A thoroughgoing appraisal of Ludovic Bruckstein’s work is long overdue. Almost forty years after the little-known Romanian author’s death this may be the moment it should be un
The conundrum is a perennial one: How could Germany, the nation that produced Goethe and Beethoven, also pave the way to the immemorial abomination of Hitler and the Holocaust? Ann
Brooding and compulsively edgy, the phenomenon of Nordic Noir police procedural films and novels has cut a swathe through Europe’s bestseller lists and fathered a memorable set o
It is no small undertaking for an author, even one as celebrated as Olga Tokarczuk, to confront a towering masterwork of western literature and set about creating what amounts to a
Walter Kempowski’s emergence late in life as a creditable — though perhaps not the stand-out — member of the European literary elite was a long time coming. Neglect of his wo
On the surface, Fabian, chief protagonist in this compilation of short stories by the prominent Estonian author Mikhel Mutt is about as warm and engaging as an icy blast of Baltic
“Violent spates” of rain pelt the night-time streets of Naples at the start of Nicola Pugliese’s novel, ahead of a “resolutely pallid and funereal dawn”. It’s an open
Teffi. It could be a child’s beloved rubbery chewing gum. Or maybe a name given to some floppy-haired pet. It could never be taken seriously as the pseudonym for a writer who cam
Agnieszka Dale’s psychological territory is bridge-building. She straddles the land of her birth – Poland – and her adoptive UK home. National shape-shifting and the individu
A landmass of daunting enormity and a seemingly inexhaustible capacity among both men and women to endure privation have been the foundations of Russia’s defences over the centur
