A Times, Financial Times and Telegraph Book of the Year 2023 What does it now mean to call yourself European? Who makes up this population of some 750 million, sprawled from Portugal to Ukraine, from Sweden to Turkey? Who has always called it home, and who has newly arrived from elsewhere, hoping for better? Who are the people who drive our long-distance lorries, steward our criss-crossing planes, craft our legacy wines, fish our depleted waters, and risk life itself in search of safety and a new start? In a series of vivid, ambitious, sometimes darkly funny, often painfully visceral portraits of other people’s lives, Ben Judah invites us to meet them. As they tell their important stories, they reveal a frenetic and vibrant continent transformed by complex supply chains, by migration, Islam, ideologies, the internet, by climate change, Covid and war. Laid dramatically bare, it may not always be a Europe we recognize – but this is Europe. ______ Praise for Ben Judah’s This Is London: ‘An epic work of reportage’ - The Guardian ‘Eye-opening’ - The Sunday Times ‘Opens readers’ eyes to the hardships experienced by many and ignored by most’ - Independent ‘Full of nuggets of unexpected information about the lives of others’ - The Financial Times
About the Author
Ben Judah is an author and journalist. He has reported from across Europe with his writing on politics and society featuring widely, including in The Sunday Times, The Financial Times and Foreign Policy. His first book, Fragile Empire, was published by Yale Uni versity Press in 2013. His second book, This is London, published by Picador, was longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize 2016 and shortlisted for the 2019 Ryszard Kapuscinski Award for Literary Reportage. This Is Europe is his third book.