Escape the EU Bubble: Expert Summer Book Picks

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How about we take a breath? Just a short little break. It's summer. And maybe you're listening to us from a beach, a mountain trail, or while sipping something cold and delicious in a bar far away from the European Quarter. If that's the case, we salute you. And if you're still here, hashing out the budget, negotiating trade deals, dealing with global hotspots, or just generally minding the big bureaucratic store that is the European Union, we double salute you.

But most of the Brussels bubble is getting into vacation mode. If we're lucky, we've got a little more time than usual. Time to slow down, to reset, to put the phone away. Maybe even time to read something that isn't a leaked draft of a new impact assessment or a policy non-paper. So this week, we're turning to books, to big ideas, bold imaginations, and stories that let us see the world or escape it for just a little while. George Stephanopoulos' The Situation Room.

South Korean, Hong Kong, the vegetarian. I'm Sarah Wheaton, and this is a special episode of You Confidential. I've been reading Vincenzo LeTronico's Perfection. It's made for hammocks and long road trips, shady cafes and sleepless summer nights. Yo and Nesbo, the red breast. We'll hear from Brussels insiders.

EU officials, politicians, and some of you, our listeners, chilling, spectacular stuff, about what you're reading or planning to read this summer. Mrs. Dalloway, the novel is 100 this year. Although it's heroin, Clarissa Dalloway. And we'll meet a debut author, though he's no stranger to Brussels. A veteran of the EU institutions, he's just published a personal guide for anyone trying to make it, as the title says, Big in Brussels.

I hope the book will also encourage people to go for it and come to Brussels and try to start a career. I think after 25 years, I think it's more worth than I ever imagined. And joining me this week is our producer, Deanna Sturris, who not only makes this podcast happen, but is also a serious book nerd. And he didn't put it in the script here, but a published author himself many times over.

Janis, welcome to the other side of the mic. Hi, Sarah. What are you recommending this summer? I have so many books to recommend. But maybe, just maybe, maybe we keep my recommendations and yours. for the end of this episode. All right. Because we've got a few brilliant recommendations from our listeners and colleagues to share. You're the producer. It's your call. Okay. Okay, let's do it.

So on our list, the first recommendation comes from Seb Starcevic, our colleague here in Brussels office. He's a political reporter. And his message reads as follows. I'm reading Bonjour Tristesse by François Sagan. Very angsty and French, yet transportive and summery. You can practically feel the sand at your fingertips and taste the ocean breeze.

I love it already. Perfect beach read if you're lounging on a cabana in Cannes with an Aperol Spritz or just wish you were. I wish I were. Yeah, so do I. Okay, now we have Mitzi Clifton, our UK tech reporter, and she's recommending something completely different. Killing Thatcher by Rory Carroll. An inside story of how the IRA bombed the Grand Hotel during the 1984 Conservative Party conference with Thatcher in their sights. Amazing piece of non-fiction writing, reads like true crime.

but at least feels much less sleazy. I don't know, Sarah, have you heard about that one? I have, actually. And, you know, I've never been one of those people who's into true crime, but maybe if I can feel like there's some historical edifying factor behind it, then that would help me get more into it.

Okay, just so you don't forget, I'm going to put it on the list in our show notes, along with all the other recommendations. Thank you. Maybe now let's listen to some of the voice notes that we received.

Cool. So the first recommendation comes from Kaya Kalas, the EU's top diplomat, who's also known to be a ferocious reader. And here's what she sent us. When I'm asked of book recommendations, it's always very difficult because I read a lot, but you're always influenced by the books that you have read most recently. So if I take the books that I've read,

read most recently, then I really liked Michela Wrong, Do Not Disturb. It's about Rwanda and actually the history after the genocide. Then I also read Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game. It's about Central Asia and spy stories over the years, the fight between UK and Russia for these territories. And then most recently, I read George Stephanopoulos.

the Situation Room. It's about the American presidents and their crisis and how they handled these things. Of course, all these are on the... more maybe a light reading side but also very interesting book is Anne Applebaum Autocracy Inc. I think there's a really food for thought for everybody. Yes, Anne Applebaum's Autocracy Inc. is...

truly a brilliant and very timely read. And in fact, we had Anne Applebaum on this very podcast nearly a year ago to talk about it. You can still find that episode in our feed if you'd like to go back and hear that conversation. So that was Kaya Callas, clearly someone who knows how to pack a powerful book in her carry-on.

