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Explore Essays and memoir

Maly Trostinets

Joseph Leo Koerner

‘It was also mainly Viennese Jews who, between 6 May and 10 October 1942, were murdered in Maly Trostinets. Tens of thousands of Jews from elsewhere died there too, together with Soviet soldiers, Belarusian citizens, both Jewish and Christian, and partisans.’

Tom McCarthy | On Europe

Tom McCarthy

‘Like theatre itself, Europe is a contraption, a machine.’

Our Home Is Mortal Too

Katherine Angel

Katherine Angel on Stromae and Royal Museum for Central Africa in Belgium.

Refuge

Bruno Fert & Nam Le

‘This series showcases a more intimate kind of human absence.’ Nam Le introduces the photographs of Bruno Fert.

Alicja Gescinska | On Europe

Alicja Gescinska

‘Europe has proved to be at its best when it embraced unity in diversity.’

We Do Not Know Each Other

Lara Feigel

‘Is that what family is for? Helping you to understand what formed you?’

Ludmila Ulitskaya | On Europe

Ludmila Ulitskaya

‘It seems clear to me that during the past ten years, Russia has reached the apex of its estrangement from Europe.’ Translated from the Russian by Polly Gannon.

On Being French and Chinese

Tash Aw

‘We were trapped in a sort of double prison: by poverty in Europe, and by China and its expectations of us.’

Marie Darrieussecq | On Europe

Marie Darrieussecq

‘There is a Europe of life and a Europe of death, on the mass graves of which we perpetuate a dream.’ Translated from the French by Linda Coverdale.

Itinerant

Andrew Miller

‘Was this an adventure or was I in trouble? At what point did one begin to shade into the other?’

Michael Hofmann | On Europe

Michael Hofmann

‘For all its flimsiness, the cage takes itself terribly seriously, restricting access, glorying in the name of Fatherland.’

The Poetics of Trauma

Ulf Karl Olov Nilsson

Swedish poet and psychoanalyst Ulf Karl Olov Nilsson on trauma, silence and linguistic analysis of asylum seekers. Translated from the Swedish by Peter Graves.

Binidittu

Nicola Lo Calzo & Daisy Lafarge

‘It’s perhaps a truism that acts of devotion both make and unmake the devotional object.’ Daisy Lafarge introduces the photographs of Nicola Lo Calzo.

Orhan Pamuk | On Europe

Orhan Pamuk

‘In the part of the world where I come from, Europe is not just an ideal and a beautiful dream’ Translated from the Turkish by Ekin Oklap.