sander pleij
@sanderpleij.bsky.social
founding editor
www.europeanreviewofbooks.com
www.europeanreviewofbooks.com
10.000 — help! we have success ✨
Our newsletter just passed 10,000 readers (now 10,600!) — from Europe, Canada, India… hello India! 🇮🇳
So happy.
We focused on quality writing + design, then got new team members, and now we’re growing fast — I may need to come back soon with a second crowdfunding…
Our newsletter just passed 10,000 readers (now 10,600!) — from Europe, Canada, India… hello India! 🇮🇳
So happy.
We focused on quality writing + design, then got new team members, and now we’re growing fast — I may need to come back soon with a second crowdfunding…
October 16, 2025 at 1:47 PM
10.000 — help! we have success ✨
Our newsletter just passed 10,000 readers (now 10,600!) — from Europe, Canada, India… hello India! 🇮🇳
So happy.
We focused on quality writing + design, then got new team members, and now we’re growing fast — I may need to come back soon with a second crowdfunding…
Our newsletter just passed 10,000 readers (now 10,600!) — from Europe, Canada, India… hello India! 🇮🇳
So happy.
We focused on quality writing + design, then got new team members, and now we’re growing fast — I may need to come back soon with a second crowdfunding…
Any fool can see the head of state is naked, a complete phony.
I see The Emperor’s New Clothes referred to more often, and wondered: is it about the vanity of a leader? Or about citizens that keep nodding at what they know isn’t there?
europeanreviewofbooks.com/current-preo...
I see The Emperor’s New Clothes referred to more often, and wondered: is it about the vanity of a leader? Or about citizens that keep nodding at what they know isn’t there?
europeanreviewofbooks.com/current-preo...
Current Preoccupations, week 39 - The European Review of Books
Any fool can see that the head of state is naked, that he is a complete phony — except for himself. Such appears to be the premise of The Emperor’s Clothes, a fairy tale I see referred to more and mor...
europeanreviewofbooks.com
October 3, 2025 at 8:47 AM
Any fool can see the head of state is naked, a complete phony.
I see The Emperor’s New Clothes referred to more often, and wondered: is it about the vanity of a leader? Or about citizens that keep nodding at what they know isn’t there?
europeanreviewofbooks.com/current-preo...
I see The Emperor’s New Clothes referred to more often, and wondered: is it about the vanity of a leader? Or about citizens that keep nodding at what they know isn’t there?
europeanreviewofbooks.com/current-preo...
Lenin youth is made to salute an embalmed dictator, becomes Catholic schoolgirl, then historian of repression, and writer on sabbatical in Rome, with a book on the Bulgarian gulag — plus she met Pope Francis at the Biennale ✊
europeanreviewofbooks.com/texting-with...
europeanreviewofbooks.com/texting-with...
Texting with ... Lilia Topouzova - The European Review of Books
I wanted to show that history and memory are inseparable—and that unsilencing is itself a method.
europeanreviewofbooks.com
September 25, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Lenin youth is made to salute an embalmed dictator, becomes Catholic schoolgirl, then historian of repression, and writer on sabbatical in Rome, with a book on the Bulgarian gulag — plus she met Pope Francis at the Biennale ✊
europeanreviewofbooks.com/texting-with...
europeanreviewofbooks.com/texting-with...
Eurovision?
This weekend it is Intervision: Russia + US + China + Brazil ao
And Europe?
Europe is busy perfecting its eye-roll routine…
This weekend it is Intervision: Russia + US + China + Brazil ao
And Europe?
Europe is busy perfecting its eye-roll routine…
September 19, 2025 at 11:49 AM
Eurovision?
This weekend it is Intervision: Russia + US + China + Brazil ao
And Europe?
Europe is busy perfecting its eye-roll routine…
This weekend it is Intervision: Russia + US + China + Brazil ao
And Europe?
Europe is busy perfecting its eye-roll routine…
Train punctuality:
🇩🇪 #Germany: 70%
🇵🇱 #Poland: 80%
🇺🇦 #Ukraine: 95%
Hard not to be humbled by this.
Oksana Forostyna reviews The Train Arrives on Time by Marichka Paplauskaite
europeanreviewofbooks.com/glory-to-the...
🇩🇪 #Germany: 70%
🇵🇱 #Poland: 80%
🇺🇦 #Ukraine: 95%
Hard not to be humbled by this.
Oksana Forostyna reviews The Train Arrives on Time by Marichka Paplauskaite
europeanreviewofbooks.com/glory-to-the...
