cafebabel.com

Slovenian journalist: death threats after arms trade trilogy

('Nabeelah Shabbir',) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 10:18:09 -0000

In Slovenia, a trilogy published between summer 2011 and spring 2012 has exposed the secrets of the arms trade during the Balkans war and the role of the country's politicians in it. It's been an ache in the sides of those in power and with money and interests whom the book denounces. Co-writer Blaz Zgaga, 38, may be in hiding but he won't stay down

Ivana Simic Bodrozic and co: more women on Croatia literary scene

('sladana perkovic',) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 12:28:30 -0000

The Zagreb-based poet and writer's coming-of-age drama Hotel Zagorje is the theme of a literary event in Paris. Though her debut novel stays true to a tradition in contemporary Croatian fiction, the 29-year-old gets her audience in a flurry with the book's themes of war, women, the past and an inevitable future together

How an Italian boy became a ‘happiness coach’

('amare.ca',) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 16:16:45 -0000

Born in the land of ‘la dolce vita’, Bergamo-born Frank Ra, 32, travelled Europe before publishing a book on happiness. He offers his thoughts on spiritual scepticism, being a former erasmus student or ex-pat and how ‘no place is perfect unless we accept it with all its features’

Book trade faces bust in Balkans

('Ruth Halkon',) — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 18:21:44 -0000

‘Remaining indifferent to books means recklessly impoverishing your life,’ said Yugoslavia’s best known author, Ivo Andric. Fifty years after he won his Nobel prize, people across the former Yugoslavia are in danger of ignoring this health warning

Book review Germany: 'degree Facebook internship' generation

('Carol Howard',) — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 12:52:31 -0000

Generation X became generation Y and the ‘internship generation’ is a recurring topic. However, whichever letters or titles are selected for it, no one can really get a hold on us. Can we really all be lumped together, technically-speaking, in terms of a generation? German writers Manuel J. Hartung and Cosima Schmitt asked themselves this question in a 2010 book analysing the difficult future of a generation with no name

Aged three, Prishtina dances, designs but doesn’t debate

('entony',) — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 18:13:26 -0000

Kosovo is one of the most optimistic countries in the world with 70% of the population under the age of thirty. Music, bars and art dot my four days in its capital, Prishtina, three years after the city claimed independence from Serbia

Spanish writer Eugenia Rico: 'proud to be called a witch'

('English language version of cafebabel.com',) — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 11:06:19 -0000

The author, poet and journalist from Asturias intertwines the fates of two fictional women across the centuries in her latest novel. In Berlin, we talk witches, twitter and why it’s good to be different

International Women's Day: no way we're reading a book by a woman

('Kris Anderson',) — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 10:29:05 -0000

Gloria Steinem once declared that while the truth may set you free, 'first it will piss you off.' 8 March marks International Women’s Day, a day on which women around the world (but mostly around Europe and North America) are celebrating the fact that we are now more equal than ever before. It’s also a perfect day for getting pissed off at how much we have left to accomplish - take literature, for example

Puneet Sahani: an Indian hitchhiker who will publish his love

('Miriam Franchina',) — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 04:00:00 -0000

I've been glued to the clear voice coming out of a skype conversation for over an hour. The 26-year-old Indian from the Punjab is now based in Berlin, where I met him. I need to record his weird accent, mangled by the various places he’s been living in and to appear in his upcoming book

cafebabel.com Brussels at second EU prize for literature event

('English language version of cafebabel.com',) — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 13:19:32 -0000

Judging literature is difficult, but comparing writers of different languages, cultures and backgrounds is a fruitless task.On November 11, Europe’s literary elite gathered in Brussels to award some of today’s most up-and-coming fiction writers

Are Balkan women more promiscuous?

('Milena Stosic',) — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 14:45:08 -0000

It's official: more women are approaching men in the dating stakes and a recent book in Serbia reveals a more liberal attitude. So is the Balkan woman moving towards a western, less conservative European model? We hear from Balkan guys and girls

Melancholy in Berlin: views of three foreign writer residents

('English language version of cafebabel.com',) — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 16:43:59 -0000

Very loosely, a 19-year-old Klaus Mann saw 1920s Berlin as 'seductive, gray, scabby, peeling, yet vibrant vitality, nervous, shimmering, phosphorescent, animated, full of tensions and promises.' Italian, Croatian and French writers Gianluca Falanga, Maksim Cristan and Maia Mazaurette give us their noughties take

Madrid's Theatre Yeses troupe breaks prison bars

('James Friscia',) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 13:37:57 -0000

Its director is a prison officer with a degree in stage and performance management. Its actresses are inmates of the Alcalá de Henares penitentiary centre. The studio has allowed many to eventually begin new lives in the 'free world' and its story is depicted in a movie: everything about this artistic group is unique. Quick, the show is about to begin…

Agop J. Hacikyan: 'I don’t feel I am translating my culture into English'

('RenataB',) — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 10:44:37 -0000

The playful Armenian-Canadian author talks his latest novel - hailed as a 'love letter to Istanbul' - straddling continents and his opinions on Turkey in the EU

What's going on with China as guest of honour at the Frankfurt book fair?