And now from the EU's top diplomat to the commissioner in charge of, well, just about everything that sounds fun, youth, sport, culture, but also intergenerational fairness. That's a tough title. Here's Glenn Mikalif and his recommendations. Now that Sam is here, I finally have some time to catch up on some great books. And one that I'm enjoying right now is called I Giorni di Vetro, The Days of Glass, written by Italian author Nicoletta Verna. It's about...

a lady called Redenta, born around 100 years ago during the rise of fascism in Italy. This is also a book that has recently won the EU prize for literature. I also have time to read. a book called Dakhlil Layl Ihaliq Taith, written by a Maltese author called Pierre Malak, which is a beautiful collection of short stories that won the same prize a few years back. All right.

Next up, we're staying in the political world, but heading north now to Sweden. Here's Jessica Rosencrantz, the country's minister for EU affairs with her summer pick. Being from Sweden, home of the Nobel Prize, it feels natural to recommend the most recent winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, South Korean Han Kang. She is most known for The Vegetarian, a really great book with a lot of magic realism. But one of my favorites is Human Acts.

which depicts a critical episode in South Korean history, a national trauma, and according to many, Han Kang manages to describe death as something more vivid and alive than anyone else. It's a brutal reading, but you won't be able to stop. And I can assure you it's a break from the Brussels bubble. Well, indeed, we did say we're taking a break from the Brussels bubble. And we are. But first.

Let's dip back in for just a moment. Here's my conversation with someone who knows it inside and out, Jeroen Reinen. He's a longtime EU official, now at the European Commission, and the author of Big in Brussels. In the book, he distills years of experience into a personal, practical, and often humorous guide to surviving and thriving in the bubble.

Rune, as I was reading your book, I had to actually stop and reread a line because I was like, I must have not read that correctly. Basically, it was something like I was in school and I was dreaming about being a lobbyist in Brussels. That sounds pretty bad, doesn't it? So walk us through that thinking and how did that kind of tie into what led you to write Big in Brussels? Okay, yeah. As a student, I got really interested in European integration.

Then I had to do an internship, did it at a Dutch firm, a lobby firm. Loved it a lot. So then came this whole idea that my future should become a lobbyist in Brussels. In the end, it turned out very differently. I ended up in the European Parliament, which I had never expected, but stayed there 17 years. I've worked a lot with...

Guy Verhofstadt back then, the group leader of the Liberals, had a great time. Five years of us as head of communications and press. It must have been not maybe the easiest or maybe it's an easy job because Verhofstadt was really known for being kind of one of the most vocal, outspoken. I loved working with such a drive, very passionate.

Also intellectually, he was a head of the crowd. I learned a lot during these years. The whole interaction with the press, I always loved doing that. And yeah, when that stopped, I had to find a new path. And also that's why this book came about. And so for people who haven't read it yet, what was the kind of ambition of the book? What do you hope people take away from it?

The main idea is to write something for all the stagiaires that start here. Basically, how do you get in? How do you find your first job? And then kind of it shifted completely after one of my lunches with one of my football buddies, who said, in the end, Jeroen, it's also great what you do, but what makes or breaks a career in Brussels is not how competent you are or if you have a PhD. I mean, everyone speaks.

four languages in the end what makes your career or not is if you manage to make Brussels your home so the second part of the book is very much about okay how the moment you have a job How do you make Belgium and Brussels your home? Well, so let's walk through some of the ideas. You describe three types of people in Brussels who are chasing the European dream. Who are they?

