EuropeNow – Page 158

Borgen and the Double Bind: The Haunted Princesses of the Danish Castle

By Julia Khrebtan-Hörhager

The series became a hit in many European countries and later in the USA. John Powers, a reporter from the US National Public Radio claims that Borgen is Denmark’s West Wing (but even better). Borgen harvested an impressive amount of international awards in various categories—ranging from Best Drama Series and specifically Best European Drama TV Series to the Outstanding Actress in the Drama Series by Sidse Babett Knudsen (better known to the audience as Birgitte Nyborg).

Special Feature

Against the Troika: Crisis and Austerity in the Eurozone

By Malcolm Campbell-Verduyn

Three scholars of European politics find Against the Troika to provide a refreshing, if not entirely original, analysis of what has gone wrong in the euro area.

Nonfiction

Down Below by Leonora Carrington

By Leonora Carrington

Various events were taking place in the outside world: the collapse of Belgium, the entry of the Germans in France. All of this interested me very little and I had no fear whatsoever.

Visual Art

Lands of No-Return

By Viktoria Sorochinski

This series portrays the last remains of the authentic Ukrainian villages and their elderly inhabitants.

Research

Long-Term Changes and the Crisis of Democracy in Western Society

By Matteo Laruffa

Today, we observe the emergence of a new type of contemporary policy, which represents a challenge for the stability of our institutions.

Fiction

Radiant Terminus by Antoine Volodine

Translated by Jeffrey Zuckerman

Mudugan was a typical village of thieves, built in the middle of the forest in a gap that barely deserved to be called a clearing, so tightly did the trees encircle the log houses. There weren’t any paths that had been marked to get there and it was inaccessible to anyone who didn’t know exactly where the ravines and undergrowth were. That was where Umrug Batyushin learned to live his life as a self-sufficient child, there where he learned to shoot rifles, to carve up elk, and endure cold and hardship, as well as bear the howling of the wolves…

Commentary

Past Imperfect: The Brexit Gamble

By Jacob Høi Jensen

In their desperate attempt to promote a vision of a United Kingdom, which is based on a glorified and nostalgic interpretation of the past, Brexiteers have unleashed a process that risks upending the legal, economic, and political foundations of the modern UK. Furthermore, they have yet to offer a coherent and realistic vision of what will replace it.

Fiction

Merman by Tea Tulić

Translated by Mirza Purić

My husband is burly, and when he walks, it’s as if his steps are yawning. He stumbles over me as if over a pet. I sometimes hide behind a tree and wait for him to turn around. Or leave. If we’re going to a birthday party, I’m the one who wraps and carries the present. If he’s had a lot of wine, the room takes on a smell which makes me put on my shoes and walk up and down the street.

Academic

The Rise and Fall of the Miraculous Welfare Machine by Carly Elizabeth Schall

Reviewed by Kelly McKowen

Though Sweden has lost little of its luster, it is no longer the favored synonym for egalitarian prosperity it once was.