano Labirinto
Lebanon, Labyrinth
Fiction
Portugal | 2021
The people of Lebanon were abandoned by the Lebanon pact, when there was no longer a lack of evidence that this pact is deadly. And within the labyrinth the country senses a general explosion. It's happening already.
Here's what comes to me every day from my friends, it came over the months that this book has gone on, like a conversation we don't want to end.
We went through the quarantine together, dead and alive, these Romans, these Ottomans, these Palestinians, those Syrians, the voice of Fairuz, the smile of Ali, the bread, the basil, breakfast in Baalbek, the snow that Caroline still has today send me from the mountains, where I imagine the Cyclamens below are in bloom, with their bird petals, their crimson waist.
And by the sea that city called Beirut.
Lisbon Public Library
Portugal
MEP
Mady Delvaux
Luxembourg
Mady Delvaux
Luxembourg
Fiction
Zwei Herren am Strand
| 2014
Zwei Herren am Strand
Two Gentlemen on the Beach
Fiction
Austria | 2014
On the face of it, Winston Churchill and Charlie Chaplin – two icons of the twentieth century – couldn’t be more different. But they are bound by a dark secret: both suffer from depression. When a chance encounter reveals what they share, an unusual and unlikely friendship ensues. A series of therapeutic meetings across the world, in Germany, England and America, sees each become the other’s confidant as they talk of their ‘black dog days’.
MEP
Mady Delvaux
Luxembourg
Mady Delvaux
Luxembourg
You will like this intelligent book about the improbable relationship between two geniuses, Charlie Chaplin and Winston Churchill, who contrast sharply but who could still have agreed on the essence.
Expert pick
Fiction
Zu den Elefanten
| 2021
Zu den Elefanten
The Elephants
Fiction
Austria | 2021
The cultural scientist Theo is stuck in a strange state of limbo when he resolves to change his relationship with his wife Anna and his son Moritz. Together with Moritz, he undertakes a journey along the route that the future Emperor Maximilian II took with the elephant Soliman from the Mediterranean to Vienna centuries ago. This time they travel in the opposite direction, from Austria via South Tyrol to Genoa. But the team soon faces major problems. Seemingly lost in himself and despairing of the present, Theo tells in diary form of a journey towards the realization that it is the past, memories and memory that shape the present. A journey that takes a dramatic turn and through which the narrator realizes that life is a stream of attempts to explain and observe. And that one must first lose oneself to find each other.
EU Prize for Literature
MEP
Esther de Lange
Netherlands
Esther de Lange
Netherlands
Non-fiction
De Rijn
| 2017
De Rijn
The Rhine
Non-fiction
the Netherlands | 2017
What do we still know about our national river? Martin Hendriksma moved from the Rhine source at the Swiss Gotthard Pass to the mouth in the North Sea. Along the way he collected a wealth of stories. About drowned villages whose church bells still ring deep in the river water. About monks who rose to become wine magnates. About how the industry killed nature, while the responsible administrators looked away. Skippers, painters and soldiers bring the Rhine water to life; the flow that determines the history of countries, cities and people since the Romans.
In De Rijn, Martin Hendriksma once again shows himself to be a born storyteller. He wrote a swirling book that changes our view of the river forever through its lively style and unforgettable anecdotes.
MEP
Esther de Lange
Netherlands
Esther de Lange
Netherlands
MEP
Karen Melchior
Denmark
Karen Melchior
Denmark
Non-fiction
What White people can do next
| 2021
What White people can do next
Non-fiction
USA | 2021
Vital and empowering What White People Can Do Next teaches each of us how to be agents of change in the fight against racism and the establishment of a more just and equitable world. In this affecting and inspiring collection of essays, Emma Dabiri draws on both academic discipline and lived experience to probe the ways many of us are complacent and complicit—and can therefore combat—white supremacy.
MEP
Karen Melchior
Denmark
Karen Melchior
Denmark
MEP
Emmanuel Maurel
France
Emmanuel Maurel
France
Non-fiction
Anatomía de un instante
| 2009
Anatomía de un instante
The Anatomy of a Moment
Non-fiction
Spain | 2009
Critically adored novelist Javier Cercas originally set out to write a novel about this pivotal moment, but determined it had already gained an air of myth, or, through the annual broadcast of video clips, had at least acquired the fictional taint of reality television. Cercas turned to nonfiction, and his vivid descriptions of the archival footage frame a narrative that traverses the line between history and art, creating a daring new account of this watershed moment in modern Spanish history.
The Anatomy of a Moment caused a sensation upon its publication in Spain, selling hundreds of thousands of copies. The story will be new to many American readers, but the book stands resolutely on its own as a compelling literary inquest of national myth, personal memory, political spectacle, and reality itself.