I kind of describe three different generations. So the first generation were the real idealists, the people who came in and really felt they had to make sure that Germany and France would never get into each other's hairs again. Then you have the second.

generation are the kids of that generation. People who have gone to international schools basically already speak these languages and quite easily found their way in the system. I think of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen actually as a perfect example. example of that. Her father was part of the founding generation of the EU, born in Excel, and now running the whole thing.

Yeah, you have to ask her. I mean, I don't know if she's read the book. And then the third generation is people like me, basically, who saw Brussels as an interesting opportunity for an international career. Like I said, in the beginning, my idea was to become a lobby. but especially my time in the parliament has actually made me a lot more idealistic about everything we do.

That's interesting. You know, often working in politics makes people more cynical. Yeah, in my case, it's the opposite, I think. I think also we as a bubble should be very proud of what we are doing. Of course, often we feel like a small cock in a huge machine, but in the end, together we are...

building one of the biggest democracies in the world and safeguarding it. It's a unique opportunity. And I think even after all these years, I still feel very privileged to be part of it. I hope the book will also encourage people to go for it and come to Brussels and try to. start a career. I think after 25 years I think it's more worth than I ever imagined. And so what does work? What are kind of your top tips for people to make it big in Brussels?

First of all, don't give up. I think a lot of people in the beginning are a bit discouraged by all the competition. It happened to me as well. I went back twice to the Netherlands because I simply thought I will never be able to pass that concours. My French is not good enough.

I'm still in a very low paid job after two years. This is never going to work. I went back to the Netherlands and then I realized, bloody hell, I gave up a lot. I should go back to Brussels and just try it again. So I talked to, yeah, a lot of...

people who are already for a longer time here in the bubble, and one of the CEOs of one of the big lobbying firms also explained, in the beginning, there's a lot of competition, there are a lot of people I can hire, but it's very difficult to find people with... like three to five years experience in the bubble. So my first tip would be just to hold on, don't give up. Try to find jobs the first two years and maybe it's not directly your dream job.

but it will give you the chance to basically explore Brussels and explore what you actually enjoy and keep an open mind. You talk a bit about interviewing heads of CEOs, colleagues, former colleagues. Indeed, this book is not just kind of your own personal musings. And you even talk to therapists about their patients who are... expats and bureaucrats.

And so what did you learn about the challenges in addition to the competition, the long hours? Those are things maybe anybody working at a high level, anybody working in a national capital in politics would deal with. But what is kind of distinct about the challenges? of working in Brussels. So I started to talk to a couple of psychologists to ask them, okay, what are the main things we as an EU bubble struggle with? And they were very clear, it's loneliness.

It's not so easy to make... new friends well it's easy in the beginning you make a lot of new friends often they leave after two years then you have to start off again and every time when some when people leave it hurts and what happens in the next relationships you to invest less not because you choose to invest less but basically also want to protect yourself a little bit so that happens with friendships

The temporariness that people live in, not making a choice. Am I going to stay at Brussels or am I going to go? back to my home country. And often people are in that state for many, many years. Oh, we stay another year, we stay another year, and all of a sudden you're here for 15 years.

But still, you're still having your Billy IKEA furniture. I really related to that. None of my bed linens matched because I was just like, whatever, I'm not going to be here. I'm not going to bother to buy a matching set. It's been eight years. Yeah. I've been there for a long time as well. But personally, I discovered the moment you have really...

Okay, this is my future. This is where I'm going to stay. And I'm also going to invest in a life here. It makes it more fun. And it gives also an extra dimension to your life here. Well, another one of your top tips. Obviously, I'm a bit biased in picking on this part.

start your day with Brussels playbook. You're right that Politico made Brussels sexy. In what way? Yeah. I think what Politico has done has really brought politics to the bubble by... making it also a bit more confrontational to show also the people behind the scenes who basically make the decisions. In Brussels, we have always just talked about the policy.

which is also very useful. But what was lacking a little bit is, OK, I mean, there's a lot happening behind the policy. And I think that's what Politico has done. I think you have really changed the bubble. It has become a lot more interesting. Yeah, and of course, there is more to write about now than ever. And you've been here, as you said, for 25 years. You've seen the bubble evolve in other ways from Barossa times to Fonda...

