Book Reviews
Mikhail Shishkin’s “Calligraphy Lesson”
Shishkin remains skeptical that language itself can cross borders—for example, in translation. For him, the problem lies in the incompatibility between translated texts and their readers.
Alain Mabanckou’s “The Lights of Pointe Noire”
In The Lights of Pointe Noire, Alain Mabanckou attempts to reconnect with his home, his family, and his own sense of place in the world—and his readers are along for the ride.
Göran Rosenberg’s “A Brief Stop on the Road from Auschwitz”
A Brief Stop on the Road from Auschwitz—part history, part memoir, part essay on the meaning of survival—insists that the Holocaust didn’t end in 1945. The book challenges the powerful redemptive narrative offered by even official histories
July 2015
Introduction: Emerging German Writers
Like many other literatures, contemporary German writing is part reaction against previous generations and part continuation of traditions.
You Turn Your Head, I Turn My Head
Do I build a tree house without you?
The Legal Haziness of a Marriage
Ten days was too long for a conversion and too short for a re-education.
Rickshaw Diaries
Anyone wearing such a provocative pair of lederhosen is asking for trouble and shouldn’t be surprised to get it.
After Half a Life
Call me Beatrice, she says. I wasn’t sent by any god.
In Praise of an American Egg Wholesaler
"American chicken breasts will keep Europe at peace!”
Read More of this Issue