Glory to the rails – The European Review of Books
europeanreviewofbooks.com
September 18, 2025 at 1:07 PM
Train punctuality:
🇩🇪 #Germany: 70%
🇵🇱 #Poland: 80%
🇺🇦 #Ukraine: 95%
Hard not to be humbled by this.
Oksana Forostyna reviews The Train Arrives on Time by Marichka Paplauskaite
europeanreviewofbooks.com/glory-to-the...
🇩🇪 #Germany: 70%
🇵🇱 #Poland: 80%
🇺🇦 #Ukraine: 95%
Hard not to be humbled by this.
Oksana Forostyna reviews The Train Arrives on Time by Marichka Paplauskaite
europeanreviewofbooks.com/glory-to-the...
Sixteen children. A dynasty across Europe. Still haunting politics.
europeanreviewofbooks.com/queen-of-the...
(free)
europeanreviewofbooks.com/queen-of-the...
(free)
Queen of the night – The European Review of Books
europeanreviewofbooks.com
September 14, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Sixteen children. A dynasty across Europe. Still haunting politics.
europeanreviewofbooks.com/queen-of-the...
(free)
europeanreviewofbooks.com/queen-of-the...
(free)
One of the year’s best just got longlisted for the Booker:
One Boat, from @jcbuckley.bsky.social
Buckley’s writing really stands out.
I actually texted him this year, and asked:
‘How did you learn to write?’
europeanreviewofbooks.com/texting-with...
One Boat, from @jcbuckley.bsky.social
Buckley’s writing really stands out.
I actually texted him this year, and asked:
‘How did you learn to write?’
europeanreviewofbooks.com/texting-with...
Texting with … Jonathan Buckley – The European Review of Books
europeanreviewofbooks.com
July 29, 2025 at 6:59 PM
One of the year’s best just got longlisted for the Booker:
One Boat, from @jcbuckley.bsky.social
Buckley’s writing really stands out.
I actually texted him this year, and asked:
‘How did you learn to write?’
europeanreviewofbooks.com/texting-with...
One Boat, from @jcbuckley.bsky.social
Buckley’s writing really stands out.
I actually texted him this year, and asked:
‘How did you learn to write?’
europeanreviewofbooks.com/texting-with...
July 5, 2025 at 1:29 PM
July 5, 2025 at 1:18 PM
Beloved Blueskyans,
I need a little help
—there's a reward.
The ERB is growing: major universities across Europe and the US are subscribing. But we need more. Please forward, repost or email the text in the reply to who can subscribe.
If you help, I hereby grant you the title of INTELLECTUAL.
I need a little help
—there's a reward.
The ERB is growing: major universities across Europe and the US are subscribing. But we need more. Please forward, repost or email the text in the reply to who can subscribe.
If you help, I hereby grant you the title of INTELLECTUAL.
July 5, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Beloved Blueskyans,
I need a little help
—there's a reward.
The ERB is growing: major universities across Europe and the US are subscribing. But we need more. Please forward, repost or email the text in the reply to who can subscribe.
If you help, I hereby grant you the title of INTELLECTUAL.
I need a little help
—there's a reward.
The ERB is growing: major universities across Europe and the US are subscribing. But we need more. Please forward, repost or email the text in the reply to who can subscribe.
If you help, I hereby grant you the title of INTELLECTUAL.
Magic
Page 50, if you have one of these – Issue Eight europeanreviewofbooks.com/issues/issue...
June 29, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Magic
Reposted by sander pleij
Sunday reading: “How to abandon an archive. When an authoritarian regime collapses, what happens to the archives of its secret police?” europeanreviewofbooks.com/how-to-aband... on the archives of Syrian secret services (via @europeanreview.bsky.social, by @uungor.bsky.social and Ali Ajasem)
How to abandon an archive – The European Review of Books
europeanreviewofbooks.com
June 29, 2025 at 8:46 AM
Sunday reading: “How to abandon an archive. When an authoritarian regime collapses, what happens to the archives of its secret police?” europeanreviewofbooks.com/how-to-aband... on the archives of Syrian secret services (via @europeanreview.bsky.social, by @uungor.bsky.social and Ali Ajasem)
Reposted by sander pleij
Unpaywalled: The European review of love itself.
In « The great schizophrenia » Nikianna Dinenis unpacks Marlen Haushofer’s Killing Stella & the enemy hiding in those we have to love.
Read « The great schizophrenia » here: europeanreviewofbooks.com/the-great-sc...
In « The great schizophrenia » Nikianna Dinenis unpacks Marlen Haushofer’s Killing Stella & the enemy hiding in those we have to love.
