Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

New on nybooks.com: In the Review, Mark Danner on the fascination of Donald Trump, and Andrew Butterfield on Botticelli’s drawings for Dante’s Divine Comedy. On the NYR Daily, Noah Isenberg on Vicki Baum’s Weimar novel Grand Hotel, and Tim Parks on writing in English from Italy. Plus J. Hoberman’s picks for film in New York this month.

 

The Magic of Donald Trump Mark Danner We are told again and again: his is the most improbable political story in decades, perhaps in history. But is it?

 

Botticelli in Hell Andrew Butterfield Sometime around 1490 Botticelli set out to make a book unlike any ever seen before: the first fully illustrated edition of Dante’s Divine Comedy.

Eavesdropping on Weimar Noah Isenberg Vicki Baum’s Grand Hotel spoke to the anxieties of Weimar society—and of the world at large—about modern life.

 

How Italy Improved My English Tim Parks Nothing makes you more aware of your own language, its structure and strategies, than the differences of a new one.

 

Calendar: J. Hoberman on film

 

Black Girl Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembène’s 1964 debut feature is a conceptually elegant exposé of colonial psychology (BAM)

Kaili Blues Chinese director Bi Gan’s full-throttle filmmaking evokes Resnais, Tarkovsky, and Hou Hsiao-hsien (Metrograph)

Un Cine Compartido​ Rarely seen films by Narcisa Hirsch and Marie Louise Alemann, two German-born artists living in Argentina(Anthology)