Lion, from sort of at least looking from the outside, like a sleepy consensus to now wars, turmoil, shifting alliances. How have you seen Brussels change? And would you say the bubble has kept up? Yeah, the bubble has changed a lot. When I started, I sound a bit like an old fart, but of course a very different mood. Back then, 10 new member states joined, 12 then later. The euro was introduced. So it was very much about building.

more and going further. And yeah, the general population was very much in favor of European integration. And then over the years, there have been a lot of crisis, the Euro crisis, the migrant crisis, wars. work has completely changed we have become a bit from builders to more crisis managers but yeah I think Europe has kept up by adapting so I end the book also with

And Europe's slogan could have been, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. And I think that's what we in the bubble together have done.

All right. So aside from your own, what book would you recommend people read? Or is there a book that you're really looking forward to, you know, relaxing on the beach with? If I could recommend... To anyone who sometimes maybe wonders, why are we doing all of this? Why are we building this continent together? It would be The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Little. It really describes...

how someone who ends up in the Nazi party, not because he was such a fanatic, but basically he wanted to make a career in the Nazi party. And it really describes how this evil came into being. And it also, I think it... how careful we have to be that something like this wouldn't happen again.

Okay, maybe it's not the most... Light summer reading. Light summer reading, but it will definitely make you think on the beach. All right, sounds good. Thank you so much for joining us. You're welcome. Thanks for having me. All right. Time for a quick break, but we've got more recommendations coming up. So stay with us. Gatorade is the number one proven electrolyte blend designed to hydrate better than water.

so you can lose more sweat and raise your game. Gatorade, is it in you? Are you feeling more fulfilled now that you're back to work? No, I need a vacation. See the movie that critics are saying is an awesome crowd-pleasing, fist-pumping, all that brawl of a film. You're right about that. They're coming after our family. Go fix this. Omar.

All right, we're back. And Giannis, we've got a few more picks from listeners, right? Indeed, we have a few more. And one of those is from Petra, our listener, who is also recommending a book about the Brussels bubble. It's titled Tat and Drunk. which translates to urge for action. And it's written by Theresia Tugelhofer.

And it tells the story of a new generation of Europeans making the EU their playground, while themselves caught in the theater of ambiguous political forces. It's a novel about the tension between center and periphery, about the Europe that is promised and the world. one that is lived. Is that one fiction or nonfiction? It's fiction. Okay. Yeah, sounds interesting. And then we have another one from our colleague, Georgian Dahl, who is a mobility reporter.

And she sent us a note saying, I'm halfway through John Le Carre's masterpiece, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, which I must confess I have not read before, despite being an avid thriller and spy novel enthusiast. I understand why it is so... critically acclaimed. It's a tale of old school spycraft set during the Cold War, but the twist is the mental games being played by both sides, and you as a reader are left often unsure of who is playing whom.

Yeah, a great reminder that like, actually, sometimes we just don't even top the classics. Do we have any more voice notes? We do. We have a few more. One is coming from... Anne McElvoy. Who's that? Yeah, I think our listeners know who she is. She's our boss. She's Politico's head of audio. And she used to live and work in Germany. And she's recommending a book that is set in Berlin.

I've been reading Vincenzo Le Tronico's Perfection. It's a novel set in the Berlin of the 2000s story of... two young, hipster Southern Europeans, the kind of digital nomads who end up bobbing on the tides of post-war history in the city, very self-consciously living a life of freedom and self-determination.

but really without roots or ties to the world around them. It is beautifully observed. And here is just a short quote from the moment they do come face to face with the uglier realities of what is... the migration crisis across Europe. They couldn't say what exactly had changed after the immediate urgency of the crisis passed. Life carried on as normal. They worked, they attended openings, they partied, but they had glimpsed within themselves and those around them a flakiness.

and a vanity they could not now unsee it is wonderful prose and an absolutely brilliant picture of a generation Oh, man. Well, that reminds me. I didn't mean for this to be one of my recommendations, but a similar kind of theme that set maybe a decade earlier is called... Prague by Arthur Phillips. It's actually about Budapest. Everybody there wishes they were in Prague because it's so much cooler. And so it's also a book about FOMO.

