Prime movers: the German circus exploring Amazon through acrobatics
Rimini Protokoll’s new show is part of a series of performances inspired by James Joyce’s Ulysses and draws a connection between its Aeolus episode and hypercapitalism
Édouard Louis: ‘All my writing is political – and all my life is, too’
Ten years on from his first, brutal autofiction about growing up gay in a working-class village, the writer talks about his new novel, being a class defector – and how to take on Marine Le Pen
Graphic novelist Posy Simmonds wins prestigious French comics award
Award marks first time a British artist and author has won Grand Prix at International Comics festival in Angoulême
‘Sexual pleasure a gift from God’ but avoid porn, Pope Francis advises
Pontiff thought be be responding to conservative critics after sexually explicit book by cardinal resurfaces
Novelist breaks with German publisher amid call for wider cultural boycott over Gaza
Lana Bastašić terminates contract, decrying ‘censorship’ of pro-Palestinian voices in Germany
‘It’s about being able to say goodbye’: Spanish graphic novel explores early Franco-era reprisals
The Abyss of Forgetting chronicles a woman’s struggle to find remains of her father who was murdered after civil war
Libraries for the future: Europe’s new wave of ‘meeting places for the mind’
From Ghent’s De Krook to Helsinki’s Oodi, recent civic constructions have shared a vision of the library as a living room for the modern city
‘Pushed towards poetry’: how one victim of Russian airstrike made sense of attack
Poet and photojournalist Anastasia Taylor-Lind was in Ukrainian restaurant when 13 people were killed and 60 wounded
Were the monks on drugs? How The Book of Kells went fully psychedelic
Spirited to Ireland to save it from the Vikings, this wild illumination of the New Testament, full of gilded curls and coils, is one of the most ecstatic artworks ever – and now it’s gone gloriously immersive
‘It’s a golden age’: poetry flourishes in Ukraine – but at a terrible price
Conflict has changed Ukrainian poetry, and readings are popular, but several poets have died or disappeared
‘No, that’s fascism’: the librarian who defied Russia’s purge of LGBTQ+ books
When Vladimir Kosarevsky was ordered to destroy gay novels, he raised the alarm instead – then went to Spain to rebuild his life
The best European culture of 2023
Critics, writers and broadcasters pick their home country’s cultural highlight of 2023, which they hope will find international success in 2024
Reindeer noir, the Finnish crime sub-genre influenced by Santa’s home town
Books, films and plays set in Lapland often feature ‘dark humour’ where the landscape is a looming presence
Dutch town shakes off political strife with ‘world’s largest Dickens festival’
Festival a ‘flight from reality’ for expected 125,000 visitors to enjoy street theatre and Victorian treats
African writer ruined by row with Graham Greene finally gets chance to shine
Fifty years after being accused of plagiarism, book is reissued in a bid to rehabilitate gifted Malian author Yambo Ouologuem