show. as the books and readers do still exist a recent study indicates that fewer people are buying books these days but those who do buy more. it s. one of the stars of this year s event is the outspoken russian american journalist and activist mushing gessen she has been awarded the twenty nine thousand leipsic book fair award for european understanding. these days people are lining up to interview matia gessen the author of the award winning work the future is history how totalitarianism reclaimed russia. it makes a provocative claim. russia s future is shaped by its past and you might say that about any country but what i
a modern country to the i. world yet the nation is deeply divided for her book marsha gessen conducted interviews with russian men and women who were born in the one nine hundred eighty s. and lived with an inner turmoil to this day. i wanted to look at that generation i wanted to look at people who grew up in the ninety s because i think it s a very specific condition that hasn t been described that the condition of being a child in an extremely unstable society they need to remember the collapse of the soviet union when they were just seven years old they needed to be from different backgrounds from different cities but also different class backgrounds with a different relationship to power i want to to use them in the sense as a vehicle to understanding some of the politics both of the perestroika error and of the ninety s i. guess since family immigrated to the us from the soviet union in the one nine hundred eighty s. jewish intellectuals who saw no future there. was fourteen at t
a story that s honest as it is absurd. the one constant in the young protagonists life is a friendly vietnamese and he lets her use the washroom in a shop and gives her a smile and something to eat. this is more than a mere detail it s a nod to multiculturalism at a time when czech politicians often disparage the country s mutinies minority. is the czech republic xenophobia. in twenty fifteen at the height of europe s refugee crisis the country accepted under two hundred people and a good move out soon is for my generation it s extremely painful to hear that the czech republic refused to accept refugees. i didn t refuse to the government refused to i myself helped refugees he said so i had to fixing him got hold of me i drove to hungary and took a good look at the situation. and i formed my own opinion. who get mocked she
says of course people in the czech republic appreciate the material freedoms and the opportunities to travel that they have now but she says many people s mindsets are slower to change some feel insecure and don t know how to handle freedom. does that worry her not in the least. a thing that he mentions. i think people can see for themselves if they ve elected the wrong politician. the the title as time goes on they notice ok maybe that wasn t so great. and that s progress mind sometimes you have to try things out before you realize that s a bad apple i won t use one of those again so take me call from. prague castle is the city s landmark and houses the office of the czech president. current president milosevic mons pro china and pro russia stance has divided the country. in the ukraine conflict he sided with russia and in two thousand and
able to conduct the research for his novel into bags of that stuff or vinterberg last journey it s a comical tribute to train travel central europe and life in general and rudisha wrote it in german. the month. when you look at the map of the railway routes in austria hungary in one nine hundred thirteen and compare it with a map of the routes in central europe today you can see how many are left hotels for heart disease i m told that s all of these routes this station where we are now they all existed back then as god is in this caption damo solace. together with his melancholy geriatric nurse yon cross ninety nine year old once a winter very embarks on a journey into the past taking his cue from a detailed guidebook dating from one thousand nine hundred eighteen he s drawn ever deeper into the country s history and his own. doubts stuart and susan little monson all of us assumes that i owned