Annette van Soest is sitting at the reading table in our café, with an impressive stack of books in front of her, laid out by Mathieu Segers. Because there was only one subject that Mathieu could talk about as passionately as he could about Europe – and that was literature.
Literature, said Mathieu, often offers deep insight and is essential to understand Europe in all its facets. Novels can foresee important historical events at a very early point. Therefore: an anthology, from Mathieu’s book tips. He thought it would be a great idea to posthumously share this episode with our listeners.
De book tips from this episode:
– ‘Leadership’ by Henry Kissinger
– ‘Kroniek van de stenen stad’ by Ismail Kadare
– ‘Decline or Renewal’ by Stanley Hoffmann
– ‘Ze hebben mijn vader vermoord’ by Edouard Louis
– ‘Terug naar Reims’ by Didier Eribon
– ‘Pier en oceaan’ by Oek de Jong
– ‘Purity’ by Jonathan Franzen
– ‘Tussen drie plagen’ by Jaan Kross
– ‘Machten der duisternis’ by Anthony Burgess
– ‘Bekentenissen van Zeno’ by Italo Svevo
– ‘To the castle and back’ by Václav Havel
– ‘Plato and Europe’ by Jan Patocka
– ‘Het schaarse licht’ by Nino Haratischwili
– ‘Israël aan de Tiber’ by Leonard Rutgers
– ‘Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945’ by Tony Judt
– ‘The New Old World’ by Perry Anderson
– ‘Gouden dagen’ by Berend Sommer
– ‘The Origins of European Integration. The Pre-History of Today’s European Union, 1937-1951’ by Mathieu Segers
— disclaimer — the podcast Café Europa is only available in Dutch
Collaboration with Haagsch College
We make the podcast Café Europa together with our partner Haagsch College. Haagsch College is an initiative of Freek Ewals (former BNR Nieuwsradio) and Vincent Rietbergen (former NOS). They produce substantive productions such as theater tours with Rutger Bregman, Joris Luyendijk and Thomas Erdbrink. And in-depth live streams and podcasts about current events.
