A life devoted to art | literatur.review The Munich Literature Festival is an annual international literary event held, since 2025, in spring, and is considered a literary highlight in Munich's cultural calendar. The literary program "forum:...

Freedom as a Theme: At the Munich Literature Festival, Dana Grigorcea curates this year’s focus. Our profile explores her literary life with Perikles Monioudis—shaped by teamwork, multilingualism, and a belief in art’s freedom.
#booksky #festival #munich
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Orders in the "jungle" | literatur.review Colonialism, the Anthropocene and the place of literature: A reading between text and context of Dorothee Elmiger's "Die Holländerinnen"

A prize-winning novel that refuses to be one: this close reading of ‚Die Holländerinnen‘ (The Dutch women) by Dorothee Elmiger explores colonialism, the Anthropocene & literature as a site of knowledge and power...
#booksky #Colonialism #GermanLiterature
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Novelty as a gateway to fiction | literatur.review Between myth and market: the seduction of the new as a mental illusion and engine of capitalism, versus the rawness of reality and its necessary tension with fiction.

Is “the new” really new or just a market-driven illusion? In ‚Novelty as a Gateway to Fiction‘, Colombian philosopher Bruno Elías Maduro argues that capitalism thrives on our addiction to novelty — a myth that blinds us to reality...
#booksky #philosophy #colombia
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Missed Opportunity | literatur.review Many people are concerned that democracy is in a deep crisis. What can be done about it remains unclear. The German historian Jörg Baberowski explores this question in "Am Volk vorbei - Zur Krise der ...

Can populism save democracy — or is that the wrong question altogether? Christoph Nick challenges Jörg Baberowski’s ‚Am Volk vorbei‘ (Bypassing the people) and its sweeping claims on the crisis of liberal democracy...
#booksky #Democracy #Populism #Politics #Europe
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"Culture isn’t cosmetic" | literatur.review Mbizo Chirasha in conversation with civil society practitioner, human rights activist and co-executive director of PartnersGlobal Roselie Vasquez-Yetter

Roselie Vasquez-Yetter (PartnersGlobal) in a wide-ranging conversation with Mbizo Chirasha on democracy under pressure, global authoritarian patterns, the importance of culure & why resilience—not rhetoric—matters...
#booksky #partnersglobal #ngo #resilience
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Do we lack imagination? | literatur.review Will the power struggle between the superpowers lead to World War III? Even unintentionally? The book "The Coming Storm" by historian Odd Arne Westad attempts to prevent the unimaginable.

Could a world war erupt, even if no one wants it? Odd Arne Westad argues in 'The Coming Storm' that fear, power shifts, and human decisions—not inevitability—drive history. Essential reading.
#booksky #Geopolitics #BookReview #GlobalPolitics #OddArneWestad
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The possibility of a future | literatur.review Iryn Tushabe's novel "Everything Is Fine Here" is a fascinating coming-of-age novel about queer self-empowerment, religious fanaticism and the political violence of everyday life in Uganda today

In 'Everything Is Fine Here', Iryn Tushabe explores queer identity, religious power, and political violence in Uganda. Our review looks at a novel where writing becomes resistance...
#booksky #africanliterature #uganda #lgbtq #comingofage #africa
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Seven square meters | literatur.review A short story from Europe's capital

Seven square meters. That’s all it takes to rethink power, control, and freedom. Adam Mouchtar—an insider of European politics—delivers a striking short story about responsibility, perception, and the fragile line between security and truth.
#booksky #shortstory #eu
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Language in Pain | literatur.review A deep reading of „Coffin of Silence“ by Badia Kashgari

In 'Coffins of Silence', Badia Kashgari writes pain without spectacle — where exile fractures identity, yet memory refuses to die. A precise reading by Mohammed Al-Mekhlafi...
#booksky #arabicliterature #poetry #saudiarabia
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Mission, power, Messiah | literatur.review Scholastique Mukasonga's "Sister Deborah" is a fascinating literary genealogy about Christian mission, apocalyptic expectations and colonial order

Mission, messiah, power: Mukasonga’s 'Sister Deborah' uncovers how evangelical visions and colonial rule shaped social and political orders—then and now. A haunting literary genealogy of belief and control...
#booksky #africanliterature #uganda #rwanda #colonialism
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From inner turmoil to freedom | literatur.review From Siddhartha's river to the roar of the Steppenwolf: Hermann Hesse illuminates our inner abysses and invites the reader to break free from external scripts and create their own truth

From Siddhartha to the Steppenwolf, Hermann Hesse maps the path through our inner abyss—toward freedom. Abil Hasanov on why truth must be lived, not learned...
#booksky #hermannhesse #philosophy
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From bestseller to blockbuster | literatur.review Andy Weir's novel "Project Hail Mary" is transformed into a great science fiction film by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who trade literary and scientific precision for emotion and pace

From Robinsonade to blockbuster: ‚Project Hail Mary' swaps science for speed, precision for emotion. What’s lost—and what remains—when Weir hits Hollywood?
#booksky #sciencefiction #projecthailmary
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Life as an echo | literatur.review Oyinkan Braithwaite's "Cursed Daughters" tells of curse, memory and self-empowerment - between Lagos, family ghosts and the question of whether origin is destiny or just narrative

In ‚Cursed Daughters“, Oyinkan Braithwaite traces a haunting family legacy across generations in Lagos. Fritz Freithoff on myth, memory, and self-empowerment in a striking novel...
#booksky #NigerianLiterature #AfricanLit #BookReview #Lagos #Reading #nigeria
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Ramadan, then and now | literatur.review A journey through memory and the city of Aden

From the lively Ramadan nights of Aden in 2001 to the heavy realities of today’s Yemen: Mohammed Al-Mekhlafi reflects on memory, poverty, friendship, and the fragile hope that survives even in crisis.
#booksky #yemen #arabliteratur #ramadan #middleeast
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Crime fiction and multiculturalism | literatur.review A.A. Dhand and Saima Mir write crime novels set in Bradford, a former textile city with a large Muslim/British/Asian community. They address migration and protest, and challenge racist and sexist ster...