MEP
Emmanuel Maurel
France
Emmanuel Maurel
France
MEP
Carlos Zorrinho
Portugal
Carlos Zorrinho
Portugal
Children Book
A maior flor do Mundo
| 2001
A maior flor do Mundo
The biggest flower in the world
Children Book
Portugal | 2001
If children’s stories were required reading for adults, would we be capable of learning that which we’ve been teaching for so long? A beautiful tale for children—and adults—by Nobel Prize laureate José Saramago
MEP
Carlos Zorrinho
Portugal
Carlos Zorrinho
Portugal
Expert pick
Non-Fiction
On Connection
| 2022
On Connection
Non-Fiction
UK | 2022
Drawing on two decades of experience as a writer and performer, Kae Tempest champions the role of creativity - in whatever form we choose to practice it - as an act of love, helping us establish a deeper relationship to our true selves, and to others and the world we live in.
Honest, hopeful and written with piercing clarity, On Connection is an inspiring personal meditation that will transform the way you see the world.
1 City 19 Books
MEP
Roberta Metsola
Malta
Roberta Metsola
Malta
Fiction
Roots
| 1976
Roots
Fiction
USA | 1976
When he was a boy in Henning, Tennessee, Alex Haley's grandmother used to tell him stories about their family—stories that went back to her grandparents, and their grandparents, down through the generations all the way to a man she called "the African." She said he had lived across the ocean near what he called the "Kamby Bolongo" and had been out in the forest one day chopping wood to make a drum when he was set upon by four men, beaten, chained and dragged aboard a slave ship bound for Colonial America.
Still vividly remembering the stories after he grew up and became a writer, Haley began to search for documentation that might authenticate the narrative. It took ten years and a half a million miles of travel across three continents to find it, but finally, in an astonishing feat of genealogical detective work, he discovered not only the name of "the African"—Kunta Kinte—but the precise location of Juffure, the very village in The Gambia, West Africa, from which he was abducted in 1767 at the age of sixteen and taken on the Lord Ligonier to Maryland and sold to a Virginia planter.
Haley has talked in Juffure with his own African sixth cousins. On September 29, 1967, he stood on the dock in Annapolis where his great-great-great-great-grandfather was taken ashore on September 29, 1767. Now he has written the monumental two-century drama of Kunta Kinte and the six generations who came after him—slaves and freedmen, farmers and blacksmiths, lumber mill workers and Pullman porters, lawyers and architects—and one author.
But Haley has done more than recapture the history of his own family. As the first black American writer to trace his origins back to their roots, he has told the story of 25,000,000 Americans of African descent. He has rediscovered for an entire people a rich cultural heritage that slavery took away from them, along with their names and their identities. But Roots speaks, finally, not just to blacks, or to whites, but to all people and all races everywhere, for the story it tells is one of the most eloquent testimonials ever written to the indomitability of the human spirit.
MEP
Roberta Metsola
Malta
Roberta Metsola
Malta
MEP
Emmanuel Maurel
France
Emmanuel Maurel
France
Fiction
L'arbre-monde
| 2018
L'arbre-monde
The Overstory
Fiction
USA | 2018
The Overstory is a sweeping, impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of - and paean to - the natural world. From the roots to the crown and back to the seeds, Richard Powers’s twelfth novel unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. There is a world alongside ours—vast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us. This is the story of a handful of people who learn how to see that world and who are drawn up into its unfolding catastrophe.
MEP
Emmanuel Maurel
France
Emmanuel Maurel
France
MEP
Malin Bjork
Sweden
Malin Bjork
Sweden
Non-fiction
Klubben
| 2019
Klubben
Non-fiction
Sweden | 2019
For decades he had been surrounded by rumors of abuse - the well-known cultural profile whose prestigious club attracted members of the Swedish Academy, and where artistry was both born and died. On November 22, 2017, journalist Matilda Gustavsson's report on the cultural profile was published in Dagens Nyheter, where eighteen women testified about rape, threats and harassment. It launched an chain of events that would cause one of the world's most rich cultural institutions to crack down on open curtains.
In "The Club" Matilda Gustavsson deepens her investigation of the power of the cultural world and how far one can go in the name of art. She writes about the time surrounding the publication, the aftermath in which the cultural profile is condemned for rape and about the contradictions within the Academy.
MEP
Malin Bjork
Sweden
Malin Bjork
Sweden
MEP
Michaela Šojdrová
Czech Republic
Michaela Šojdrová
Czech Republic
Non-fiction
Z Etiopie a odjinud
| 2020
Z Etiopie a odjinud
From Ethiopia and elsewhere
Non-fiction
Czech Republic | 2020
This book by a well-known reporter deals with four notable destinations: Moravia, Sardinia, Brussels and Ethiopia.
What do these four places have in common? Finding out that people are basically the same everywhere in the world.
