Around the World

"For a long time now I haven't been I."

— Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet

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  Cracks in the Walls of the Hermit Kingdom

  Stephen J. Gallas reviews a new book about North Korea.

  Stephen J. GallasJan 4, 2017

  • Around the World

  • Politics

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  Sitting Up with the Dead

  Lynne Sharon Schwartz on "Cockroaches," Scholastique Mukasonga's look at the Rwandan genocide.

  Lynne Sharon SchwartzJan 4, 2017

  • Around the World

  • Memoir & Essay

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  Reading Burma

  Sebastian Strangio explores books that complicate the international image of Burma.

  Sebastian StrangioJan 1, 2017

  • Around the World

  • Politics

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  Ways of Seeing Japan: Roland Barthes’s Tokyo, 50 Years Later

  Colin Marshall looks back on Roland Barthes’s look at Japan in “Empire of Signs.”

  Colin MarshallDec 31, 2016

  • Around the World

  • Cultural Studies

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  Monsters of Translation: On Arno Schmidt and Sasha Sokolov

  Josh Billings wrestles with translations of the “untranslatable” novels of Arno Schmidt and Sasha Sokolov.

  Josh BillingsDec 26, 2016

  • Around the World

  • Fiction

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  Eight Days in North Korea

  An essay by Junko Terao about her tour of North Korea.

  Junko TeraoDec 22, 2016

  • Around the World

  • Politics

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  Dispatches from a Cambodian Literary Festival

  Cambodian literary culture is alive and well, and sometimes visits Cambodia.

  Tillman MillerDec 17, 2016

  • Around the World

  • Literary Criticism

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  Both a Fish and an Ichthyologist: On Viktor Shklovsky’s Diverse Achievement

  Adrian Nathan West appreciates the diversity of “Viktor Shklovsky: A Reader” edited by Alexandra Berlina.

  Adrian Nathan WestDec 15, 2016

  • Around the World

  • Philosophy & Religion

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  Scenes from the Uneasy Cafe

  Greg Cullison looks to Kaya Genç's "Under the Shadow" to make sense Turkey's past few years of protest and tumult.

  Greg CullisonDec 11, 2016

  • Around the World

  • Politics

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  The World According to Stanisław Lem

  Ezra Glinter surveys the work of Polish science fiction writer Stanisław Lem.

  Ezra GlinterDec 10, 2016

  • Around the World

  • SF

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  “Home Guards”: A Film About Modern-Day Hungary or an Ode to Neo-Nazis?

  “Home Guards” is, whatever its director says, a film for the far right.

  Nanda DyssouDec 9, 2016

  • Around the World

  • Film

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  Of Levant and Leviathan: Cautionary Tales from a Turbulent World

  A specter is haunting the Levant — the specter of Hobbes’s Leviathan.

  Muhammad Idrees AhmadDec 6, 2016

  • Around the World

  • Politics