The Economist Book of the Week on 29th May 2010 was A Tale of Two Villages by Alina Mungiu-Pippidi. "A dramatic, thought-provoking and sometimes savagely funny account of one of the toughest problems in Europe: the ingrained poverty of the Romanian countryside."

CEU Press launched Masterpieces of History - The Peaceful End of the Cold War in Europe, 1989, the sixth book in the Cold War Reader Series, on May 31 at the Open Society Archives. The volume, based on the ground-breaking research and documentation of the National Security Archive in Washington DC, contains crucial historical documents and is absolutely indispensable for understanding the end of the Cold War.

Prague Tales leads top ten of CEU Press sales after 2000. 2. Memoir of Hungary, 3. The 1956 Hungarian Revolution, 4. A Cardboard Castle, 5. Jewish Budapest, 6. A Biographical Dictionary, 7. Stalin – an Unknown Portrait , 8. Uprising in East Germany, 9. A Life under Russian Serfdom, 10. Russian Foreign Policy in Transition




Search the full text of our books:


 

Present Tensions
European writers on overcoming dictatorships

edited by Kristina Kaiserová and Gert Röhrborn

 

Published in conjunction with the University of Jan Evangelista Purkyne Usti nad Labem, Department of Slavic-German Studies, and Chair of European Studies, Dresden Technical University

An intersection of literary works on the question of how dictatorships are overcome, which emerged from a transnational project convening acclaimed writers. The generations, European countries of origin and artistic directions represented are both an advantage and a challenge reflected by this anthology. A considerable variety of motivations drove participants: putting into words a contemporary biography of persecution, a descendant’s feeling of personal historical responsibility, or the artistic curiosity of the “outsider”. The anthology is dedicated to the imaginative power of literature, and to Central Eastern and South Eastern Europe in particular. The formerly multicultural setting of these countries suffered the most from European dictatorships and their insufficiently processed legacies. The cultural transfer exhibited here will help reduce prejudices and promote new forms of understanding with Western Europe: it aims to further a diversified but common European culture.

 

Contents

Introduction KRISTINA KAISEROVÁ and GERT RÖHRBORN: “The generation affected will have to see it through.” ASTRID KÖHLER: On the role of language; Sediments WOLFGANG TEMPLIN: Lesen in der Diktatur – Schreiben in der Diktatur – Reading and writing under dictatorships; ZSÓFIA BALLA: A képernyő imádása – Worshipping the screen; GABRIEL CHIFU: Relatare despre moartea mea – Report on my death; DENISA MIRENA PIŞCU: Banane verzi puse la copt pe dulapuri – Green bananas left to get ripe on cupboards; Voids EDUARD VACEK: Jak to bylo? – How all that happened?; JIŘÍ DĚDEČEK: Odznak – Badge; ALESSANDRO TAMBURINI: Il cielo che prima non c'era – The sky that wasn’t there before; Time travels MIKOLÁŠ CHADIMA: Rock a Diktatura – Rock and dictatorship; LUTZ RATHENOW: Alles Echos – All echos; GYÖRGY SPIRO: Verniszázs – The Vernissage; OLGA TOKARCZUK: Che Guevara Biographies

2009
346 pages
ISBN 978-963-9776-21-0 cloth $45.00 / €34.95 / £30.00

top