The 2009 “European Book Prize” deserves further comment, following on from the article in issue 10038. I admit that I was rather sceptical in the beginning about the idea of splitting the prize in two and having one prize for a novel and another for an essay because this would be in direct competition in the French-speaking world with the Goncourt Prize and hundreds of similar book prizes elsewhere in Europe. I admit that I was wrong because the prize-winning novel for 2009 is not a novel at all but the prize-winning essay reads like a novel. 'Gottland' is a collection of short stories based on history. According to one member of the jury it is nothing like a novel or any other kind of fiction but is rather a study of Czech history and the Czech zeitgeist. The stories range from a tale about a Czech singer that Goebbels was head-over-heels in love with, the ducking and diving of Franz Kafka's niece to avoid being identified, to the building in Prague of the world's biggest statue of Joseph Stalin, a statue everyone seems to have forgotten. The author Mariusz Szczygiel (the Welsh would be proud of so many consonants) is Polish but all the tales are Czech and this is what makes the book 'European,' especially as it has already been translated into French and German. The prize-winning essay that reads like a novel is the second, updated issue of 'L'Europe pour les nulls,' by Sylvie Goulard. The book reached the shortlist for the first issue too. Grabbing and keeping readers' attention when talking about the history and set-up of the European Union is not easy and might even seem a pipe-dream when one looks back to the French, Dutch and Irish no votes on the European Constitution and the Lisbon Treaty due to misunderstandings about what Europe is exactly amidst a welter of lies and half-truths. If Sylvie Goulard's book had been published before those referendums and had it been translated into other languages (it is only available in French), it might have changed the outcome. The author is a European insider working as an advisor to the President of the European Commission and chair of the French section of 'Mouvement Européen' after a stint as MEP, but that does not stop her pointing out Europe's shortcomings with a rare and refreshing irony and sense of fun. Clear, easy-to-read enthusiasm about Europe with lashings of wit and good humour - precisely what Europe needs! (F.R. trans fl)