Latest editorial
GORDON PARSONS recommends an entertaining account of the years between Germany’s defeat in WWI and Hitler’s seizure of power
How love bloomed in the rubble
SUE TURNER recommends Harry Leslie Smith’s account of finding his lifelong partner in the devastation of Hamburg at the end of WWII
MIGUEL YOSHIDA explains the evolution and influence of the Cuban Casa De Las Americas in joining culture to the revolutionary struggle
ANDY HEDGECOCK is charmed by a skilful adaptation of Tove Jansson’s lyrical portrait of three generations of a family, overcoming grief
ALEX HALL treads warily through a messy, dialectical struggle fought in the mundane machinery of driving licences, criminal law, and birth registries
MICHAL BONCZA, FIONA O’CONNOR, JAMES WALSH and ANGUS REID review Atlas of Disappearance, Love Me Tender, Bouchra, and This Tempting Madness
Flitting between myth and the modern world, Medusa is determined to steer clear of human affairs. When her resolve crumbles, the result is petrifying in every sense
Love Among The Ruins: A Memoir of Life and Love in Hamburg, 1945 by Harry Leslie Smith (Icon Books, £8.99)
HAMBURG made a formal surrender to the British on May 3 1945. The occupying soldiers commented on the smell as they entered the city, with the stench of death seeping up through mile upon mile of streets buried in rubble.
After six years of wartime deprivation and allied air raids — the saturation bombing of 1943 ignited massive firestorms — half the city was rubble.
Similar stories
SUE TURNER recommends a rich and varied selection of the letters, diaries and memoirs of British volunteers
Poland’s anger over Ukraine’s celebration of the Nazi collaborationist UPA reflects more than historical grievance, says KENNY COYLE
GAVIN O’TOOLE is enthralled by the colourful portrait of a woman who pioneered a path into the tough, magical world of journalism
JULIA TOPPIN recommends Patti Smith’s eloquent memoir that wrestles with the beauty and sorrow of a lifetime