Bradford as crime-fiction landscape: A.A. Dhand and Saima Mir write about migration, identity, and tensions within Britain’s Muslim-British-Asian communities, beyond stereotypes. Historian Moritz Föllmer on crime fiction and multiculturalism...
#booksky #bradford
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Apocalypse 2.0 | literatur.review Historical catastrophes beyond the present: intermittent plague, climate crises and geopolitical transformations from Justinian I to the Abbasid Caliphate.

War, climate shocks, pandemics, collapsing empires. Historian José Miguel Garcia León revisits the catastrophic centuries from Justinian to the Abbasid Caliphate and shows why these historical cycles matter today, as new wars reshape our world.
#booksky #history
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“Zimbabwe is my muse” | literatur.review Mbizo Chirasha in conversation with Zimbabwean cultural activist, writer and performance poet Cynthia Marangwanda

Poet and cultural activist Cynthia Marangwanda from Zimbabwe speaks with Mbizo Chirasha about writing as an essential tool to understand life, ancestral heritage, and the literary voices that shaped her work.
#booksky #Zimbabwe #AfricanLiterature #AfricanPoetry
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The West is dead. Long live the West? | literatur.review The West is booming. Many believe it is a dilapidated house that should finally be torn down. But what does it represent and West and how did it become what it is today? Two books provide the answers.

Our review of The West (Josephine Quinn) and The West (Georgios Varouxakis) explores the long intellectual history behind the concept and explains how these narratives help make a war like the current one against Iran possible...
#booksky #PoliticalTheory #nonfiction
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The Situation | literatur.review A short story from Iceland

For the final story of our Short Story Month, we move from Saudi Arabia to Iceland. In “The Situation”, Jakub Stachowiak crafts a precise, unsettling reflection on memory and perception — a story where reality feels both solid and fragile at once.
#booksky #iceland
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Behind the glasses | literatur.review Two short stories from Saudi Arabia

Two sharp, unsettling short stories from Saudi Arabia by Yousef Al-Mohaimeed. In Behind the Glasses, illusion meets inheritance: Prada frames, a vanished store, a dead father’s lenses — and the fragile line between memory and reality...
#booksky #saudiarabia #arabic
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Fragments of Hope in Failing Light | literatur.review A memoir on education, interruption, and the remains of a female life in Afghanistan

Kabul-based writer Dunya Yousufzai writes from within a fracture — echoing Leonard Cohen’s line that “there is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.” Between loss and endurance, her story finds precisely that fragile, defiant light...
#booksky
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The mother of the house | literatur.review A story from Tajikistan

As part of our Short Story Month, we feature “The Mother of the House” — a haunting story by one of Tajikistan’s most renowned authors...
#booksky #centralasia #tajikistan #shortstory
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Under the silence of gold | literatur.review A short story from Madagascar

In 'Under The Silence Of Gold', Madagascan author Mi Ravao delivers a sharply political text on the merciless exploitation of land and people. A powerful indictment of extractivism and global inequality...
#booksky #madagascar #africanliterature #africa #shortstory
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Foreigners | literatur.review Philippine stories from a German retirement home

We are proud to publish autofictional texts by Philippine authour Al Joseph Lumen, drawn from his work in a German nursing home — written with restraint, attentiveness, and a quiet tenderness toward care, labor, and human vulnerability.
#booksky #philippines
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Absolutely - and a great parallel indeed.

The Functionary’s Story | literatur.review A short story from Brazil

A Functionary’s Story by Brazilian author Leonardo Garzaro explores how economic structures shape personal identity in a globalized world, quietly, relentlessly, and with disturbing precision. A short story about work, power, and the fragility of self.
#booksky
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Khemji | literatur.review An Indian tragedy

We are kicking off our biannual month of exclusively short stories with ‘Khemji – An Indian Tragedy’ by Waseem Hussain. A text that condenses social order, guilt and repression into a confined space...
#booksky #india #shortstory #switzerland #swissliterature
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A street through a wall | literatur.review Five poems from Saudi Arabia

Five poems from Saudi Arabia by Ali Al Hazmi: loss, desire, exile, the sea as memory and threat. A street through a wall — powerful contemporary Arabic poetry in translation...
#booksky #arabicliterature #saudiarabia #saudiliterature #arabbooks #arabliterature
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"Life is already difficult enough" | literatur.review Egyptian author Ahmed Abdel Moneim Ramadan on how absurdity and fantasy mirror Egypt’s social and political realities, shifts in the literary landscape, the economics of writing, and the tension betwe...

“Life is already difficult enough.” Egpytian author Ahmed Abdel Moneim Ramadan on absurdity, fantasy, writing under pressure, and why literature can never fully escape reality...
#booksky #egypt #cairo #arabicliterature #arabliterature #egyptianliterature #arabic
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Where decisions speak softly | literatur.review "Into the Uncut Grass": Trevor Noah and Sabina Hahn tell why sometimes you just have to start running to get home. A fable about friendship, freedom and the gentle weight of decisions

A boy, a teddy bear, and a quiet escape into the tall grass. ‚Into the Uncut Grass‘ by Trevor Noah & Sabina Hahn is a gentle fable about decisions, freedom, and finding your way home—without preaching...
#booksky #children #childrenliterature #trevornoah
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