“... most creative pioneering encounters with contemporary cultures. In that respect, the Jesuits may be said to have prepared the ground for the 18th-century Enlightenment through their intellectual adventurousness and their frank admiration for the societies they met in India, China and Japan. They lacked in these countries the military backing of European ...”

“... lay the groundwork for the Lib Dems’ decision to form a coalition government with the Tories in May 2010. Laws, who became chief secretary to the Treasury, wrote that, without The Orange Book, ‘it is much more difficult to imagine’ the coalition ‘being formed and sustained’. Marshall became an enthusiastic supporter of austerity: he called for even ...”

“... more than a code of recycled clichés. This is one reason Beckmann was overlooked then, and it may have slowed the reception of Kentridge as well. Yet the appreciation did come eventually; if Kentridge began in a state of siege, today he has advanced to a stage of spectacle. Theatrical at root, his talents were eventually tapped for grand productions of ...”

“... despite the black hole in Russian memory into which the dissidents have currently fallen, they may someday be rediscovered by Russian historians and myth-makers and made part of a ‘usable past’ for the nation. As he points out, this happened to wartime anti-Nazis in Germany in the 1970s after decades of German amnesia. I must have mellowed on the ...”

“... to spend time with: the scene where they set off together for Vermont to find a diamond that may have been lost in the ashes of Sony’s father (don’t ask) is spectacularly embarrassing. The depiction of Grazina is no better. She is given lines such as ‘words cast spells … That’s why it’s called spelling.’ Vuong’s depiction of Hai and ...”

“... in its English translation, Perfection; Balle has joked that the English translation of her book may be its true version, because why would the Anglo-Belgian Tara write in Danish?* The novel is gloriously Schengen-y: patched together from German political philosophy, French fiction, Norwegian fragmentation. But what if all these styles were people, in one ...”

“... sued their adoptive parents for reparations? One adoptee tested against his will later said: ‘It may seem violent, but I left the office liberated. They took a backpack off my back.’Gilliland writes that she chose Guillermo in part because of his story’s ‘complexity’. This refers not just to the estrangement between him and his sister but also to the ...”

“... case, the victors appealed to voters far beyond the right’s traditional social base.This in turn may only be one symptom of deeper social transformations that have taken place in Latin America, wrought by neoliberalism and only partially delayed or diverted by the Pink Tide. Increasingly precarious employment, a long onslaught against organised labour, the ...”

“... a year and reckons some beggars must make around £200 a week.Intolerance of this kind may be striking, but it is not new. Unlike, say, dramatists, beggars have never had a break from being one of the sub-groups of the great British underclass. With ...”

“... he kept them to himself. His first public statement in Tunis, made at a press conference in May 1957, was a response to a massacre of some three hundred civilians that the FLN had carried out in a hamlet outside Melouza in southern Kabylia, a stronghold of the rival Algerian National Movement, led by Messali Hadj. Fanon denounced the ‘foul ...”

“... things that are going to happen to you this evening are going to do you a lot of good. They may even change you a little. But there is one thing you must not do. You must not resist. If you resist it will be hopeless. If you resist it will be like trying to drive a car with the brakes on.’ He paused. They didn’t take their eyes off him. ‘We’ll ...”

“... count for him since Guibert feels he alone fully exists on the page. Although his narcissism may give an antic energy to his prose, fortunately it does not hood his observing eye. His characters are very real indeed and his betrayals as succulent as those Genet promises but seldom delivers. Among his photographs are portraits of his friends, many of whom ...”

“... beliefs, and the heterogeneity of their endeavours needs to be respected, but some common features may usefully be noted. Sun-worship was preferred. There were ancient mysteries to be understood. Ancestral spirits could be contacted. The racial genius, the spirit of the Volk, was ready to be tapped within. If the Christ lived on in one’s breast, it was ...”

“... the Mafia. The ex-mafiosi who accuse him need not be believed, literally. The magistrates may need their evidence but the rest of us do not. For Andreotti was openly and very closely associated with Sicilian politicians who in turn were openly and very closely associated with the Mafia. Alliances evolve over time, in accordance with shifts in relative ...”

“... assumed before reaching a resolve from which nothing could shake him, I heard him say: ‘This may be the most foolish idea I have ever had, but I think that I should like to have on my headquarters someone who could talk about Proust.’ I joined the Headquarters at Hythe, and shortly afterwards, we moved to Battle Abbey, which in peacetime was a ...”