From the Heart of Europe

• German Power and the Ukraine Conflict
  @uli_speck looks at Merkel's key role & her changed approach.
  (tags: germany ukraine eu )
• I Made a Joke About Guns and a Man Threatened to Assault Me
  Everyday sexism online.
  (tags: internet sexandgenderandsexuality )
• Breakaway Turkish Cypriots set to join ranks of Cyprus FA
  Congrats to Deniz Birinci @deniz1inci for her work on this!!!
  (tags: cyprus football )
• Anatomy of a whole-of-government foreign policy failure
  The US and the AIIB.
  (tags: uspolitics china )

As Ireland collectively draws breath after the conclusion of a high-profile murder trial, my eye was caught by this account of a similar such event from 1963 ( Collapse ) It's not a terribly well-written book, but it is an interesting snapshot of the beginnings of change in Irish society in the background of awful events.

See note on methodology

Since I did the British-ruled non-sovereign territories of Europe a couple of days back, I felt it only appropriate to do the Danish, Finnish and Norwegian equivalents. (NB that Greenland is not in Europe, nor are Ceuta and Melilla, or French Guiana, etc etc.)

The Faroe Islands

There's a very clear winner for the Faroes, a Danish novel about a mild-mannered chap who has a fascination with a particular astronaut. It sounds very entertaining:

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The Faroes don't do badly in general:

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Even a couple of novels by Faroese writers:

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The Åland Islands

Not as rich pickings as the Faroes, but at least the top novel is a recently published best-seller by a native writer:

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Not too far behind is a thriller by a British writer.

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Bonus islands: Svalbard and Jan Mayen

I'm afraid that I'll have to rule out a well-known children's fantasy because only a small section of the book is set there:

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Svalbard is reasonably well served, in fact, the top book being a horror story set there just before the second world war:

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See also:

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