#RivetingReviews June 2025 – Introduction by Sheridan Marshall

Don’t worry if you don’t have holiday plans for summer 2025, because our riveting reviews are here to take you on a literary tour of Europe, from wherever you may be.

Mandy Wight reviews Judith Hermann’s We’d Have Told Each Other Everything, which, like Vincenzo Latronico’s Perfection, reviewed by Enrica Ferrara, is set in Germany. David Hebblethwaite takes us to the forests of Småland in southern Sweden with his review of Hannah Lutz’s Wild Boar. Tom Taylor isn’t entirely convinced by Laurent Binet’s Renaissance Florence murder mystery, Perspectives, but revels in Mathias Énard’s devastatingly clear-sighted vision of Europe in The Deserters.

Max Easterman introduces us to two gripping reads from Bitter Lemon Press: Jurica Pavičić’s Croatian thriller, Red Water, and Sergio Olguín’s exposé of the endemic corruption in Argentine society, The Best Enemy. Rosie Eyre takes us to Italy with her consideration of Susanna Bissoli’s novel, Struck, about a father and daughter who are both writers. Locations are crucial in Natalia Ginzburg’s final novel, The City and the House, reviewed by West Camel, in which the protagonist leaves his home city of Rome to start a new life with his brother in Princeton, USA.

We have some poetic treats for you to savour this summer. Valeria Vescina reviews the exquisite dual-language texts in Polish and English in Deliverance by the European Literature Network’s very own Anna Blasiak. Meanwhile, Anna herself reviews the sensory poetry of contemporary Danish poet, Pia Tafdrup in The Sight of Light / The Sound of Clouds / The Touch of Skin, and Yugoslavian poet Ivan V. Lalić’s stunning collection, The Taste of Lightning. Nicole Yurcaba introduces us to poetry by two outstanding Ukrainian writers: Olena Boryshpolets’ Orpheus and Eurydice in New York, and Yuri Andrukhovych’s Set Change.

Finally, Joshua Mensch reviews Slovakian author Nicol Hochholczerová’s searing debut novel about abuse, This Room is Impossible to Eat.

#RivetingReviews will be back in September, under the editorship of West Camel. The deadline for submissions is 19 September, for publication on 26 September. If you have a book for review or would like to write a review for us, please get in touch at: contact@eurolitnetwork.com.

Sheridan Marshall