“Bayonets instead of bread.” This phrase scribbled on a leaflet was one of those circulating in Paris in the summer of 1788. And according to the American historian Robert Darnton, it sums up the mood of the city: protests against scarcity, rising food prices, the crown’s wastefulness, and the despotism of the old regime were suppressed at bayonet point. A year later, the French Revolution would break out. Beyond its causes, in this ambitious essay the historian explores how the perceptions, emotions, and expectations of Parisians changed until the revolution became an attainable horizon. In a sense, how the revolutionary spirit was forged. From 1748 to 1789, Darnton reviews four decades of crises, wars, abuses, and scandals that undermined the monarchy’s authority. With the censorship of the time, news circulated as rumors in bars and streets; pamphlets, leaflets, and songs, which especially reached the illiterate, formed an information network. Mocking verses ridiculed authority. The revolution was made possible by a set of elements, says Darnton, including hatred of despotism, love of freedom, outrage at the moral decay of the aristocracy, aversion to the monarchy, new faith in the power of reason, and familiarity with violence: executions, beheadings, and public tortures carried out by the State. An exceptional book, richly documented and briskly narrated.
Read more 300 people are evacuated after a 4.7 magnitude earthquake in Italy
Norma’s voice was the most reliable and beloved in the country, something she could not explain. On Sunday nights she hosted the flagship program of the station, Radio Lost City, a space for people missing after the civil war. The war had ended ten years earlier and many refugees had arrived in the city. Every week, Norma received calls from people looking for their relatives. Of course, she provided a service, but the station sought to profit from the anguish. For Norma, it was a way to search for her husband, Rey, who had disappeared in a jungle village. The day Víctor, an 11-year-old boy, arrives at the station, a light opens for her: the boy comes from the same village, in the jungle, now known as 797. From that point, the novel moves forward and backward in time, reconstructing what happened before, during, and after the war. Although the story takes place in a nameless country, the clues refer to the war against Shining Path in Peru. State repression imprisoned journalists, so Norma’s station is the only one allowed. Rural localities lost their old names and have been replaced by numbers. The government has imposed an official version and monitors any opposing narrative. The war ended, but the wounds have not yet healed. Banda Propia reissues the first novel by Daniel Alarcón, born in Lima and living in the United States: a sober and melancholic novel about a desolate setting.
Read more Lula will be proclaimed the PT presidential candidate to seek a fourth term in Brazil
A tender blue horse runs through the valley, surrounded by trees and mountains. Suddenly it stops before a splendid red flower. And that vision makes it travel: “The meadow I loved so much, long ago.” Then it used to run freely until the peaks were dyed with the colors of the sunset, and when the light went out, it lay down next to its mother’s body. Elsewhere, a red turtle takes a walk among the bushes. It looks up and sees a group of flowers swaying in the wind. “I sway with them. How fun, it’s as if we were dancing,” says the turtle. Under the sea, a manta ray moves with gentle sways. It advances peacefully until it spots a sea flower. It also suggests memories and emotions. The Japanese illustrator Yoshino Umeda, selected for the Illustrators Exhibition at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair 2025-2026, publishes her first book with Editorial Saposcat: a delicate and beautiful story about flowers that highlights the bond with nature, the act of looking, and the connection with inner life. Published in large format with cardboard pages, the book is above all an art catalog showcasing the artist’s illustrations, colorful and of simple, handcrafted appearance, which somehow evoke childhood.
Read more What is happening in Ceuta, the Spanish territory bordering Morocco, scene of a migration crisis
