Passenger (Europa Editions)

Fully-illustrated, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world. IN THIS VOLUME: Night, Sleep, Death and the Stars by Lauren Groff・The Universe Underground by Paolo Giordano・We All Hated Each Other So Much by Frank Westermann・plus: discovering new planets and destroying satellites, returning to the Moon (this time to stay), the Mars delusion, the hunt for extraterrestrial life, and much more... In the 1960s, the rivalry between the superpowers brought us into space, adding a whole new dimension to human life. The last frontier was open, the solar system seemed close at hand, Mars was the next step... Then, nothing. Between 1969 and 1972 twelve men (but no women) walked on the moon, but no one has since. The space race between the United States and the Soviet Union revealed itself for what it really was: a political and military competition between opposing nationalist narratives. Space agencies, however, have not been idle since the 1970s-quite the opposite. While funding for space missions has been cut and their objectives have changed, humanity has continued to explore the solar system with probes and robots, less costly than human astronauts, and has observed celestial bodies more closely than ever before. Without politics, science has thrived. But the lack of government funding has also opened space exploration to the forces of capitalism. NASA and other space agencies rely more and more on private companies to build modules and rockets, and a generation of visionary and megalomaniac entrepreneurs has become determined to bring humans back to space, this time to stay. The race has started again, with different rules and different players in an increasingly multipolar world. But for those of us who remain on Earth, space also offers something else-a spiritual dimension, which science keeps alive by seeking answers to fundamental questions: what is the universe made of? How did the solar system form? What are the origins of life? And while colonizing Mars might not be the solution to humanity's problems, the promise of space-whether expressed in a tweet by Elon Musk or a photo taken by a NASA rover on Mars-is to finally demonstrate that, when necessary, we are able to work together to build a common future for the whole of humanity.

The best new writing, photography, art, and reportage from and about Paris-in the "rich and engrossing" series for literary travelers (Times Literary Supplement). Paris's postcard image has suffered multiple blows in recent years: the November 2015 terrorist attacks, the demonstrations of the yellow vests, the riots in the suburbs, Notre-Dame in flames, record heatwaves and the coronavirus. Meanwhile, soaring living costs are forcing many Parisians to leave the city. Yet these are not just a series of unfortunate events. They are phenomena-from increasing population density to climate change, from immigration to the repercussions of globalization and geopolitics-that all metropolises in the world must face. And in Paris, today, the mood is not one of defeat but of renewal: from the city's ongoing environmental and urbanistic transformation to the fight by a new generation of chefs against the traditionalism of starred restaurants; from the children of immigrants who take to the streets for the right to feel French to the women determined to break the sexism and stereotypes that dominate the fashion industry. Is there anyone who seriously thinks they can teach Parisians how to make a revolution? This volume includes: Out of the Shadows by Tash Aw Against the Stars by Tommaso Melilli Afraid of Being Free by Samar Yazbek Plus: the Champs-Elysées between luxury and riots, the French Republic between anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, the most elegant Congolese dandies of all time, one Parisian woman you will not encounter, the city's legendary football team that is not the PSG, and much more...

The best new writing, photography, art, and reportage from and about Ireland-in the series that's "like a literary vacation" (Publishers Weekly). Ireland is a land full of charm and conflict, a country that in just a few decades has gone from being a poor, semi-theocratic society to a thriving economy free from the influence of the Catholic Church. With the 1998 peace agreements, the conflict between nationalists and unionists seemed, if not resolved, at least dormant. But Brexit-with the ambiguous position it leaves Northern Ireland in-caused old tensions to resurface, with ramifications in politics, society, culture, and sport. Meanwhile, south of the border, epochal transformation has seen a deeply patriarchal, conservative society give space to diversity, the only country in the world to enshrine gay marriage in law through a referendum. And there's a whole other Ireland abroad, an Irish diaspora that looks to the old country with newfound pride but doesn't forget the ugliness it fled from. Memory and identity intertwine with the transformations-from globalization to climate change-that are remodeling the Irish landscape, from the coastal communities under threat of disappearing along with the Irish language fishermen use to talk about the sea, inland the peat bogs, until recently important sources of energy and jobs, are being abandoned. Pieces in this collection include: The mass is ended by Catherine Dunne and Caelainn Hogan The Way Back by Colum McCann A Trip to Westeros by Mark O'Connell Plus: life on the margins of two unions and right in the middle of Brexit, making war on each other for thirty years while playing on the same national rugby team, emigrating to the great enemy or transforming the country one referendum at a time, digging peat bogs and building cottages, talking of the sea in Gaelic, and much more...