They care about the same things. They cling to their country, to their culture. Above all, however, they live in a world whose history and stories are interconnected ...
Today, even more than in the past.
MEP
Michaela Šojdrová
Czech Republic
Michaela Šojdrová
Czech Republic
MEP
Bogdan Wenta
Poland
Bogdan Wenta
Poland
Non-fiction
The Emperor
| 1978
The Emperor
Non-fiction
Poland | 1978
This sensitive, powerful history is Kapuscinski's rendition of Haile Selassie king of Ethiopia, living amidst nearly unimaginable pomp and luxury while his people teetered between hunger and starvation.
MEP
Bogdan Wenta
Poland
Bogdan Wenta
Poland
Expert pick
Picture book
Otthon
| 2018
Otthon
Picture book
Hungary | 2018
What is home? A safe haven? A place to spend time with your loved ones? The hero of the picture book is a boy who one day must move to a new home as his parents sold the house of his early years. A heart-warming story about attachment, farewells, loss and yearning. And about accepting change and looking for a new safe haven. All this and more, conveyed only through charming illustrations.
Europe Readr
MEP
Catherine Stihler
UK
Catherine Stihler
UK
Autobiography
Personal History
| 1997
Personal History
Autobiography
USA | 1997
In this autobiography, the owner of the Washington Post has chosen to be remarkably candid about the insecurities prompted by remote parents and a difficult marriage to the charismatic, manic-depressive Phil Graham, who ran the newspaper her father acquired.
MEP
Catherine Stihler
UK
Catherine Stihler
UK
Expert pick
Fiction
Love From A to Z
| 2019
Love From A to Z
Fiction
USA | 2019
A marvel: something you find amazing. Even ordinary-amazing. Like potatoes—because they make French fries happen. Like the perfect fries Adam and his mom used to make together.
An oddity: whatever gives you pause. Like the fact that there are hateful people in the world. Like Zayneb’s teacher, who won’t stop reminding the class how “bad” Muslims are.
But Zayneb, the only Muslim in class, isn’t bad. She’s angry.
When she gets suspended for confronting her teacher, and he begins investigating her activist friends, Zayneb heads to her aunt’s house in Doha, Qatar, for an early start to spring break.
Fueled by the guilt of getting her friends in trouble, she resolves to try out a newer, “nicer” version of herself in a place where no one knows her.
Then her path crosses with Adam’s.
Since he got diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in November, Adam’s stopped going to classes, intent, instead, on perfecting the making of things. Intent on keeping the memory of his mom alive for his little sister.
Adam’s also intent on keeping his diagnosis a secret from his grieving father.
Alone, Adam and Zayneb are playing roles for others, keeping their real thoughts locked away in their journals.
Until a marvel and an oddity occurs…
Marvel: Adam and Zayneb meeting.
Oddity: Adam and Zayneb meeting.
1 City 19 Books
MEP
Helga Stevens
Belgium
Helga Stevens
Belgium
Non-fiction
Sovjetistan
| 2014
Sovjetistan
Non-fiction
Norway | 2014
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan. Fascinating Central Asian countries that lost their own identity in the Soviet era. What is left of that Soviet influence, now that they have been independent for more than a quarter of a century?
MEP
Helga Stevens
Belgium
Helga Stevens
Belgium
As member of the EP Delegation for Central Asia this book helped me to understand the 5 different Central Asian states better. Also provided me with interesting and useful historical insight regarding Russia and these countries. My parents gave it to me as a Christmas gift.
Expert pick
Poetry
Kameleon
| 2015
Kameleon
Poetry
Belgium | 2015
The poems in Kameleon consitute a "road trip" around a woman's body, explored through a multitude of memories, landscapes and images.
PL2020
MEP
Julia Reda
Germany
Julia Reda
Germany
Memoir
Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood
| 2016
Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood
Memoir
South Africa | 2016
Trevor Noah's unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Born a Crime is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist.
MEP
Julia Reda
Germany
Julia Reda
Germany
An autobiography that passionately deals with themes of injustice, apartheid, poverty and domestic abuse, while still being genuinely funny and heart-warming
MEP
Radosław Sikorski
Poland
Radosław Sikorski
Poland
Non-fiction
The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians
| 2007
The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians
Non-fiction
USA | 2007
Heather relates the extraordinary story of how Europe's barbarians, transformed by centuries of contact with Rome on every possible level, eventually pulled the empire apart.
Peter Heather convincingly argues that the Roman Empire was not on the brink of social or moral collapse. What brought it to an end were the barbarians.
