Narrative Non-fiction · Hardback

Europeans

Norwegian title: Europeere

Simen Ekern

The struggle for the future of Europe is intense, alarming and dramatic. In this book we meet the main actors.When Simen Ekern went to live in Brussels as an exchange student in the late 1990’s, the mood was optimistic. The ‘Erasmus Generation’ would nurture a new Europe, where national differences were less important than the idea of future harmony. When he returned to the EU capital as a journalist ten years later, people were talking instead about a ‘Lost Generation.’Europeans is about the crisis which has hit Europe. The difficult economic situation has presented opportunities for political entrepreneurs with widely different ideological projects. Ekern introduces the reader to Italian populists, Scottish separatists and Hungarian extremists. He talks with Brussels bureaucrats, French patriots and a Greek crime-writer who has his own distinctive views about who are the villains in the story.

‘... great insight and even more knowledge combined with observational skills and an eye for detail.’NRK‘Journalistically prepared, linguistically confident, technically solid. ... Ekern’s book is divided into ten chapters. Most of them are based on interviews that either facilitate access to topics such as the German austerity policy or are used as a basis for portraits of selected problem countries such as Greece, Italy and Hungary. …But the strength of the book is equally in how Ekern interweaves these interviews with history lessons, anecdotes, well-placed quoted, short travelogues and a suitable dose of first-person journalism. A lot of hard work goes into a tapestry like this.’AFTENPOSTEN ‘In this book he applies his great knowledge of the topic, combined with his astute observational skills, to portray the lives of ordinary people and relate them to the major themes in contemporary Europe.’FÆDRELANDSVENNEN ‘An insightful and well-informed description of Europe. … Ekern’s account of the struggle for the future of Europe is both intense and alarming.’TRØNDERAVISA ‘Very relevant to a deeper understanding of the current political fluctuations in Europe. … This book combines accounts of meeting important and less important people, with wholly personal experiences and discussion of the major trends.’FINANSAVISEN ‘In Europeans, Simen Ekern has written a sound and very topical book about the EU and the challenges facing Europe.’HAMAR ARBEIDERBLAD ‘Simen Ekern’s new book shows us the enormous gulfs which have grown up between the nationalists who want the whole EU to go to Hell and the pro-Europeans who see an even greater diminution of the sovereignty of the nation states as the solution. … an up-to-date discussion of hot topics.’UNIVERSITAS