The best new writing, photography, art, and reportage from and about California-in the "rich and engrossing" series for travelers and armchair travelers (Times Literary Supplement). From the Gold Rush to Hollywood's golden age to the rise of Silicon Valley, California has long stood as the brightest symbol of the American dream. In recent years, however, the country's mainstream media has been declaring with increasing frequency-and thinly veiled schadenfreude-the "end of California as we know it." The pessimists point to rising inequality, racial tensions, and the impact of climate change as evidence that the Californian dream has been shattered. Between extreme heat, months-long droughts, devastating wildfires, and rising sea levels, looking at California is like watching the trailer for what awaits the world if we don't act to reduce global warming. Faced with these pressures, more and more Californians are leaving the state, leading to an unprecedented decline in population that could change the cultural and political balance of power in the country at large. That said, demographic decline and climate disasters don't tell the whole story of one of the most dynamic and diverse states in the Union-one that continues to drive technological and political innovation and define the evolution of work, food, entertainment, and social relations. This volume offers a fascinating picture of California in all its complexity and contradictions-an attempt to understand the laboratory where much of the world's future continues to be written-with pieces including: Growing Uncertainty in the Central Valley by Anna Wiener • How Does It Feel to Be a Solution? by Vanessa Hua • The Burning of Paradise by Mark Arax • Plus: direct democracy and unsustainable development, the rise of the "land back" movement, the cultural renaissance of Los Angeles in defiance of rampant gentrification, and much more...

The best new writing, photography, art, and reportage from and about Rome-in the series that's "like a literary vacation" (Publishers Weekly). If you believe recent chatter about Rome-in the media and by its residents-the city is on the verge of collapse. Each year, it slips further down the ranking of the world's most livable cities. To the problems faced by all large capitals-hit-and-run tourism, traffic, the divide between elegant, Airbnb-dominated city centers and run-down suburbs-in recent years Rome seems to have added a list of calamities of its own: a string of failing administrations, widespread corruption, the resurgence of fascist movements, rampant crime. A seemingly hopeless situation, perfectly symbolized by the fact that Rome currently leads the world in the number of self-combusting public buses. One might expect mass migration in the face of problems like these-yet the vast majority of Romans don't think for a second of "betraying" their hometown, and the many newcomers who've populated it in recent decades resemble the natives in the profound love that binds them to the city. The largest metropolis in Europe is a place of contradictions and opposites. We think of it as ancient, but it is profoundly modern-it was founded almost three millennia ago, but 92 per cent of its buildings have been built after 1945. To understand Rome and fix its problems, we should start considering it a normal city, not unlike Chicago or Manchester... just incomparably more beautiful. This volume is filled with portraits of Rome and thoughts not just on its famous past but its present and future, including: Rome doesn't judge you by Nicola Lagioia The soul of the city by Matteo Nucci 39 memos for a book about Rome by Francesco Piccolo Plus: a guide to the sounds of Rome by Letizia Muratori; the feigned unrest and real malaise of the suburbs; the influence of the Vatican; the excessive power of real estate speculators and the rule of gangs; disillusioned trappers; football fans of every age, and much more...

