Books How the Stasi poets tried to win the Cold War Philip Oltermann’s The Stasi Poetry Circle reveals how the GDR taught its spies to use verse as an ideological weapon. By Adam Kirsch
Stefan Zweig and Joseph Roth: How Europe’s exiled intellectuals ended up on a Belgian beach In choosing to take up this story in the summer of 1936, Weidermann finds a moment of relative calm… By Adam Kirsch
The House by the Lake is a history of Germany told in a single house History, which we learn about as a series of ideological abstractions, is lived concretely - in ordinary houses. By Adam Kirsch
The Promised Land: Erich Maria Remarque’s unfinished final book has a humane power The fragmented last work from the author of All Quiet on the Western Front. By Adam Kirsch
How many people are reading Mein Kampf in 2014? According to Time and ABC News it has rocketed up the e-book charts - but are more people reading… By Adam Kirsch
Reviewed: Give Me Everything You Have by James Lasdun Obsession in the age of the internet. By Adam Kirsch