Goodbye Eastern Europe: An Intimate History of a Divided Land - Softcover

Mikanowski, Jacob

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0861547322 ISBN 13: 9780861547326

Publisher: Oneworld Publications, 2024

Synopsis

An epic history of the ‘other’ Europe, a place of conflict and coexistence, of faith and folklore.

‘Do not rush to bid farewell to eastern Europe until reading this book. Meticulously researched and beautifully written.’ Serhii Plokhy

Eastern Europe is more than the sum total of its annexations, invasions and independence declarations. From the Baltics to the Balkans, from Prague to Kiev, the area exuded a tragicomic character like no other.

This is a paean for a disappearing world of movable borders, sacred groves and syncretism. And an invitation to not forget.

***

A SPECTATOR BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023

‘An insightful chronicle… distilling more than a decade of research, [Mikanowski] carefully argues that if something marks out Europe’s eastern half, it is not homogeneity but wild, glorious diversity.’ Economist

‘A lively and sweeping history.’ Washington Post

‘Goodbye Eastern Europe is a thematic history of a divided half-continent, a goulash of imperial histories, shifting frontiers and heartbreaking family stories, spiced with myth and poet-martyrs, and deeply satisfying on the palate… vital and informed.’ TLS

About this title

About the Author

Jacob Mikanowski is a writer and academic. His parents were Polish immigrants to the US, and he spent his childhood between Poland and Pennsylvania. He is now a PhD candidate at the UC Berkeley in California. Concurrently, he has become a well-known essayist and freelance journalist, writing pieces for publications including the Guardian, New York Times, Atlantic, New Yorker, Harper’s, Slate, Aeon, Prospect Magazine and many more. His two long reads for the Guardian were included in the paper’s ‘Best of the Year’ round-up in 2018.

From the Back Cover

A farewell to Eastern Europe and its vanishing culture.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oneworld Publications
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0861547322
• ISBN 13: 9780861547326
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400