Read « The great schizophrenia » here: europeanreviewofbooks.com/the-great-sc...
June 20, 2025 at 1:27 PM
Unpaywalled: The European review of love itself.
In « The great schizophrenia » Nikianna Dinenis unpacks Marlen Haushofer’s Killing Stella & the enemy hiding in those we have to love.
Read « The great schizophrenia » here: europeanreviewofbooks.com/the-great-sc...
In « The great schizophrenia » Nikianna Dinenis unpacks Marlen Haushofer’s Killing Stella & the enemy hiding in those we have to love.
Read « The great schizophrenia » here: europeanreviewofbooks.com/the-great-sc...
Reposted by sander pleij
@sanderpleij.bsky.social texted with Daniel Gascón, Madrid-based editor of @letraslibres.com, a Spanish-language literary magazine. Daniel tips the writer Mariano Gistain.
Read it here: europeanreviewofbooks.com/texting-with...
Read it here: europeanreviewofbooks.com/texting-with...
June 17, 2025 at 11:38 AM
@sanderpleij.bsky.social texted with Daniel Gascón, Madrid-based editor of @letraslibres.com, a Spanish-language literary magazine. Daniel tips the writer Mariano Gistain.
Read it here: europeanreviewofbooks.com/texting-with...
Read it here: europeanreviewofbooks.com/texting-with...
Adult content. People! We have adult content. Go to our website!
Free adult content, now what about that?
Free adult content, now what about that?
Un-paywalled: Men in the off hours. Our editor Fernanda Eberstadt on French artist Gustave Caillebotte’s subversion of traditional gender roles: nude males at their toilette and grumpy clothed women reading the newspaper.
Now free to read here: europeanreviewofbooks.com/men-in-the-o...
Now free to read here: europeanreviewofbooks.com/men-in-the-o...
June 16, 2025 at 10:44 AM
Adult content. People! We have adult content. Go to our website!
Free adult content, now what about that?
Free adult content, now what about that?
Thread on Philippe Oehmke’s Schönwald. This enjoyable novel sheds light on an intriguing aspect of the German (and European) publishing psyche.
June 12, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Thread on Philippe Oehmke’s Schönwald. This enjoyable novel sheds light on an intriguing aspect of the German (and European) publishing psyche.
Reposted by sander pleij
A 43,000-year-old Neanderthal fingerprint made headlines recently. But in Issue Four, Christy Wampole in her review of Trenton Holliday’s Cro-Magnon had already asked: what is « art before art »?
Read it in our Library: europeanreviewofbooks.com/art-before-a...
Read it in our Library: europeanreviewofbooks.com/art-before-a...
June 11, 2025 at 12:00 PM
A 43,000-year-old Neanderthal fingerprint made headlines recently. But in Issue Four, Christy Wampole in her review of Trenton Holliday’s Cro-Magnon had already asked: what is « art before art »?
Read it in our Library: europeanreviewofbooks.com/art-before-a...
Read it in our Library: europeanreviewofbooks.com/art-before-a...
Reposted by sander pleij
« When Americans rip off other people, nobody notices. »
We texted with Nell Zink, an American novelist based in Germany, about her novel Sister Europe and the fading hegemony of American cultural influence.
Read it here: bit.ly/nell-zink
P.S. those are @sanderpleij.bsky.social notes.
We texted with Nell Zink, an American novelist based in Germany, about her novel Sister Europe and the fading hegemony of American cultural influence.
Read it here: bit.ly/nell-zink
P.S. those are @sanderpleij.bsky.social notes.
June 4, 2025 at 1:00 PM
« When Americans rip off other people, nobody notices. »
We texted with Nell Zink, an American novelist based in Germany, about her novel Sister Europe and the fading hegemony of American cultural influence.
Read it here: bit.ly/nell-zink
P.S. those are @sanderpleij.bsky.social notes.
We texted with Nell Zink, an American novelist based in Germany, about her novel Sister Europe and the fading hegemony of American cultural influence.
Read it here: bit.ly/nell-zink
P.S. those are @sanderpleij.bsky.social notes.
Reposted by sander pleij
We asked readers how they feel about ripping open the print edition. It resulted in what we fondly dubbed « the great ripping debate ». There’s a good mix of considerable joy, some frustration, and the occasional papercut.
Here’s our designer Patrick showing one way to do it: with postcards.
Here’s our designer Patrick showing one way to do it: with postcards.
May 31, 2025 at 1:32 PM
We asked readers how they feel about ripping open the print edition. It resulted in what we fondly dubbed « the great ripping debate ». There’s a good mix of considerable joy, some frustration, and the occasional papercut.
