long read December 2025

Fraught but exciting: Using fiction to bridge history with memory

By Kurt Johnson

Two red book covers on a yellow background.

Kurt Johnson reviews Cécile Desprairies’s semi-autobiographical novel The Propagandist and Lea Ypi’s Indignity: A Life Reimagined, arguing that while literature can bridge history and memory, it carries an inherent risk: histories vulnerable to erasure are also vulnerable to fabrication.

Review December 2025

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Jewish belonging in East-Central Europe

Review by Kamil Kijek

Review November 2025

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The promise of free movement

Review by Eike Klages

Review November 2025

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March '68 in Polish cinema

Review by Ewa Mazierska

Review November 2025

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Postwar reparatory justice and restitution in Romania

Review by Anca Filipovici

Review November 2025

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Beauty contests and women’s agency in early-20th-century Germany

Review by Louisa Niesen

Interview October 2025

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Legality and justice in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union: An interview with Stefan B. Kirmse

by Andrea Talabér

Books available for review

CEU Review of Books Podcast Series