Reviews | literatur.review

Hiroshima in three spellings

Private

Shaw Kuzki

In "Soul Lanterns", Shaw Kuzki shows how memories are passed down through generations and change over time. Her young adult novel combines historical truth, poetic concision and the quiet rituals of a restless city

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Only the most populous country in the world?

ORF America

Dhruva Jaishankar

With "Vishwa Shastra - India and the World", Dhruva Jaishankar has written an introduction to Indian history for the youth of his country. It focuses on India's relations with the world and the future of the subcontinent

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Hard land, blind heart

Suhrkamp

Lavie Tidhar

Lavie Tidhar's "Adama" is a stark portrait of Israeli history, exploring violence, hope and self-destruction. An unusual thriller that demonstrates how no ideal remains unscathed when people have to live with it.

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The scene of horror and tenderness

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Halim Youssef

Halim Youssef's "Liebe im Schatten der dunklen Flaggen" is a poetic masterpiece about surviving in the darkness on the Iraqi-Syrian border

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A future that slips through the fingers

Lane + Co

Abdulrazak Gurnah

In "Theft", Abdulrazak Gurnah traces the fine cracks that run through friendship, love and origins when a society is set in motion. A quiet novel that unfolds its greatest power precisely in its omissions

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Remembering borders

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In his new book "Border Documents", Mexican photographer Arturo Soto unfolds a quiet, poetic topography of memory - far from clichés, close to the everyday reality of the border

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Understanding China (and ourselves) better

F. Mantovani

Romain Graziani

In "Les Lois et les Nombres - Essai sur les ressorts de la culture politique chinoise", Romain Graziani explains where the roots of Chinese state thinking lie, what they mean and how they still shape our present day

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At the very bottom

Hu Anyan / Suhrkamp

Hu Anyan

In his autobiography "I deliver parcels in Beijing", Hu Anyan offers a Kafkaesque vision of the precarious world of the Chinese platform economy

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The myth and compassion

Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0

Guillermo del Toro Guillermo del Toro @ 2025 San Diego Comic-Con International

Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein adaptation is more than just a remake: it is a liturgical reading of Mary Shelley's myth - a poetic affirmation of the power of storytelling, the vulnerability of life and the humanity of the monster