£20.00
Published three times a year from the Netherlands, the European Review of Books (ERB) is a magazine of culture and ideas spanning book reviews, fiction, poetry, travelogue and parody, with a distinctive print design that rewards both reading and cutting the pages.
What grabbed us about this issue...
Issue 4 opens with Ali Smith on Virginia Woolf. It’s a pairing that earns its own gravity. George Blaustein’s piece on Schwarzeneggerology sits alongside it without apology, which tells you something useful about the ERB’s editorial range. We also kept coming back to the review of all four volumes of Xi Jinping’s The Governance of China. Described as the most important unreviewed books of our times, the feature makes good on that claim.
Who’s the European Review of Books for?
The ERB is one for when you want a literary magazine that takes genuine risks with the form. Each issue moves between book reviews, fiction, poetry and parody without treating any one mode as secondary. The print design is worth noting. Pages can be read as normal or cut to reveal a second layer of digression beneath. You can tell this is a publication made by people who believe the magazine as an object still has somewhere to go. This would suit you if you’re drawn to ideas-led writing with a strong European cultural perspective. Think of it as a literary journal that refuses to behave like one. It’s one to reach for when you want to be genuinely surprised by what you’re holding.
Type: Mixed-length, reflective read
Pages: 192
Instagram: @european_review