Oh, that sounds super interesting. I'm going to put it on my list, but I'm definitely going to read the Berlin one because it seems to be a polarizing one. I've listened to a podcast where the review was quite different. Okay, love it or hate it. Let's see. Exactly. And then we have another recommendation by our listener, David Geer. He's a personal friend, and he recently retired from being a longtime EU official.

Mrs. Dalloway, the novel, is 100 this year, although its heroine, Clarissa Dalloway, is still locked in time at 51. buying flowers herself for her birthday party later that evening. What better occasion to dust off Virginia Woolf's modernist classic. It's a real treat with subtlety and brilliance in every line. all against the background of the disaster of the First World War. Oh, I'm definitely going to reread Mrs. Dalloway. Thanks, David.

Next up is a recommendation from one of our listeners. It's Frank Furedi, executive director of the Brussels-based Hungarian think tank MCC. I suggest you get a copy of the book Common Sense, a political history by Sophia Rosenfeld. This is a compelling and timely read for someone seeking to understand her everyday wisdom.

continues to shape and sometimes even distort political discourse. The novel I suggest that I really find quite interesting is I Want to Go Home, But I'm Already There. It is the title of Roisin Lanigan's debut novel. by this Belfast-born journalist. She draws on her own underground rental experiences, like infestations and hostile landlords, to reimagine the haunted house genre in the context of today's housing crisis.

Read it for its sharp, darkly humorous social satire and eerie exploration of how precarious living and loveless Tennessee can fray both mind and relationship. We also have one from Sonia Dean, an editor here at Politico. We do. That's her recommendation. We are going on our first cruise ever to the fjords of Norway. For reading material, we decided to stick with Norwegian authors and I have some very interesting looking Nordic noir on my reading list.

from yo and nesbo i have a book called the red breast which is described as chilling spectacular stuff and then i have a book called the kingdom which Stephen King said it was so suspenseful and original he couldn't put it down. We'll be looking forward to that in a rainy, cool time on the boat.

All right, Sonia, I'm going to check back in with you about whether you actually read those books because I suspect the scenery is going to be so gorgeous that you're going to really struggle. Maybe even audiobooks would be a better choice for this trip.

Totally. But if I was on that trip in Norway, I would probably stick to some crime novels too. But I think now, Sarah, is the time for us to share our recommendations. Do you want to go first or shall I? I leave it to you. Okay. You're going to have the last word, as always, on this podcast. You figured it out. You figured out my scheme there. So I would recommend...

Olga Tokarchuk's latest book called The Empusium. She wrote it after she had received the Nobel Prize. It's a horror story that is... not my favorite genre and i would normally not go for a horror story but as

is with all Olga's books. She bends the borders of genre and you end up with having something completely new and different and amazing. This book is set in Poland in a little... spa town in 1913 so just before the outbreak of the first world war in that town there is a sanatorium that was an inspiration for the famous sanatorium in davos later on so this book is a

conversation with magic mountain by thomas mann and we basically have these men young and old who spend their days discussing politics and philosophy and women There's a lot of really sharp observations on misogyny in that book. But the atmosphere in that book is just something else. There is some danger lurking in the mountains, and we don't know what that is until almost the very end. But we do get clues from the very first sentence.

Because the way this book is written is super important. The narrator is not your usual first-person narrator. It's a we. It's an elusive we. And I don't think I should give away any more. really recommend that book. It was translated to English by Antonia Lloyd-Jones. And my second pick would be Elizabeth Stroud, Tell Me Everything.

It's the latest book by this American author. And it's a real treat. It's a story about storytelling, basically, about the value of storytelling. And in the book, the main characters whom... some of us will recognize from previous books by Elizabeth Stroud, like Olive Kitteridge. Imagine Olive Kitteridge meeting Lucy Barton. and exchanging stories. There's also crime there, a murder. So it has everything. It's really fantastic. Well, Dianas, I feel like...

