sander pleij

Watching the riots, I kept seeing the luxury in Zola’s Au Bonheur des Dames, a novel about one of the first Parisian department stores. Buying and seduction, money and poverty, a weak state: Sometimes it feels as if an era is searching for its ending. europeanreviewofbooks.com/looting-and-...

Teddy tells Raimund she eats 2 meals a day at most. « You mustn’t get too used to it. » Paris, 1932, weeks before Hitler takes power. Sebastian Haffner’s autobiographical novel Parting, translated by Michael Hofmann, has had hardly any coverage. Wake up! europeanreviewofbooks.com/folie/

« We have here evidence of the predatory, destructive intent of Big Tech's leadership, and our current endeavor consists in turning this moment into a wake-up call. » ⏰ The French academics from @rogueesr.bsky.social are sounding the alarm. europeanreviewofbooks.com/the-spectacl...

Here’s @daniel.pizza, another guy who loves immersing himself in books. He simply writes a monthly newsletter trying to explain what he loved (or did not) about one. Charming: www.trema.website

My review of Noah Walker-Crawford's brilliant book, The Climate Trial, published by @dukepress.bsky.social on the ground-breaking case brought by Saúl Luciano Lliuya supported by @germanwatch.bsky.social has come out with @europeanreview.bsky.social here: europeanreviewofbooks.com/whos-your-ne...

Issue Twelve 1 September Pre-order: europeanreviewofbooks.com/product/issu...

I learned what artistic freedom is in a secret museum hidden in a wooden barn in the Swedish woods, after receiving its padlock code from the artist's daughter: it contained the spectacular explosion of one single mind: europeanreviewofbooks.com/museum-for-o...

Went to see French Impressionists. Got stopped instead by fine-lined drawings titled "The Autopsy of Lehman Brothers" and "The Milking of the Middle Class." Carlijn Kingsma calls herself a cartographer of society, and she's right. On the ERB blog now europeanreviewofbooks.com/the-cartogra...

But what’s with Haaland’s Hermes bag collection?

I’ll mention a word and a name: Jersey and Magritte

«Did anyone really think I'd write a biography of a footballer?» Barbi Marković was supposed to write a book about Yugoslav great Piksi Stojković. Instead she wrote Piksi-Buch: a wild, satirical memoir in the voice of a football commentator. Day 24: europeanreviewofbooks.com/the-footnotes/

Day 24: the French keeper wears gloves inscribed with his philosophy: Foi, Discipline, Travail, Patience et Humilité 70 years ago another French keeper caught TB and had to resort to books for his philosophy. Yet Albert Camus owed his to football. europeanreviewofbooks.com/the-footnotes/

in my favorite new magazine @equatormag.bsky.social

The Dutch were kicked out by a great Morocco, after playing on the defense Berlin Dadaists knew better. in 1919 Jedermann Sein Eigner Fussbal was published: Everyone His Own Football: don't let yourself be kicked around. Kick your own ball Day 20: europeanreviewofbooksfootnotes.substack.com»

One in four players at this World Cup was born outside the country they represent. Day 19 of our diary: Whatever happens tonight in Netherlands–Morocco, migrants win. europeanreviewofbooks.com/the-footnotes/

« An altklug child knows too much to be truly young, yet has somehow preserved the guilelessness of youth » ALTKLUG (old-smart) Thank you @tobiashaberkorn.bsky.social for teaching me that word, blnreview.de/en/ausgaben/...

Cabo Verde — a tiny archipelago at its first World Cup — drew 0-0 with Spain (who 'should' have scored twice), 2-2 with Uruguay, and held on against Saudi Arabia. Three draws, no wins, no losses — on to the next round. Day 17 of our diary: europeanreviewofbooks.com/the-footnotes/

Virility van Dijk

We wrote about a 1928 Belgian poem where a goalkeeper’s head is knocked off and rolls like a ball. A reader pointed us to the same image in a 14th-century English romance, So it IS coming home. football as a literary trope from Octavian to King Lear europeanreviewofbooks.com/the-footnotes/

Three shots, all off target. At his prime Ronaldo was inevitable, so what is he now? Day 8 of our diary reads Ronaldo (41) against a poet from his own island, who thinks no one ever really leaves Madeira. europeanreviewofbooks.com/the-footnotes/

Collective wisdom? Truth machines? Sports betting and prediction markets reveal the truth? Then why is England always a favorite while they haven’t won since 1966? europeanreviewofbooks.com/the-footnotes/

It’s about my favourite poet, from Belgium.