MEP
Radosław Sikorski
Poland
Radosław Sikorski
Poland
MEP
Michaela Šojdrová
Czech Republic
Michaela Šojdrová
Czech Republic
Cookery
Vůně chleba
| 2016
Vůně chleba
The smell of Bread
Cookery
Czech Republic | 2016
Bread has been, is and will be a part of our lives. So why not bake it in the comfort of your home? This book offers a wide range of tasty and fragrant recipes, the key to recognizing different types of cereals and, most importantly, a simple guide on how not to be afraid to bake. Very useful book during the time of the coronavirus crisis
MEP
Michaela Šojdrová
Czech Republic
Michaela Šojdrová
Czech Republic
MEP
Inese Vaidere
Latvia
Inese Vaidere
Latvia
Non-Fiction
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
| 2011
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Non-Fiction
Israel | 2011
Planet Earth is 4.5 billion years old. In just a fraction of that time, one species among countless others has conquered it. Us. We are the most advanced and most destructive animals ever to have lived. What makes us brilliant? What makes us dead? What makes us Sapiens? In this bold and provocative book, Yuval Noah Harari explores who we are, how we got here and where we're going. Sapiens is a thrilling account of humankind's extraordinary history - from the Stone Age to the Silicon Age - and our journey from insignificant apes to rulers of the world
MEP
Inese Vaidere
Latvia
Inese Vaidere
Latvia
The book "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Noa Harari, Professor of Philosophy and History, is an intellectual gift - lecture of life - philosophy, history and also ethics. The book shows a spectacular development with a little insight into tomorrow. I sympathize with Harari's approach - there are no ready-made solutions and answers, but by offering real examples from life, he encourages and even invites the reader to think along.
MEP
Annie Schreijer-Pierik
the Netherlands
Annie Schreijer-Pierik
the Netherlands
Travel guide
Twaalf Twentse tochten
| 2014
Twaalf Twentse tochten
Twelve Twentse Tours
Travel guide
the Netherlands | 2014
Twelve circular walks to discover the Dutch Twente region at its best.
MEP
Annie Schreijer-Pierik
the Netherlands
Annie Schreijer-Pierik
the Netherlands
MEP
Artis Pabriks
Latvia
Artis Pabriks
Latvia
Poetry
Mūžības skartie
| 1931
Mūžības skartie
Touched By Eternity
Poetry
Latvia | 1931
These twenty-four poems tell the story of Latvian riflemen fighting in the trenches of World War I and Civil War fronts.
MEP
Artis Pabriks
Latvia
Artis Pabriks
Latvia
MEP
Malin Björk
Sweden
Malin Björk
Sweden
Fiction
Bitterfittan 2
| 2017
Bitterfittan 2
Bitter Bitch 2
Fiction
Sweden | 2017
Ten years have passed since Sara left her husband and children for a week's pause in Tenerife. Family hell had drained her energy, she was bitter and tired. Now she finally divorced from her husband. But to start life as single people is significantly more complicated than she would have imagined.
MEP
Malin Björk
Sweden
Malin Björk
Sweden
MEP
Kaja Kallas
Estonia
Kaja Kallas
Estonia
Essay
Hõbevalge
| 1976
Hõbevalge
"Silver White"
Essay
Estonia | 1976
This book focuses on the ancient history of Estonia and the Baltic region. Hõbvalge is based on geographical sources mainly derived from ancient navigators and reveals a careful analysis of the secret of the legendary Ultima Thule. Thule is the name that was given by the Greeks and Latins to the land farthest ever achieved in the North, and found to be situated six-day trip from Britain.
MEP
Kaja Kallas
Estonia
Kaja Kallas
Estonia
MEP
Esther de Lange
Netherlands
Esther de Lange
Netherlands
Fiction
Jachthuis
| 2020
Jachthuis
Fiction
Netherlands | 2020
After the death of his mother Elsie, eighteen-year-old Maxwell travels to Suriname, the paradise where he spent his early childhood. When he arrives at the Marowijne River on the French Guiana border, he remembers the dramatic crossing he had made with his parents a few years earlier. (Descirption translated from Libris)
MEP
Esther de Lange
Netherlands
Esther de Lange
Netherlands
MEP
Esther de Lange
the Netherlands
Esther de Lange
the Netherlands
Fiction
Kindsoldaat
| 2018
Kindsoldaat
Child soldier
Fiction
the Netherlands | 2018
Twins Nol and Max were born in a Ducth castle at the border with Germany at the end of the 19th century. At the beginning of the WW1 the brothers leave the castle through different gates, and end up on different sides of history.
MEP
Esther de Lange
the Netherlands
Esther de Lange
the Netherlands
A beautiful novel set in the border region between the Netherlands and Germany (the region in which I was born). The story covers the entire 20th century and thus touches the heart of the European construction seen through the lens of a family’s personal story (and link to the Dutch royal family).
