Reviews | literatur.review

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

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"People are only really dead when nobody thinks about them anymore" *

Reprodukt

The graphic novel "El abismo del olvido" by Paco Roca and Rodrigo Terrasa is an astonishing educational piece about dealing with mass graves in Spain

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How stories begin and the past takes on a new form

Lloyd Smith

Tan Twan Eng

In his third novel "The House of Doors", Malaysian author Tan Twan Eng skilfully blends fact and fiction, exploring the relationship between life and literature

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Dead time, dead land

Sandy Hau

Caroline Hau

In her emotionally dense and intelligent novel, Caroline Hau tells of the recurring colonial relationships and symbiotic hierarchies that occur in Philippine society and beyond

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The Scramble for Africa - But what happened in the previous century?

Princeton University Press

Richard Reid, a professor of African History, describes in his book "The African Revolution" how Africa was already changing before European takeover.

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Moral on Fire

Jürgen Bauer

Didier Fassin

In 'Moral Abdication: How the World Failed to Stop the Destruction of Gaza', Didier Fassin applies the lens of anthropology’s moral turn. He examines not only what was done to Gaza, but also how Western moral allowed it to happen

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Open sea

Giano Ray Potes

Luna Sicat Cleto

Luna Sicat Cleto's poems are the first works of Filipino literature to be translated directly from Tagalog into German - a pioneering cultural achievement by Swiss writer and translator Annette Hug

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The glass is half full

Ying Dai | Basic Books

The West has passed its zenith - a new world is emerging. In his new book "The Once and Future World Order", political scientist Amitav Acharya explains why we shouldn't be afraid of the upheaval

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