Before the battlefield comes the dance floor. Turkey sent its World Cup team in a convoy of flag-draped cars, drones, cameras: the full soldier's farewell. Then they out-shot, out-passed and out-played Australia, yet lost 2-0. Day 5: on football and martyrdom: open.substack.com/pub/european...

«'I'm not a victim of racism. I am a tormentor of racists. » Vinícius Jr, who leveled Brazil against an impressive Morocco. Day 4 of our World Cup diary is about a form of racism you can't miss: the quieter kind that hides inside a compliment…thefootnotes.substack.com»

We would like to extend our deepest sympathies to Park Chan-wook after South Korea came back to beat the Czech Republic in their opening game of the World Cup this morning. Day 2 of The Footnotes europeanreviewofbooks.com/the-footnotes/

The ERB is reading the 2026 World Cup: daily dispatches with Hazar Deniz Eker and @sanderpleij.bsky.social One is losing his belief in football, the other is mesmerized by it; up to you, dear reader, to guess which is which. 39 days only: europeanreviewofbooksfootnotes.substack.com/subscribe

This week, Pope Leo XIV called AI the new Tower of Babel. l A century ago, Europe's writers—Zweig, Rolland, Mann—raged against the war. Their petitions went nowhere. I wondered whether intellectuals ever change anything. The essay ends with a petition to Claude.

Issue eleven is out. The subscription price is lowered. We write about populist algorithms, Stefan Zweig, Pasolini, Thomas Mannm And 3 fiction writers take the stage. europeanreviewofbooks.com/issues/issue...

We picked up Issue 11 at our printer’s. Call her minty, call her sage, either way #11 is another beauty. We had an egg sandwich at a gas station to celebrate. Print members can expect Issue Eleven to land on doormats in the coming weeks. The issue launches digitally this coming Thursday 14 May

« An instrument needs to be touched, held, played. » Pascale Bernheim founded ‘Musique et spoliations’ to recover instruments looted in WWII. She has just tracked down a €10M Stradivarius. Fernanda Eberstadt reports: europeanreviewofbooks.com/looted-laute...

Georges Perec spent years feeding his analyst false dreams and tidy confessions — leaving him feeling, as the analyst later wrote, "a terrible hollowness." A reflection on @grantamag.bsky.social new Therapy issue, in this week's free ERB newsletter. europeanreviewofbooks.com/newsletter/

"The first word I ever wrote was 'pisser' — this is how Nanny called me to my face." 😊 Here’s an essay about a bastard language born of centuries of violence, and what happened when we tried to translate it. In this week's free ERB newsletter: europeanreviewofbooks.com/newsletter/

"We edited, while the embassies destroyed documents and evacuated from Kyiv." An essay 4 years in the making — drafted before the invasion, rewritten as it began, revised again as Bucha was liberated. The full piece is in this week's free ERB newsletter. europeanreviewofbooks.com/newsletter/

The 2026 Munich Security Report states: “the US-led post-1945 international order is now under destruction” What can one do? Here’s Queen Maxima, who enrolled as a reservist in the Dutch Army because, says the Ministry of Defence: "The safety of The Netherlands can no longer be taken for granted”

The Vatican, neurologists, and engineers all ask: what does it mean to be human? Maybe the answer is simpler than code. We suffer, we love, we endure. And that, still, no AI can imitate. europeanreviewofbooks.com/can-ai-have-...

The Vatican defends humankind against authoritarian tech… just read:

✊ ANTI BLACK FRIDAY ✊ Hé rebel! Tell all you’re charged double, because YOU are different. Pay €230 instead of €105, and become a benefactor — with tote bag, pin, stickers, but foremost: the honor of paying more than asked for. You are a contrarian hero. europeanreviewofbooks.com/subscribe/

Any fool can see the head of state is naked, a complete phony. I see The Emperor’s New Clothes referred to more often, and wondered: is it about the vanity of a leader? Or about citizens that keep nodding at what they know isn’t there? europeanreviewofbooks.com/current-preo...

Lenin youth is made to salute an embalmed dictator, becomes Catholic schoolgirl, then historian of repression, and writer on sabbatical in Rome, with a book on the Bulgarian gulag — plus she met Pope Francis at the Biennale ✊ europeanreviewofbooks.com/texting-with...

europeanreviewofbooks.com/newsletter/

Eurovision? This weekend it is Intervision: Russia + US + China + Brazil ao And Europe? Europe is busy perfecting its eye-roll routine…

Train punctuality: 🇩🇪 #Germany: 70% 🇵🇱 #Poland: 80% 🇺🇦 #Ukraine: 95% Hard not to be humbled by this. Oksana Forostyna reviews The Train Arrives on Time by Marichka Paplauskaite europeanreviewofbooks.com/glory-to-the...