'Vivid, urgent and unsettling' - Tom Holland
'Judah paints another Europe with tense and dramatic detail' - Andrey Kurkov
'Will make you lurch between fascination, laughter and tears' - Sophy Roberts
_____
What does it now mean to call yourself European? Who makes up this population of some 750 million, sprawled from Ireland to Ukraine, from Sweden to Turkey? Who has always called it home, and who has newly arrived from elsewhere? Who are the people who drive our long-distance lorries, steward our criss-crossing planes, lovingly craft our legacy wines, fish our depleted waters, and risk life itself in search of safety and a new start?
In a series of vivid, ambitious, darkly visceral but always empathetic portraits of other people's lives, journalist Ben Judah invites us to meet them. Drawn from hours of painstaking interviews, these vital stories reveal a frenetic and vibrant continent which has been transformed by diversity, migration, the internet, climate change, Covid, war and the quest for freedom.
Laid dramatically bare, it may not always be a Europe we recognize - but this is Europe.
_____
Praise for Ben Judah's This Is London:
'An epic work of reportage' -The Guardian
'Eye-opening' - The Sunday Times
'Opens readers' eyes to the hardships experienced by many and ignored by most' - Independent
'Shares Orwell's appetite for documenting parts of society that are easily overlooked' - Spectator
'Full of nuggets of unexpected information about the lives of others' - Financial Times
'Vivid, urgent and unsettling' - Tom Holland
'Judah paints another Europe with tense and dramatic detail' - Andrey Kurkov
'Will make you lurch between fascination, laughter and tears' - Sophy Roberts
_____
What does it now mean to call yourself European? Who makes up this population of some 750 million, sprawled from Ireland to Ukraine, from Sweden to Turkey? Who has always called it home, and who has newly arrived from elsewhere? Who are the people who drive our long-distance lorries, steward our criss-crossing planes, lovingly craft our legacy wines, fish our depleted waters, and risk life itself in search of safety and a new start?
In a series of vivid, ambitious, darkly visceral but always empathetic portraits of other people's lives, journalist Ben Judah invites us to meet them. Drawn from hours of painstaking interviews, these vital stories reveal a frenetic and vibrant continent which has been transformed by diversity, migration, the internet, climate change, Covid, war and the quest for freedom.
Laid dramatically bare, it may not always be a Europe we recognize - but this is Europe.
_____
Praise for Ben Judah's This Is London:
'An epic work of reportage' -The Guardian
'Eye-opening' - The Sunday Times
'Opens readers' eyes to the hardships experienced by many and ignored by most' - Independent
'Shares Orwell's appetite for documenting parts of society that are easily overlooked' - Spectator
'Full of nuggets of unexpected information about the lives of others' - Financial Times
A vivid portrait of Europe as you've never seen it before, told through the extraordinary stories of the people who live and breathe it.
Ben Judah is an author and journalist. He has reported from across Europe with his writing on politics and society featuring widely, including in The Sunday Times, The Financial Times and Foreign Policy. His first book, Fragile Empire, was published by Yale Uni versity Press in 2013. His second book, This is London, published by Picador, was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize 2016 and for the 2019 Ryszard Kapuscinski Award for Literary Reportage.
Thrilling, first-hand tales that explore the danger and ambitions
of life in Europe.
*The Financial Times, A Book of the Year 2023*
If you wish to know what Europe is becoming without us in its club,
you'd do well to read Ben Judah's This Is Europe.
*Telegraph, A Book of the Year 2023*
Imagine Ballard and Houellebecq teaming up on a Grand Tour, and you
will have some idea of just how vivid, urgent and unsettling this
superbly written book is.
*Tom Holland*
Unflinching . . . a powerful piece of reportage.
*The Guardian*
An extraordinary series of interviews.
*Rory Stewart*
Deeply empathetic. Judah is an ace reporter with a novelist's love
of character. He conjures people and place in a modern literary
form he has made his own. There's no romance to this journey across
Europe — but an abundance of story which will make you lurch
between fascination, laughter and tears.
*Sophy Roberts, author of The Lost Pianos of Siberia*
Makes you expand the boundaries of your sympathies and your
understanding. It’s an astonishing achievement.
*Evening Standard*
A kaleidoscope of bright human experience. Moving, poignant and
compelling – I devoured this in a day.
*Jenny Kleeman, author of Sex Robots & Vegan Meat*
Brilliantly vivid.
*Daily Mail*
Illuminating . . . a bold literary and journalistic experiment.
Judah knows how to tell a story and does so with panache.
*The Spectator*
Ben Judah has the ability to listen and retell, see and describe,
feel and convey . . . Judah paints another Europe with intense and
dramatic detail – a Europe that you may not recognize, but that you
will look for every day having read this book.
*Andrey Kurkov, author of Death and the Penguin*
An impressive work, like a chorus.
*TLS*
Superb . . . a compelling read.
*The New European*
A hallucinatory tour de force . . . life affirming.
*The Jewish Chronicle*
Such an ambitious project it automatically deserves applause . . .
reminds us that below every system and conflict there are human
beings.
*Irish Times*
Captivating.
*Le Monde*
A singular journalistic achievement.
*The Fence*
A fabulous book.
*France Culture*
'Poignant and powerful . . . reveals a Europe in a time of profound
change.
*Diplomatic Courier*
Pick a chapter and you will be dropped in the middle of a
fascinating tale . . . absorbing and addictive.
*Politico podcast*
Sprawling, impressionistic, occasionally exhilarating . . .
narratives which rest upon the force of raw experience.
*European Review of Books*
A masterpiece emphasising to the reader that the ‘other’ could
always be ‘me’.
*Paschal Donohoe*
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