MEP
Esther de Lange
the Netherlands
Esther de Lange
the Netherlands
Non-fiction
In Europa: Reizen door de twintigste eeuw
| 2006
In Europa: Reizen door de twintigste eeuw
In Europe: Travels Through the Twentieth Century
Non-fiction
the Netherlands | 2006
From the First World War to the waning days of the Cold War, a poignant exploration on what it means to be European at the end of the twentieth-century. Geert Mak crisscrosses Europe from Verdun to Berlin, SaintPetersburg to Srebrenica in search of evidence and witnesses of the last hundred years of Europe, locating the smaller, personal stories within the epic arc of history.
MEP
Esther de Lange
the Netherlands
Esther de Lange
the Netherlands
MEP
Seán Kelly
Ireland
Seán Kelly
Ireland
Fiction
The Shadow of the Wind
| 2001
The Shadow of the Wind
Fiction
USA | 2001
Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals from its war wounds, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer's son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julian Carax. But when he sets out to find the author's other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the last of Carax's books in existence. Soon Daniel's seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona's darkest secrets--an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love.
MEP
Seán Kelly
Ireland
Seán Kelly
Ireland
A captivating tale full of surprises, suspense and mystery
MEP
Malin Björk
Sweden
Malin Björk
Sweden
Fiction
Heart of Darkness
| 1899
Heart of Darkness
Fiction
UK | 1899
Dark allegory describes the narrator's journey up the Congo River and his meeting with, and fascination by, Mr. Kurtz, a mysterious personage who dominates the unruly inhabitants of the region.
MEP
Malin Björk
Sweden
Malin Björk
Sweden
MEP
Mairead McGuinness
Ireland
Mairead McGuinness
Ireland
Fiction
Where the Crawdads Sing
| 2018
Where the Crawdads Sing
Fiction
USA | 2018
Perfect for fans of Barbara Kingsolver and Karen Russell, Where the Crawdads Sing is at once an exquisite ode to the natural world, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story, and a surprising tale of possible murder. Owens reminds us that we are forever shaped by the children we once were, and that we are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.
MEP
Mairead McGuinness
Ireland
Mairead McGuinness
Ireland
MEP
Pernille Weiss
Denmark
Pernille Weiss
Denmark
Fiction
Det gør du ikke
| 2010
Det gør du ikke
Fiction
Denmark | 2010
Lawyer David and his English wife Emma stayed together while everyone around them was in divorce, but now their intimacy is suddenly threatened. Their daughter Zoë has her first exhibition as an artist and visits her parents with her new friend, a Pakistani. David and Emma are convinced that his background is not important, but they both get confused by their attempts to confirm it. They are confronted with the choices, events and relationships that have shaped their lives. Were the sacrifices worthwhile? And how do you know if you really love someone?
With great empathy and insight, Grøndahl describes in That you do not know the thoughts and feelings of his main characters, so that they crawl under your skin and leave an unforgettable impression.
MEP
Pernille Weiss
Denmark
Pernille Weiss
Denmark
MEP
Deidre Clune
Ireland
Deidre Clune
Ireland
Fiction
Wolf Hall
| 2010
Wolf Hall
Fiction
UK | 2010
England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe opposes him. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell: a wholly original man, a charmer and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people, and implacable in his ambition. But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what will be the price of his triumph?
MEP
Deidre Clune
Ireland
Deidre Clune
Ireland
I decided to go back to this as I did not manage to get through it originally and really I enjoyed immersing myself in the life of Thomas Cromwell and his relationship with the Tudors . I have been always been interested in that chapter of British history since watching the TV series The six wives of Henry V111 many years ago.
MEP
Tomasz Frankowski
Poland
Tomasz Frankowski
Poland
Non-fiction
Who Moved my Cheese
| 1998
Who Moved my Cheese
Non-fiction
UK | 1998
It is the amusing and enlightening story of four characters who live in a maze and look for cheese to nourish them and make them happy. Cheese is a metaphor for what you want to have in life, for example a good job, a loving relationship, money or possessions, health or spiritual peace of mind. The maze is where you look for what you want, perhaps the organisation you work in, or the family or community you live in. The problem is that the cheese keeps moving.
In the story, the characters are faced with unexpected change in their search for the cheese. One of them eventually deals with change successfully and writes what he has learned on the maze walls for you to discover.
MEP
Tomasz Frankowski
Poland
Tomasz Frankowski
Poland
I recommend it to all people and organizations, it is a must read, very simple but powerful concept within these pages. Don't be afraid of change! Standing still in the same place is more frightening than accepting change and looking forward.
MEP
Milan Brglez
Slovenia
Milan Brglez
Slovenia
Non-Fiction
De Meeste Mensen Deugen
| 2019
De Meeste Mensen Deugen
Humankind: A Hopeful History
Non-Fiction
The Netherlands | 2019
The ultimate goal of Humankind is to demonstrate that while neither capitalism nor communism has on its own been proven to be a workable social system, there is a third option: giving "citizens and professionals the means (left) to make their own choices (right)." Reorienting our thinking toward positive and high expectations of our fellow man, Bregman argues, will reap lasting success. Bregman presents this idea with his signature wit and frankness, once again making history, social science and economic theory accessible and enjoyable for lay readers.