I feel like we're being almost unkind to our listeners because we said like, hey, we're going to give you a break. But instead, we're just giving people this. I mean, if you're like me, like every time I hear about a book, I'm like, I need to read that before I die. And then I just end up. feeling totally inadequate. And so you reminded me of my inadequacy because I now have like three Elizabeth Stroud books to read instead of just one. But you love them. All right. All right. Well, meanwhile.

I have developed my own little list. Appropriately enough, I'm going to fit in a book called There Lives a Young Girl in Me Who Will Not Die. It's the first English translation of the poetry of Tova Ditlofsson. In her native Denmark, she always was known more for her poetry, apparently, but it was her novels that were translated first, the Copenhagen trilogy.

So a review describes this book as poems that stare into the surfaces that seduce and deceive us. One of the poems is already available online. It was a meaningless day, like what you would call love. It was a Thursday in parentheses. The brackets around it have already faded. Life tastes of ash and is bearable. It's okay, some light summer reading. Wow. We didn't get a lot of poetry recommendations, so maybe for the next summer. That will be our goal.

Yeah, I mean, I'm usually a little reluctant to read poetry and translation, but especially with the Danish presidency, I figure it'll be a good way to start conversation with diplomats who shouldn't actually be talking to me. Hint, hint. Very smart. The other book that's been on my shelf for a while, but that I'm really feeling inspired to pick up now, actually, after it was mentioned to me by a commission source I was speaking to, is called Notes from a Big Country.

Or at least that's the title on my copy. But if I had bought that book in the United States, it would be called I'm a Stranger Here Myself. And it's a collection of articles by Bill Bryson. And he's one of my favorite nonfiction writers and journalists. And this book discusses his experience of moving back. to the United States after 20 years of living in the UK. And as an American who's now been living in Europe for eight years, I'll be going back to see my family actually on the Pacific coast.

curious to kind of hear his take on sort of the reverse culture shock, especially since this will also be the first time I'm going back since the second Trump administration started. I'm curious to hear your observations when you come back. Yeah, maybe I'll have more notes from Big Country. I'm never going to write a book. But my last one is one that I have already read. So it's not a speculative recommendation.

It's called H is for Hawk by the British author Helen MacDonald. It's another one of these genre bending books that's doing like three or four things all at once. It's partly a meditation on grief after the death of the author's father of a sudden heart attack. It's a sort of nature writing story and like kind of biology about birds and falconry. The author had been really into training birds and buys a goshawk, which our parents.

extremely difficult to train and involve building this very kind of elaborate human-animal relationships. And then it's also like a biography and critical assessment of the novelist T.H. White, who is best known for writing The Once and Future King, but he also himself bought a goshawk at one point and worked to train it. And so MacDonald is sort of in dialogue with this other novelist, White, throughout the book. And I was not really interested.

particularly in any of those topics to start out. But just the use of language and the incorporation of sort of science writing and literary criticism and intimate disclosure was just riveting. It sounds like I wouldn't pick it up in a bookstore either. But your recommendation sounds really, really good. So maybe I will. Maybe I'll put it on my list. Yeah, I mean, it was for a dollar at a library in the US. And yeah, great investment. I gave it to Petit Rien, a big secondhand store.

Brussels, so maybe you can get it for your euro. I'll go search for it. You'll come back with 20 other books. Okay, well, I don't know why I'm still listening to podcasts even because, you know, I have so much reading to do. So we'll leave it there. for this week. And whether you're heading to the coast or having a little staycation here in the city, we hope this episode gave you at least one great book to add to your summer reading list.

And if you're reading something brilliant, let us know. There is always room for a follow-up. Make sure to subscribe to EU Confidential if you haven't already, and please do rate us or leave us a review. or send us an email at podcast at politico.eu. Thanks as always, but especially this week to Deanna Sturris, our senior audio producer, and to Anne McElvoy, Politico's head of audio.

And with that, we're officially on a two-week break and we'll be back on August 22nd. I'm Sarah Wheaton. Thanks for listening and happy reading.