('euro topics',) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:16:36 -0000

At the opening ceremony on 13 October, in the presence of Chinese vice president Xi Jinping, German chancellor Angela Merkel said there would be 'no taboos'. The Italian, Swiss, Spanish and German press react

How to seek the Holy Grail one hour from London

("naomi o'leary",) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 10:09:27 -0000

As American author Dan Brown's follow-up to 'The Da Vinci Code' is released on 16 September - 'The Lost Symbol' focuses on the Freemasons - we uphold tradition and go questing for the cup that Jesus used at the Last Supper at its rumoured location in Hertford

Nicolai Lilin talks tattoos, Bulgarians and Transdniestria

('Fiona Herdman Smith',) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:45:00 -0000

From Russia to Italy via Transdniestria. Siberian Education, the literary debut of Nicolai Lilin, tells the life story of a young man who, in spite of changing country and culture, has never forgotten the historic traditions of his original community. Interview with the 29 year-old writer and tattoo artist

Global European culture: a bad year for France

('Darren Thompson',) — Wed, 20 May 2009 12:00:00 -0000

Values, attitudes, and ways of life … European countries export their cultures and languages across the world in order to create a dialogue. In a new series on cultural 'diplomacy', we crack on with the wilting French network abroad

Cinema: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo lacks Swedish suspense

('Alexandra Baxter',) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 07:58:48 -0000

Swedish author Stieg Larsson’s ‘Millennium’ trilogy was a huge international success; to date, 8 million copies of the novels have been sold worldwide. Now the first volume, ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’, has been given the big screen treatment. The film, which is due to be screened at Cannes on 13 May, disappointingly relies too much upon characters from Astrid Lindgren’s novels

Gonçalo M. Tavares: 'I hate the idea that everything you do is new'

('Kristina Bozic',) — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 01:45:00 -0000

The Luanda-born epistemology professor at Lisbon University, 38, talks his award-winning novel 'Jerusalem', and why it took him so long to get published already

Low cost, deep discount - who benefits from the credit crunch?

('bellaonbabel',) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 15:30:00 -0000

With the current crisis, Mr Cafebabel, Mr C to his friends, the European everyman, has changed his spending habits. Some costs have been cut in favour of better value purchases. Let’s take a glance at what’s making him happy…

Obituary: alphabets, butterflies and Inger Christensen

('Lass\xc3\xab Jensen',) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 18:35:47 -0000

Why learn Welsh? They all speak English anyway. Why learn unpronounceable Flemish, impossible Finnish, self-assertive Catalan or miniscule Danish? But when the Danish experimental poet died on 2 January 2009 in Copenhagen, a loser language lost its most beautiful voice

Europeana and Google: the battle of the virtual book

('Matthew Pagett',) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 15:43:58 -0000

Literature on computer screens is rare, even nonexistent. But the market for digital books is about to take off. American companies such as Google are already prepared. When will we see a proposal for digital literature in Europe?

Nobel prize for literature: Horace Engdahl on 'ignorant' American writing

('Nabeelah Shabbir',) — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 15:55:47 -0000

The permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy criticises US writing days before the winner is announced, on 9 October

Europe's digital library versus Google

('Sarah Truesdale',) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 09:00:00 -0000

This autumn, Europeana, the first European digital library, will make its first appearance on the net. The premise is promising, but there are still many challenges to overcome

Arianna Giorgia Bonazzi on 'the vanity of being translated'

('Kate Stansfield',) — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 15:43:09 -0000

The 25-year-old Italian debuted her first book last year, having gone from Udine to the RAI in Milan, via Paris and Alessandro Baricco's ‘Holden’ school of writing

Virginie Despentes and Lucía Etxebarría: ‘highbrow bitches’

('Pedro Pic\xc3\xb3n',) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:30:00 -0000

With their French and Spanish novels, Despentes, 39, and Etxebarría, 42, override the superficiality of cultural critics and the need to write about the female body

Lucia Etxebarria: ‘it's a threat if women sell more books than men’

('Akli Hadid',) — Fri, 16 May 2008 17:31:55 -0000

The Spanish sex, drugs and rock’n’roll writer, 41, juggles motherhood and feminist ideals in her literature, and explains why she is sometimes categorised as a lesbian or 'at best, emasculator'

Yannick Haenel: 'Berlin symbolically incarnates all the horror of the preceding century'