MEP
Milan Brglez
Slovenia
Milan Brglez
Slovenia
MEP
Seán Kelly
Ireland
Seán Kelly
Ireland
Non-fiction
Blas Meala
| 2020
Blas Meala
The Taste of Honey
Non-fiction
Ireland | 2020
Of course, we've all heard that the work of bees is one of the hardest to understand, but it must be said that this book has gone to great lengths to address it. It is the story of three men and their efforts to establish the beekeeping of the Meath meadow. This book is a comprehensive account of how to manage native Irish black bees, the successes and failures, and the best ways to manage stock. It describes the land, plants, animals and people of the Kingdom of Meath - a lunch of reflection for anyone interested in nature and all that lives there. On top of this, the book contains a chapter on the making of ancient Irish drink: the scales.
MEP
Seán Kelly
Ireland
Seán Kelly
Ireland
A witty account of the folklore of the honeybee and the ancient craft of brewing mead
Expert pick
Non-fiction
Slepé skvrny
| 2020
Slepé skvrny
Blind Spots
Non-fiction
Czech Republic | 2020
Sociologist Daniel Prokop looks at the problems and challenges of the present Czech Republic and the world. Unresolved poverty and execution, unequal education and limited life chances, the rise of populism and the inability to respond to it, myths about public opinion overshadowing reality - all this is related to the Czechs' declining confidence in democracy and its viability in an increasingly complex reality. Especially at a time when political campaigns are based on emotions rather than facts, disinformation is spreading through the media and society is addressing the tabloid cases of its representatives instead of problems such as the future of job market or the ways and forms of education.
National Library of the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
MEP
Catherine Stihler
UK
Catherine Stihler
UK
Fiction
A breath of snow and ashes
| 2005
A breath of snow and ashes
Fiction
USA | 2005
A Breath of Snow and Ashes continues the extraordinary story of 18th-century Scotsman Jamie Fraser and his 20th-century wife, Claire. The year is 1772, and on the eve of the American Revolution. With chaos brewing, the governor calls upon Jamie Fraser to unite the backcountry and safeguard the colony. But from his wife Jamie knows that three years hence the result will be independence
MEP
Catherine Stihler
UK
Catherine Stihler
UK
MEP
Eero Heinäluoma
Finland
Eero Heinäluoma
Finland
Fiction
Hytti nro 6
| 2011
Hytti nro 6
Compartment n. 6
Fiction
Finland | 2011
In the waning years of the Soviet Union, a sad young Finnish woman boards a train in Moscow. Bound for Mongolia, she's trying to put as much space as possible between her and a broken relationship. Wanting to be alone, she chooses an empty compartment--No. 6.--but her solitude is soon shattered by the arrival of a fellow passenger: Vadim Nikolayevich Ivanov, a grizzled, opinionated, foul-mouthed former soldier. Vadim fills the compartment with his long and colorful stories, recounting in lurid detail his sexual conquests and violent fights.
There is a hint of menace in the air, but initially the woman is not so much scared of or shocked by him as she is repulsed. She stands up to him, throwing a boot at his head. But though Vadim may be crude, he isn't cruel, and he shares with her the sausage and black bread and tea he's brought for the journey, coaxing the girl out of her silent gloom. As their train cuts slowly across thousands of miles of a wintry Russia, where "everything is in motion, snow, water, air, trees, clouds, wind, cities, villages, people and thoughts," a grudging kind of companionship grows between the two inhabitants of compartment No. 6. When they finally arrive in Ulan Bator, a series of starlit and sinister encounters bring Rosa Liksom's incantatory Compartment No. 6 to its powerful conclusion.
MEP
Eero Heinäluoma
Finland
Eero Heinäluoma
Finland
MEP
Helga Trüpel
Germany
Helga Trüpel
Germany
Essay
After Europe
| 2017
After Europe
Essay
USA | 2017
In this provocative book, renowned public intellectual Ivan Krastev reflects on the future of the European Union - and its potential lack of a future. With far-right nationalist parties on the rise across the continent and Brexit, the EU is in disarray and plagued by doubts as never before.
MEP
Helga Trüpel
Germany
Helga Trüpel
Germany
MEP
Deidre Clune
Ireland
Deidre Clune
Ireland
Non-fiction
Never Mind The B#ll*cks, Here's the Science
| 2021
Never Mind The B#ll*cks, Here's the Science
Non-fiction
Ireland | 2021
In his fascinating and thought-provoking new book, Professor Luke O’Neill, one of the leading voices of authority during the COVID-19 pandemic, grapples with life’s biggest questions and tells us what science has to say about them:
Do we have control over our lives?
