Tom LeClair
Europe Central gives us 37 stories, five of them more than 50 pages long, to represent Central European fanaticism and to recover little-known acts of conscientious resistance to Nazi and Communist totalitarianism. What sets ''Europe Central'' apart from Vollmann's other large-scale historical productions is its strong narrative lines. The pieces are dated and arranged chronologically to give the book a plot that arcs from prewar political machinations to Germany's surge east to Russia's counteroffensive, and that ends with cold war politics in divided Berlin.
— The New York Times
Steven Moore
I've reviewed nearly all of Vollmann's books over the years and am running out of superlatives; suffice it to say, if you've been following his extraordinary career, Europe Central may be his best novel yet.
— The Washington Post
From the Publisher
"His most welcoming work, possibly his best book . . . part novel and part stories, virtuoso historical remembrance and focused study of violence."
- The New York Times Book Review
"A jarring, haunting, absurdly ambitious symphony of a book . . . It has an emotional force capable of ripping almost any reader from his moorings. . . . Vollmann has done as much as anyone in recent memory to return moral seriousness to American fiction."
- Steve Kettmann, San Francisco Chronicle
"Resembles War and Peace not merely in its scope, but in its perception of history as a determining force that individual lives merely illustrate . . . Aspires to the highest possible potential of literature."
- Melvin Jules Bukiet, Los Angeles Times
"A grimly magnificent dramatization of the impossible moral choices forced on individuals by these totalitarian regimes . . . if you have been following Vollmann's extraordinary career, Europe Central may be his best novel ever."
- Steven Moore, The Washington Post
"Profound . . . Vollmann asks us to put aside what we think we know of history and immerse ourselves in it once again."
- John Freeman, The Boston Globe
JULY 2008 - AudioFile
Ralph Cosham offers a nuanced reading of Vollmann's new novel, an exploration of the twentieth-century cultures of Russia and Germany. Cosham has a measured pace, and a voice that is both intimate and distant, which he uses to excellent effect in this complex book about individuals (real and fictional) caught up in the machinations of giant authoritarian regimes. The scenes that Vollmann creates seem like a written version of a massive Eastern Bloc military display—stunning and otherworldly. Given Cosham's fine performance, your liking for the results will depend entirely on your taste for Vollmann's writing, which is refracted and atmospheric. A.C.S. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
