Category: Europe

March 26, 2024

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell *** (of 4)

The story’s most famous character, William Shakespeare, is never mentioned by name. History tells us that Hamnet, the son of William and Agnes (Anne Hatheway)...

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February 8, 2024

Fatherland by Burkhard Bilger *** (of 4)

Burkhard Bilger is a German-American, accomplished author and writer for the New Yorker, and the right age to have a grandfather who was a Nazi....

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January 11, 2024

Free by Lea Ypi *** (of 4)

Lea Ypi is now a distinguished professor of political theory at the London School of Economics. She wanted to describe for readers what life in...

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November 23, 2023

Goodbye, Eastern Europe *** (of 4)

It is an enormous undertaking to try and explain the people, cultures, and kaleidoscopic national identities of a region as large as Eastern Europe. Jacob...

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September 19, 2023

The Art Thief by Michael Finkel **** (of 4)

The book opens by letting readers know that Stephane Breitwieser is probably the most successful art thief that has ever lived. He has been captured...

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July 18, 2023

The Poison Machine *** (of 4)

Some authors of historical fiction (see Geraldine Brooks) are so caught up by their research that plot and characters are afterthoughts or cliches applied to...

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March 12, 2023

Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson *** (of 4)

Atkinson did her homework before reproducing the details of England in the raucous 1920s. Britons released from the devastation of WW I and the influenza...

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March 12, 2023

The Word is Murder by Antony Horowitz *** (of 4)

Antony Horowitz – a prolific writer of mysteries for adults, children, and television – definitely had fun writing this one. He cast himself as one...

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January 17, 2023

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan **** (of 4)

The perfect follow up to We Didn’t Know Ourselves, Claire Keegan’s novella describes in exquisite detail the conflict between religion and morality within the mind...

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January 4, 2023

We Didn’t Know Ourselves by Fintan O’Toole **** (of 4)

The book’s subtitle is accurate: A Personal History of Modern Ireland. This history of Ireland begins in 1958, more or less, when O’Toole was born....

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