Can we escape working in bullshit jobs?
Must we vaccinate our children?
Are men and women’s brains different?
Will we destroy the planet?
Covering topics from global pandemics to gender, addiction to euthanasia, Luke’s trademark easy wit and clever pop-culture references deconstruct the science to make complex questions accessible. Arriving at science’s definitive answers to some of the most controversial topics human beings have to grapple with, Never Mind the B#ll*ocks is a celebration of science and hard facts in a time of fake news and sometimes unhelpful groupthink.
MEP
Deidre Clune
Ireland
Deidre Clune
Ireland
This non -fiction gives answers to many of today’s questions from a science based approach and gives the facts no opinions, no groupthink ,no fake news . Questions such as ,Why won’t you get vaccinated? Why do you believe in diets? and more ...
MEP
Tomasz Frankowski
Poland
Tomasz Frankowski
Poland
Fiction
The Marriage Lie
| 2016
The Marriage Lie
Fiction
Canada | 2016
Iris and Will's marriage is as close to perfect as it can be: a large house in a nice Atlanta neighborhood, rewarding careers and the excitement of trying for their first baby. But on the morning Will leaves for a business trip to Orlando, Iris's happy world comes to an abrupt halt. Another plane headed for Seattle has crashed into a field, killing everyone on board, and according to the airline, Will was one of the passengers on this plane.
Grief-stricken and confused, Iris is convinced it all must be a huge misunderstanding. But as time passes and there is still no sign of Will, she reluctantly accepts that he is gone. Still, Iris needs answers. Why did Will lie about where he was going? What is in Seattle? And what else has he lied about? As Iris sets off on a desperate quest to find out what her husband was keeping from her, the answers she receives will shock her to her very core.
MEP
Tomasz Frankowski
Poland
Tomasz Frankowski
Poland
I would recommend The Marriage Lie which is a fast-paced, suspenseful, action-packed read filled with unpredictable twists and turns that kept me on my toes! This is the first book that I've read by Kimberly Belle so I wasn't sure what to expect; I can definitely say it won't be the last book of hers that I read!
MEP
Liliana Rodrigues
Portugal
Liliana Rodrigues
Portugal
A Morte de um Apicultor
| 1972
A Morte de um Apicultor
Death of a beekeeper
Sweden | 1972
In the beginning of the winter thaw, Lars Lennart Westin has learned that he has cancer and will not live through spring.The Death of a Beekeeper, is his gentle, courageous, and sometimes comic meditation on living with pain.
MEP
Liliana Rodrigues
Portugal
Liliana Rodrigues
Portugal
MEP
Anne Sander
France
Anne Sander
France
Fiction
Ce que l'homme a cru voir
| 2018
Ce que l'homme a cru voir
Fiction
France | 2018
You never know what the past has in store for you.
An initiatory journey of great power, carried by a carnal, sensitive, intense writing. (Description from Babelio)
MEP
Anne Sander
France
Anne Sander
France
Expert pick
Fiction
The Pace
| 2009
The Pace
Fiction
USA | 2009
Weston Wilson is not immortal and he is of this world. But, aging is not part of his existence, and eighteen-year-old Sophie Slone is determined to find out why. In doing so, she could also uncover something about her own life expectancy that she may not want to know. Suddenly, immortality will mean everything and nothing all at the same time.
1 City 19 Books
Expert pick
Fiction
Opposite of Always
| 2019
Opposite of Always
Fiction
USA | 2019
When Jack and Kate meet at a party, bonding until sunrise over their mutual love of Froot Loops and their favorite flicks, Jack knows he’s falling—hard. Soon she’s meeting his best friends, Jillian and Franny, and Kate wins them over as easily as she did Jack.
But then Kate dies. And their story should end there.
Yet Kate’s death sends Jack back to the beginning, the moment they first meet, and Kate’s there again. Healthy, happy, and charming as ever. Jack isn’t sure if he’s losing his mind.
Still, if he has a chance to prevent Kate’s death, he’ll take it. Even if that means believing in time travel. However, Jack will learn that his actions are not without consequences. And when one choice turns deadly for someone else close to him, he has to figure out what he’s willing to do to save the people he loves.
1 City 19 Books
MEP
Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finland
Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finland
Non-fiction
Thinking in Systems
| 2008
Thinking in Systems
Non-fiction
USA | 2008
Meadows’ Thinking in Systems, is a concise and crucial book offering insight for problem solving on scales ranging from the personal to the global. Edited by the Sustainability Institute’s Diana Wright, this essential primer brings systems thinking out of the realm of computers and equations and into the tangible world, showing readers how to develop the systems-thinking skills that thought leaders across the globe consider critical for 21st-century life.
