In Europe

Fascinating, informative, sometimes exhilarating, often painful, and quite impossible to summarise… This is a splendidly panoramic picture of our common European home, a book to read through and then to dip into frequently… I thoroughly recommend his book – Allan Massie * Literary Review *A broader travelling history of the whole of Europe’s 20th century. As befits a journalist with an eye for bad news, he also has much more to say on its calamitous first half than on its more successful second half… Mr Mak tells this part of the story vividly and in great, gory detail, moving from grim fields of battle (Verdun, Stalingrad) to places of revolution (Petrograd, Berlin), and on to ghastly charnel-houses of death and destruction (Auschwitz, Dresden) * Economist *An ingenious geographical-chronological structure… It’s impossible not to get drawn into this book – Noel Malcolm * Sunday Telegraph *The pace rarely slackens and every page sparkles with insight * Herald *In Europe is not so much a work of history, nor is it strictly a travelogue of the present; it is part of a growing genre that is sometimes referred to as the ‘history of the present’, but might just as well be the ‘presence of the past’. It is undoubtedly a spectacular and beautifully crafted piece of such writing – Isabella Thomas * Sunday Times *Moving across a vivid historical landscape, his portrait of Europe, in all her bloody barbarism and civilised glory, helps us confront exactly what we need to know….a timely book, and one we can’t afford to ignore – Michael Moorcock * Daily Telegraph *This immense book is part masterpiece, part sheer exhaustion. The masterpiece part lies chiefly in its breathtaking invention – Jan Morris * The Times *Everywhere he goes, Mak is quietly ruthless in unmasking the acts of forgetting, selective amnesia, myth-making and historical obfuscation that persist…Mak is a truly cosmopolitan chronicler of shame and self-deceptions – David Goldblatt * Independent *His genius as a historian is his instinct for human stories… At moments in this monumental work… Mak is the history teacher everyone should have had – Simon Kuper * Financial Times *How eloquently Mak rails against the alliance of consumerism and bureaucracy! … He has a great eye for telling detail… Only a powerful, humane and serious mind could give coherence to mass detail which, however arresting piece by piece, would otherwise soon become wearying… as much a journey around Geert Mak’s head as it is a journey around Europe * Guardian *

Geert Mak is a journalist and historian, and is one of Holland’s bestselling writers. His books include Amsterdam, In Europe and Jorwerd.

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