Here’s our designer Patrick showing one way to do it: with postcards.
Here’s our designer Patrick showing one way to do it: with postcards.
Reposted by sander pleij
How to write about « our » way of life’s dependence on the suffering of other living beings? That’s in Tania Roettger’s review of two novels by Lorenna Simmel and Munir Hachemi, who each sign up for agricultural jobs.
On learning to hate chickens, now before the paywall: bit.ly/on-chickens
On learning to hate chickens, now before the paywall: bit.ly/on-chickens
May 30, 2025 at 1:29 PM
How to write about « our » way of life’s dependence on the suffering of other living beings? That’s in Tania Roettger’s review of two novels by Lorenna Simmel and Munir Hachemi, who each sign up for agricultural jobs.
On learning to hate chickens, now before the paywall: bit.ly/on-chickens
On learning to hate chickens, now before the paywall: bit.ly/on-chickens
Reposted by sander pleij
« Definitely need him in ERB!!! »
That was in @sanderpleij.bsky.social editorial note after texting with Milan-based novelist @vincenzo.bsky.social.
Read their brilliant conversation on narrative-less present (and beyond) here: europeanreviewofbooks.com/texting-with...
That was in @sanderpleij.bsky.social editorial note after texting with Milan-based novelist @vincenzo.bsky.social.
Read their brilliant conversation on narrative-less present (and beyond) here: europeanreviewofbooks.com/texting-with...
May 27, 2025 at 10:13 AM
« Definitely need him in ERB!!! »
That was in @sanderpleij.bsky.social editorial note after texting with Milan-based novelist @vincenzo.bsky.social.
Read their brilliant conversation on narrative-less present (and beyond) here: europeanreviewofbooks.com/texting-with...
That was in @sanderpleij.bsky.social editorial note after texting with Milan-based novelist @vincenzo.bsky.social.
Read their brilliant conversation on narrative-less present (and beyond) here: europeanreviewofbooks.com/texting-with...
Reposted by sander pleij
What is to be done with the Syrian gulag’s enormous archive? So ask @uungor.bsky.social and Ali Aljasem, scholars of modern Syria. That’s what generated this extraordinary essay from Issue Eight.
How to abandon an archive – now in front of the paywall. europeanreviewofbooks.com/how-to-aband...
How to abandon an archive – now in front of the paywall. europeanreviewofbooks.com/how-to-aband...
May 23, 2025 at 5:37 PM
What is to be done with the Syrian gulag’s enormous archive? So ask @uungor.bsky.social and Ali Aljasem, scholars of modern Syria. That’s what generated this extraordinary essay from Issue Eight.
How to abandon an archive – now in front of the paywall. europeanreviewofbooks.com/how-to-aband...
How to abandon an archive – now in front of the paywall. europeanreviewofbooks.com/how-to-aband...
Reposted by sander pleij
« Drop the need to tear open pages in the print edition. It kills me » – that's some of the feedback we received from you. Thank you for getting back to us!
We believe it's time we share some of the best methods for ripping open the pages. Here’s our editor Fernanda to demonstrate what can be done.
We believe it's time we share some of the best methods for ripping open the pages. Here’s our editor Fernanda to demonstrate what can be done.
May 22, 2025 at 4:08 PM
« Drop the need to tear open pages in the print edition. It kills me » – that's some of the feedback we received from you. Thank you for getting back to us!
We believe it's time we share some of the best methods for ripping open the pages. Here’s our editor Fernanda to demonstrate what can be done.
We believe it's time we share some of the best methods for ripping open the pages. Here’s our editor Fernanda to demonstrate what can be done.
Reposted by sander pleij
How to write? How to write a novel, a character?
After his chat with British author Jonathan Buckley, @sanderpleij.bsky.social made a few notes. One read: « Mesmerising. »
Read the full conversation here: europeanreviewofbooks.com/texting-with...
After his chat with British author Jonathan Buckley, @sanderpleij.bsky.social made a few notes. One read: « Mesmerising. »
Read the full conversation here: europeanreviewofbooks.com/texting-with...
May 20, 2025 at 2:22 PM
How to write? How to write a novel, a character?
After his chat with British author Jonathan Buckley, @sanderpleij.bsky.social made a few notes. One read: « Mesmerising. »
Read the full conversation here: europeanreviewofbooks.com/texting-with...
After his chat with British author Jonathan Buckley, @sanderpleij.bsky.social made a few notes. One read: « Mesmerising. »
Read the full conversation here: europeanreviewofbooks.com/texting-with...