Fully-illustrated, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world. IN THIS VOLUME: Still Becoming by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie A Nation called Ineba by A. Igoni Barrett The Niger Delta by Noo Saro-Wiwa plus: independent cinema and the do-it-yourself society; indiscriminate abductions and discrimination against women; the discrete charm of repair shops and the irresistible fascination with Afrobeat, and much more... Since gaining independence Nigeria has been in a state of permanent crisis. Even the arrival of democracy in the 1990s failed to bring much improvement. It's estimated that over 100 million Nigerians, half of the country's population, live below the poverty line. Violence is widespread: from the Boko Haram terrorists to the new armed secessionist movements and the growing scourge of kidnappings. How to live in a country where the state is, at best, absent? With regular power cuts, virtually non-existent health care and education, and where the army, present in every one of the 36 states of the federation, is not able to control the violence? In these circumstances, the only possible society is a do-it-yourself one that blossoms wherever and however it can. At the first glimmer of opportunity, Nigerians bring out all their dynamism, entrepreneurial skills, and inventiveness. They develop apps to get around the inaccessibility of the banking system, use solar power to render themselves independent from the unreliable public energy grid, sometimes even resorting to artisanal (but deeply polluting) methods to refine oil/petrol, embrace e-commerce and social media to sell their goods, while films produced on shoestring budgets, books and music find success all over the world. Nigeria's energy is unlike that of any other African country. As the generation of generals who won the civil war and governed the country for 60 years dies out, and younger citizens refuse to ignore injustice and violence, the hope is born that a new, vibrant generation will take the country's future into their hands. And, as they are accustomed to doing, fix it.

Explore Japanese society in the lively series that collects the best new writing, photography, art, and reportage from around the world. Visitors from the West look with amazement, and sometimes concern, at Japan's social structures and unique, complex culture industry; the gigantic scale of its tech corporations and the resilience of its traditions; the extraordinary diversity of the subcultures that flourish in its "post-human" megacities. The country nonetheless remains an intricate and complicated jigsaw puzzle, an inexhaustible source of inspiration for stories, reflections, and reportage. Caught between an aging population and extreme post-modernity, Japan is an ideal observation point from which to understand our era and the one to come. The subjects in this volume form a portrait of the country that ranges from the Japanese veneration of the dead to the Tokyo music scene, from urban alienation to cinema, from sumo to toxic masculinity. In this volume:Ghosts of the Tsumani by Richard Lloyd Parry Living in Shimokitazawa by Yoshimoto Banana Why Japan Has Avoided Populism by Ian Buruma Plus: a Shinto sect in the shadow of power, fleeing debts by disappearing into thin air, the decline of sexual desire, the obsession with American blues, the strongest sumo wrestler of all time (who isn't Japanese), the revenge of the Ainu and much more...

The best new writing, photography, art, and reportage from and about Berlin-in the series that's "like a literary vacation" (Publishers Weekly). In 1990s Berlin, the scars of a century of war were still visible everywhere: coal stoves, crumbling buildings, desolate minimarts, not a working buzzer or elevator. To visit the city then was a hallucinatory experience, a simultaneous journey into the past and into the future. The abandoned ruins, the hidden gems found at the flea market, the illegal basement raves are a thing of the past. The era of Berlin as a site of urban archeology is over. Almost all the damaged buildings have been repaired, squatters have been removed, the shops selling East German furniture have closed down. Without its wounds, the landscape of the city is perhaps less striking but more solid, stronger. Even the city's inhabitants have lost some of their melancholia, their romantic and self-destructive streak: today you can even find people who come to Berlin to actually work, not just to "create" or idle their days away. Yet, Berlin remains a youthful city and retains its aura as "the capital of cool." Its only sacrosanct principles are an uncompromising multiculturalism and the belief that its future is yet to be written. This volume of the series includes: The Greatest Show in Town: The Resurrection of Potsdamer Platz by Peter Schneider Berlin Suite by Cees Nooteboom Tempelhof: A Field of Dreams by Vincenzo Latronico Plus: the controversial reconstruction of a Prussian castle, Berlin's most transgressive sex club and its disappearing traditional pubs, a green urban oasis, suburban neo-Nazis, North Vietnamese in the East, South Vietnamese in the West, techno everywhere and much more...

