Jacob Mikanowski – författare

In light of Russia's aggressive 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Goodbye, Eastern Europe is a crucial, elucidative read, a sweeping epic chronicling a thousand years of strife, war, and bloodshed, from pre-Christianity to the fall of Communism—illuminating the remarkable cultural significance and richness of a place perpetually lost to the margins of history."Eastern Europe" has gone out of fashion since the fall of the Soviet Union. Ask someone today, and they might tell you that Estonia is in the Baltics or Scandinavia, that Slovakia is in Central Europe, and that Croatia is in the eastern Adriatic or the Balkans. In fact, Eastern Europe is a place that barely exists at all, except in cultural memory. Yet it remains a powerful marker of identity for many, with a fragmented and wide-ranging history defined by texts, myths, and memories of centuries of hardship and suffering.Goodbye, Eastern Europe is a masterful narrative about a place that has survived being forgotten. Beginning with long-lost accounts of early pagan life, Mikanowski offers a kaleidoscopic tour of the various peoples who made Eastern Europe their home over the centuries, including the Roma, Jews, and Muslims; the great kingdoms of the medieval period; the rise and fall of the Ottoman, Habsburg, and Russian empires; the dawn of the modern era; the ravages of fascism and Communism; the birth of the modern nation-state and beyond.A student of literature, history, and the ghosts of his own family’s past, Mikanowski paints a magisterial portrait of a place united by diversity and eclecticism, and of people with the shared story of being the dominated rather than the dominating. The result is a loving and ebullient celebration of the distinctive and vibrant cultures that stubbornly persisted at the margins of Western Europe and Russia, and a powerful corrective that re-centers not only our understanding of how the modern Western world took shape but also the ways in which Eastern Europe has evolved throughout history to become what it is today.

An epic history of the ‘other’ Europe, a place of conflict and coexistence, of faith and folklore. ‘Do not rush to bid farewell to eastern Europe until reading this book. Meticulously researched and beautifully written, this very personal story of the place that one can’t find on the map pays tribute to the origins of the experiences, cultures and ideas that continue to shape political and ideological battles of the modern world.’ Serhii Plokhy Eastern Europe is more than the sum total of its annexations, invasions and independence declarations. From the Baltics to the Balkans, from Prague to Kiev, the area exuded a tragicomic character like no other. This is a paean for a disappearing world of movable borders, sacred groves and syncretism. And an invitation to not forget. *** A SPECTATOR BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 ‘An insightful chronicle… distilling more than a decade of research, [Mikanowski] carefully argues that if something marks out Europe’s eastern half, it is not homogeneity but wild, glorious diversity.’ —Economist ‘A lively and sweeping history.’ —Washington Post ‘Goodbye Eastern Europe is a thematic history of a divided half-continent, a goulash of imperial histories, shifting frontiers and heartbreaking family stories, spiced with myth and poet-martyrs, and deeply satisfying on the palate… vital and informed.’ —TLS

An epic history of the ‘other’ Europe, a place of conflict and coexistence, of faith and folklore.‘Do not rush to bid farewell to eastern Europe until reading this book. Meticulously researched and beautifully written.’ Serhii PlokhyEastern Europe is more than the sum total of its annexations, invasions and independence declarations. From the Baltics to the Balkans, from Prague to Kiev, the area exuded a tragicomic character like no other.This is a paean for a disappearing world of movable borders, sacred groves and syncretism. And an invitation to not forget.***A SPECTATOR BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023‘An insightful chronicle… distilling more than a decade of research, [Mikanowski] carefully argues that if something marks out Europe’s eastern half, it is not homogeneity but wild, glorious diversity.’ Economist‘A lively and sweeping history.’ Washington Post‘Goodbye Eastern Europe is a thematic history of a divided half-continent, a goulash of imperial histories, shifting frontiers and heartbreaking family stories, spiced with myth and poet-martyrs, and deeply satisfying on the palate… vital and informed.’ TLS

Von der Oder bis Sibirien, von der Krim bis zum Baltikum – zum ersten Mal wird der osteuropäische Kulturraum insgesamt ins Auge gefasst, ja nachgerade neu entdeckt: Jacob Mikanowski entwirft das Panorama einer ungemein reichen Welt, die dem Westen stets fremd war und zugleich starke Impulse gab – sei es in Musik und Kunst um 1900, in der Erfindung des Nationalismus oder im jüdischen Leben. In weiten Bögen schildert er die Fährnisse von großen wie unbekannten Volksgruppen, Reichen, Religionen. Imperien wie Österreich-Ungarn oder Russland, auch der Islam werden im Gesamtbild neu begreiflich. Entlegenes beschreibt Mikanowski romanhaft spannend: die jüdische Kriegersekte der Karäer, nomadische Räuberdynastien oder Werwolf-Familien; er porträtiert illustre Figuren wie den «Guru» Jakob Frank, der Goethe erstaunte, den türkischen Dandy und Reiseautor Evliyâ Çelebi, der ab 1630 halb Europa und Afrika erkundete, oder die kaiserliche Augenärztin Salomea Pilsztyn.Jacob Mikanowski lässt eine ganze Welt lebendig werden, die in ihrer Vielfalt an Sprachen, Ethnien, Künstlern, Spielern und Herrschern verblüffend modern war, lange bestand und die erst im Kapitalismus des späten 20. Jahrhunderts untergeht. Eine glänzend erzählte, große Kulturgeschichte.