MEP
Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finland
Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finland
MEP
Marita Ulvskog
Sweden
Marita Ulvskog
Sweden
Fiction
De kommer att drunkna i sina mödrars tårar
| 2017
De kommer att drunkna i sina mödrars tårar
They will drown in the tears of their mothers
Fiction
Sweden | 2017
One winter evening, three individuals who swear fidelity to ISIS enter a bookstore. A controversial artist's appearance is interrupted by a gun shot, panic breaks out and everyone in the room is taken as hostage. But one of the attackers, a young woman who has the task of filming the violence, has a secret that can change everything.
MEP
Marita Ulvskog
Sweden
Marita Ulvskog
Sweden
MEP
Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finland
Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finland
Non-fiction
Consilience – The Unity of Knowledge
| 1998
Consilience – The Unity of Knowledge
Non-fiction
USA | 1998
One of our greatest living scientists--and the winner of two Pulitzer Prizes for On Human Nature and The Ants--gives us a work of visionary importance that may be the crowning achievement of his career. In Consilience (a word that originally meant "jumping together"), Edward O. Wilson renews the Enlightenment's search for a unified theory of knowledge in disciplines that range from physics to biology, the social sciences and the humanities.
Using the natural sciences as his model, Wilson forges dramatic links between fields. He explores the chemistry of the mind and the genetic bases of culture. He postulates the biological principles underlying works of art from cave-drawings to Lolita. Presenting the latest findings in prose of wonderful clarity and oratorical eloquence, and synthesizing it into a dazzling whole, Consilience is science in the path-clearing traditions of Newton, Einstein, and Richard Feynman.
MEP
Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finland
Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finland
MEP
Tomasz Frankowski
Poland
Tomasz Frankowski
Poland
Non-fiction
Pubertät - wenn Erziehen nicht mehr geht
| 2010
Pubertät - wenn Erziehen nicht mehr geht
Puberty – when education is no longer possible
Non-fiction
Germany | 2010
In Puberty new ways of working together are needed, because education like in childhood is no longer of any use: Jesper Juul's brand-new bestseller is based on an intensive seminar in which parents and adolescents tried out solutions to their problems together with the family therapist. Orientation that helps.
MEP
Tomasz Frankowski
Poland
Tomasz Frankowski
Poland
This book is definitely a must read for parents who are struggling to understand their teenagers. Juul is a recognised family pedagogue and therapist who stresses the crucial role that caring adults play in a teenager's life. He draws on his great expertise to give parents many practical tips and valuable insight into the parent-child relationship. As a father of three children, I highly recommend this book.
MEP
Esther de Lange
the Netherlands
Esther de Lange
the Netherlands
Fiction
Die Hauptstadt
| 2017
Die Hauptstadt
The Capital
Fiction
Austria | 2017
Fenia Xenapoulou is facing a career setback. She is to revamp the boring image of the European Commission. Her assistant suggests proclaiming Auschwitz as the birthplace of the European Commission. Fenia is thrilled, but she didn’t take the other EU nations into account. and she can’t count on David de Vriend, one of the last living witnesses, any longer: he runs to the metro station Maalbeek at the wrong time...
MEP
Esther de Lange
the Netherlands
Esther de Lange
the Netherlands
EU nerds will spot some inaccuracies, but it’s good to read a fiction book set in Brussels for once. The book is a good read in itself, while teaching readers along the way about the history of Europe and the EU.
Expert pick
Fiction
Teo de la 16 la 18
| 2021
Teo de la 16 la 18
Teo from 4 to 6
Fiction
Romania | 2021
After a difficult childhood, with several medical problems, Teo begins to understand that she is different. She goes to university in the capital city of her country, then studies abroad in two locations, one of them decided by the “Bologna fairy”. During her Masters she starts working for an agency and never stops travelling to other cities she assigns her own names, giving the reader a constant feeling of a recreated contemporary Babel. With each experience, things accelerate and get out of hand, personally and professionally: love, abuse, marriage, surviving a near-death experience, reinventing herself afterwards. The first theme of the book is reflected directly in the title – an accolade to Agnes Varda’s film “Cléo de 5 à 7”: a cancer diagnosis that changes everything. From this perspective, the book reveals the complete experience of a young woman surviving an aggressive form of cervical cancer. The reader discovers that 16 and 18 are references to HPV, the virus that causes this disease still so invisible in many countries, killing hundreds of thousands every year. A second theme, in close relation to the medical one, is spiritual: the novel is a feminist reinterpretation of the Bible, as Teo’s and Jesus’s lives are very similar. All the apostles appear in the book, as characters, with their real names in various languages, dependent on the circumstances in which Teo meets them.A third theme of this book could be language itself, as the author throws in many different fonts, languages, styles (including the parody of an academic text), word-plays and humour, challenging the conventional form of a novel and making the text feel very contemporary. All in all, a bold, complex, intense and visionary novel.