Another great set of books this month: Matthew McDonald's debut poetry collection @ajbwells.bsky.social; Julia Franck's autobiographical novel @return2sanders.bsky.social; and Agri Ismaïl's account of dislocation and late capitalism @brynstole.bsky.social. Plus some EXPLOSIVE new gossip...
know, I know, times are tough and money is short but as we find ourselves increasingly in a world where stories are censored and the corporates buy up shelf space with their discounts.
If you are able please do support Independent publishers.
@northernfiction.bsky.social
Das ist der Nährboden, auf dem das Netzwerk von Jeffrey Epstein gedeihen konnten: Die kalauernde Normalisierung der Sexualisierung von Kinderm.
Wer so redet, sollte 2026 kein Ministerpräsident werden.
imo it doesn't get much better than:
Batter my heart, three-person'd God, for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend
Nell Zink, The Wallcreeper:
“I was looking at the map when Stephen swerved, hit the rock, and occasioned the miscarriage.”
(Didn’t even have to look it up. It lives in my head.)
🫡
Not often you seen "Oi!" in European cultural discourse: it can only be @ajbwells.bsky.social, here with his "extra scoop of Auflauf": namely on great book openings... theauflauf.substack.com/p/oi-quick-q...
oh, Hoffnung genug, unendlich viel Hoffnung, nur nicht für uns
BRILLIANT short story 👀
thanks for taking part mate!!
Marcel Krüger reads a text on stage
Julia Bosson introduced the evening and lineup
Julia Bosson, Paul Scraton, Katy Derbyshire and Alex Wells on stage
A group picture of all participants of the evening
A fantastic evening yesterday, (critically) celebrating Christa Wolf at Lettrétage with @juliabosson.bsky.social @paulscraton.bsky.social @ajbwells.bsky.social @katyderbyshire.bsky.social Sanders Bernstein, Agnieszka Gasparska, Sylvia Krupicka & Roxie Perkins.
This is me, @katyderbyshire.bsky.social and @ajbwells.bsky.social about to start our chat about the life and work of Christa Wolf. Luckily we only found out Wolf’s daughter was in the audience after we’d finished!
😜
Come along to our Christa Wolf event in Berlin tomorrow to hear @katyderbyshire.bsky.social read from her translations—and more—while we explore Wolf's post-Wall legacy in discussion & texts submitted from all across town >> psst also it's free >>
www.lettretage.de/Termine/chri...
In the Auflauf's first monthly author interview, @mathildegm.bsky.social dials up @tobiasvryan.bsky.social in his Parisian garret to talk about unrelatable fiction, @minorliteratures.bsky.social, and the Unreal (European) City of his soul .......
theauflauf.substack.com/p/tobias-rya...
@tobiasvryan.bsky.social has written a gross, beautiful, challenging book about a horrible man who won't leave you alone – and I got to talk to him about it for The Auflauf:
„In der Substanz ist das das Gleiche wie bei Vance“ – dafür gab es „stehende Ovationen“. Stephan Detjen ist die Irritation deutlich anzuhören. Selten gab es eine so klare Einschätzung zu dem Sachverhalt wie heute im DLF.
danke 🙏
wohnungssuche essen seele auf
Ihr müsst das verstehen, wo soll denn das Geld für die Olympia-Bewerbung und die Magnetschwebebahn sonst herkommen
www.tagesspiegel.de/koalition-ku...
Nooteboom passed away.
💔💔💔
deadline closes FEB 10TH send us your BEST
Cool new project alert!!! Subscribe for more soon!
I was honoured to fact-check the gossip section for this issue; will also be doing reviews, interviews, &c. in future instalments
I cannot tell you how much doubt was consistently directed at the Gaza Health Ministry’s casualty numbers and how much pressure was put on news organizations to couch those numbers as unreliable.
Biden himself said they were fabricated!
www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
War Hitler links? Nein, das war er nicht. Es ist eine rechte Rechts-Links-Umkehr. Schade, dass FAZ diesen bespielt, schon durch den Titel. Als sei das eine ernst zu nehmende Frage! Und schade, dass Götz Aly hier mitspielt. Interessant das FAZ mit einer polit. Stiftung kooperiert.
also it's very, very, very, very clear that only a small set of global fans would feel safe to "show up and lodge [their] protest in person" -- what assumptions about global (even european) fandom are we making here
european teams have huge leverage over the spectacle's present & future viability. why not make a statement—in this already unjust enough world game—that we won't go to a party that our mates from senegal (&c.) can't go to? also odd not to mention the apartheid sports boycotts, which did have impact
Remigration bedeutet ein deutsches #ICE und damit enorme Gewalt gegen Millionen von Menschen, die in den Augen der AfD keine Deutschen sind. Daraus macht die AfD keinen Hehl mehr. Hat sie nie, denn wie will man die anberaumten 25 Millionen Menschen, anders loswerden, als mit staatlicher Gewalt?
WE WANT YOUR PROSE—submit now to read at our Feb 21 Lettrétage event about Christa Wolf (and her post-Wall writing e.g. One Day A Year). Send us some short prose in any language about the day, the daily, the recurring date, everyday politics. We will print a zine!
sites.google.com/view/mayroec...