Since its earliest interactions with the West, India has been the object of a gross misinterpretation, a vague association with ideas of peace, spiritualism, the magic of the fakirs. Constantly reframed and mythologized by Westerners fleeing their supposedly rationalist societies, India continues to fascinate with its millennia-old history, shrines on every street corner, ancient beliefs and rituals, and unique linguistic and cultural diversity. Today this picture is mixed with that of a society changing at a frenetic pace and at the forefront of the digital revolution-a "shining India" of dynamic, fast-expanding megalopolises. Yet these success stories coexist with the daily plight of the large section of its population without access to drinking water or a toilet, with a rural economy (still employing the majority of its over 1.3 billion inhabitants) that depends on monsoons for irrigation and is threatened by climate change. The greatest democratic experiment ever attempted, India remains plagued by one of the vilest forms of class and racial discrimination, the caste system, exacerbated by the Hindu nationalist regime. All things considered, though, it's hard to find a more dynamic and optimistic country or, as Arundhati Roy puts it, "a more irredeemably chaotic people." This volume aims to depict India's chaos and its contradictions, its terror and its joy, from the struggle of the Kashmiris to that of non-believers (hated by all religious sects), from the dances of the hijra in Koovagam to the success of the wrestler Vinesh Phogat, a symbol of the women who seek to free themselves from the oppressive patriarchal mores. Despite the obstacles and steps back, India continues its journey on the long path toward freedom and toward ending poverty for some of the world's most destitute. Included are writings on: Caste: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow by Arundhati Roy The Invention of Hindu Nationalism by Prem Shankar Jha No Country for Women by Tishani Doshi Plus: the grand ambitions of the world's most underrated space program, Bollywood's obsession with Swiss landscapes, an ode to Bengali food, eagerly awaiting the monsoon, the wrestler tackling stereotypes and much more...

Fully-illustrated, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world. IN THIS VOLUME: Lovestruck in Barcelona by Enrique Vila-Matas Supermanza 503 by Gabi Martinez The Great Barcelona Novel by Miqui Otero plus: the complex legacy of the Olympics; the future of Catalonia; the radical left and the once best in the world soccer team; an endless subway line, and much more... Thirty years after the 1992 Olympics, which redefined the city's contemporary identity and changed its destiny, The Passenger travels to Barcelona to understand the history and future of one of the cradles of political, cultural, and urban change in Europe. From the debate about the impact of mass tourism to the search of new and sustainable models of economic and social development; from the eternal rivalry with Madrid to the rediscovery of the city's rich tradition of political activism: this volume of The Passenger offers a panoramic view of a city striving to trace a new path forward out of the current crisis, and find a way of life centered on the well-being of its citizens.

Turkish culture and history is explored in the wide-ranging series that is "like a literary vacation" (Publishers Weekly). The birth of the "New Turkey," as the country's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called his own creation, is an exemplary story of the rise of "illiberal democracies" through the erosion of civil liberties, press freedom, and the independence of the judicial system. Turkey was a complex country long before the rise of its new sultan: Born out of the ashes of a vast multi-ethnic and multi-religious empire, Turkey has grappled through its relatively short history with the definition of its own identity. Poised between competing ideologies, secularism and piousness, a militaristic nationalism and exceptional openness to foreigners, Turkey defies easy labels and categories. Through the voices of some of its best writers and journalists-many of them in self-imposed exile-The Passenger: Turkey tries to make sense of this fascinating, maddening country, analyzing how it got to where it is now, and finding the bright spots of hope that allow its always resourceful, often frustrated population to continue living, and thriving. In this volume:The Big Dig by Elif Batuman A Story of Dust and Light by Burhan Sönmez An Author Recommends by Elif Shafak Plus: the thirty-year coup and the dam that is washing away 12,000 years of history, and more.