Panel discussion: Europe Readr digital library

What are the current social issues reflected in literature across the European Union?
On Nov 26th, the “Europe Readr” project presents a selection of literary works via Zoom from Germany, the Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Ireland and Slovenia.
Europe Readr is a project organised by the Network of the European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC) in cooperation with a number of local partners around the world, under the initiative of the Slovenian Presidency of the EU Council. As part of this project, the digital Europe Readr platform brings current social issues to readers around the world through a curated selection of literary works from across the European Union. These works, presented under the title “The Future of Living” are available for reading free of charge from 1 July to 31 December 2021.

In this talk event, we will introduce specific works from the collection representing the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, and Slovenia to a Japanese audience. Some of the works have newly been translated to Japanese for this occasion.

From Germany:
Lukas Jüliger's “Unfollow“ (Reprodukt Verlag, 2020).

Author
Lukas Jüliger (1988) is an artist, comic book artist, cartoon artist, and illustrator who studied illustration in Hamburg and Paris. In 2013, he published his first novel Vacuum, convincing both critics and readers of his immense talent. He lives and works in Berlin.

Overview
The story of Earthboi, a social media influencer who becomes the leader of the global economic movement, is told by his closest followers. In fact, Earthboi is a child of Nature, and his memory is the memory of planet Earth – its goal is to restore balance to nature, to create a sustainable world, with or without humans. A tense narrative, a modern fairy tale about alternatives, the climate crisis, and the bizarre culture of influencers.