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 02:10:00 -0000

In his award-winning novel 'Circle', the professor from Rennes and 'Ulysses of the 21st century', 40, takes the reader on a European road-trip from Paris to Berlin

Daniel Porot: the advantages of a job abroad

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 12:00:00 -0000

We talk to the author of numerous books on career management and job-hunting in Europe, who also teaches in many European and American schools and universities

Jan T. Gross: Poland's 'anti-semitic' attitude

('Sarah Turpin',) — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 12:00:00 -0000

Public opinion in Poland is stirred after the American professor's post-war publication is released

New Year reads

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 12:00:00 -0000

Jacek Dukaj, Toni Maguire, Nathalie Rouyer and Christian Semmelroth on our carousel of featured writers

Iberia: unite Spain and Portugal

('Sophie Paterson',) — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 12:00:00 -0000

28% of Portuguese and 45% of Spaniards want to unify Spain and Portugal

Europe – a bad brand?

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 12:00:00 -0000

Unfocussed, unattractive, lacking a strategy? French marketing expert Georges Lewi lays all bare in his new book

Shakespeare & Co library: community in Paris

('RenataB',) — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0000

An afternoon between the oldest shelves of Paris with the ninety-plus George, his burnt hair and his caramelised apples

Komikazen: European comics go independent

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 12:00:00 -0000

The third international festival of reality comics is underway. It's a new kind of neo-realism with innovative trends, small budgets and international celebrities

Lindsey Davis: 'my writing is not the ghastly modern personal therapy type'

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 12:00:00 -0000

The award-winning British historical and comedy detective novelist, 58, on 'being like most English people' and her original brand of writing

France - Italy: head-butting sweethearts

('Sarah Gray',) — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 12:00:00 -0000

Food, fashion, politics, football … a snapshot of the two countries in Alberto Toscano's words

Brian Aldiss: 'I told Kubrick it was impossible he make a film of my story'

Fri, 13 Jul 2007 12:00:00 -0000

The British science fiction author, 82, on working with Hollywood greats, being caned for 'telling stories' at school and Europe being a 'wonderful idea'

Men creating men in Belarus

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0000

Art is politics - the second part in our series of profiles of artists trying to resist a ‘cultural Chernobyl’ in a Belarus stifled by president Aleksander Loukachenko

Jani Virk: 'Making folklore of Balkan culture led us into a terrible war'

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 12:00:00 -0000

The 45–year-old writer and TV journalist from Ljubliana has lived and worked in Düsseldorf, Chicago and London, and published widely

Erri de Luca, Neapolitan, generation '68

Fri, 09 Feb 2007 12:00:00 -0000

Winner of the 2002 Prix Fémina for Foreign Writers for his splendid Montedidio – written in 'very Neapolitan Italian' – Erri de Luca reflects on Europe, the Mediterranean and the passing of generations

Zidanean gods and heroes

('Francesca Reinhardt',) — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 00:00:00 -0000

Football is well known to be the younger brother of classic literature, complete with all-mighty gods, bloody battles, and fallen heroes. One need only think of the last world cup final, when the god of football Zinedine Zidane head-butted the churlish Italian defender Marco Materazzi with the grace of a dying steer, abruptly ending his career right before its pinnacle

Claudio Magris – ‘When Europe is one state’

Mon, 08 Jan 2007 00:00:00 -0000

He wrote Danube in a café, and it's in a café that we meet the Triestine novelist, translator and very European intellectual

European litera-tour

Fri, 05 Jan 2007 12:00:00 -0000

‘ScrittureGiovani’ is the newest slice of European literature projects. Five writers, five different countries, five short stories, one theme - the focus is on young literary talents

What it means to be European

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 12:00:00 -0000

French PM Dominique de Villepin and Spanish author Jorge Semprún have teamed up with a new offering: a book about Europe

Amara Lakhous: civilisations at crossroads

Sun, 26 Nov 2006 12:00:00 -0000

‘Scontro di civiltà per un ascensore a piazza Vittorio’, has been consecrated Italy’s literary sensation of the year. The 36 year old Algerian-born author, who is Italian at heart, tells us his story

Paris, Samuel Beckett’s final stop

Tue, 14 Nov 2006 06:17:00 -0000

One hundred years after his birth, Paris presents the complete œuvre of Samuel Beckett, one of the European writers who best expressed the malady of the 20th century (until June 2007)

Travelling with insider tips

Wed, 18 Oct 2006 07:29:00 -0000

Take an alternative trip around Brussels with our private guide, Stephane Lambert. Together we discover the hidden corners of the European capital.

Google print outshines the European Digital Library

Wed, 04 Oct 2006 12:00:00 -0000

As Google actively courts European publishers at Frankfurt, the nascent European Digital Library fumbles to catch up