In Europe: Travels through the Twentieth Century

In 2004 In Europa was published, the result of a journey that Geert Mak made through Europe in the last year of the twentieth century. The history of that century was his guiding principle. Mak travelled to London, Stalingrad and Madrid, along the bunkers of Berlin, looked at the perfumed wardrobes of Helena Ceausescu in Bucharest and the toy cars in an abandoned crèche in Chernobyl. It became an inventory: what was the continent like at the end of the century? In Europa was an enormous success immediately after its publication: more than 350,000 books were sold and the rights were sold to fourteen countries. The book was also widely praised abroad. From 11 November 2007, the VPRO will broadcast a major 35-part documentary series based on In Europa, in which all the historical places from the book are visited and European history is told using the book. After the hardcover edition and the paperback, which contained more than 1200 pages, an abridged edition will be published in November. The abridgements were made by the author himself for the foreign editions; a number of side issues and digressions have been omitted, but the core of the journey and the story have remained intact. For this edition, Geert Mak wrote an extensive new afterword.