Book Reviews

The Dandy at Dusk: Taste and Melancholy in the Twentieth Century,
by Philip Mann
BookBlast, September 2017
What makes a dandy? An elegant, erudite exploration of dandyism though the lives of six 20th-century dandies.

The Last Summer by Ricarda Huch, trans. Jamie Bulloch
European Literature Network, 12 April 2017
A epistolary tour de force set in Russia on the brink of revolution, by the ‘First Lady of European Literature’

The Mussel Feast by Birgit Vanderbeke, trans. Jamie Bulloch
The Independent, 27 March 2013
A coming-of-age novel for Germany

A Journey to Nowhere by Paul Kauffmann, trans. Euan Cameron
The Independent, 4 August 2012
A quest for one of Europe’s vanished states brings close encounters with past and present

Next World Novella by Matthias Politycki, trans. Anthea Bell
The Independent, 26 April 2011
A German gem found in translation

Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck, trans. Susan Bernofsky
The Financial Times, 25 October 2010
A deeply engaging panorama of Germany’s troubled 20th-century history

Beside the Sea by Veromique Olmi, trans. Adriana Hunter
The Independent, 25 February 2010
A struggling mother takes one-way trip to the seaside

The Passport by Herta Muller, trans. Martin Chalmers
The Financial Times, 23 November 2009
An early novel by the Nobel laureate

Journey Into the Past, by Stefan Zweig, trans. Anthea Bell
The Independent, 29 June 2009
A lovers’ tale told with intensity

Features

Big Bang Data maps our invisible traces
360 Here, January 2016
Today’s world contains an unimaginable amount of digital data – and that data is growing bigger and faster, all the time.

Mapping the sea: Let’s take a look at Portolan Charts
360 Here, December 2015
Back in the days before printed maps – let alone radio navigation or GPS – how did sailors reach their destinations without falling foul of reefs, sandbars and other marine hazards?

Trail of the unexpected: Burgenland
The Independent, 6 August 2011
Burgenland was Hungarian until 90 years ago, when residents voted to join Austria, creating a unique region.

The truth behind bravado in a bunker
The Independent, 8 September 2011
Why do falling tyrants hold out to the bitter end? Ian Kershaw, historian of the Third Reich, talks to C. J. Schüler.

Strange meeting
The New Statesman, 19 January 2009
You’re from London and you’re going to Kaliningrad?” a young man in Lithuania asked incredulously. “That’s like me going to Mars.”

After the long night, the dawn
The Independent, 21 August 2005
By the 1920s, Stefan Zweig was one of the most successful authors in the world. But after his tragic death in 1942, his fame just faded away. It’s time to rediscover his bittersweet tales of desire, loathing and obsession.