Tim Judah's new book Life and Fate. All you need to know about the changing demography of central, eastern and south-eastern Europe was published under the auspices of the Europe's Futures project by the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM Vienna) and the ERSTE Foundation. It was conceptualized during the author's 2018/19 Europe's Futures Fellowship.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Greeek prime minister, says that his country's demographic problems are a "ticking time bomb". He is not wrong, Greece is shrinking and ageing, but is not alone. Every year Europeans have less children, but they are living ever longer. However, the story is different in every country. "I have called this book Life and Fate. In theory, that is a nod to Vasily Grossman’s extraordinary novel, but really it is because I needed a catchy and accurate name for a book on demography", writes Tim Judah in the preface of Life and Fate, introducing the reader to the aim of his book: a comprehensive survey of the demographic picture in 17 countries in central, eastern and south-eastern Europe. Until now almost all the literature on this was dense and mostly incomprehensible to anyone but a demographer. Life and Fate, which is not an academic book but a readable introduction to the topic, explains what is happening across this region in a language that can be understood by the general public. The 17 chapters provide snapshots of the demographic situation on 17 countries and can be read independently of each other. The text is supplemented by the latest figures and data as well as appealing illustrations.
Tim Judah is a journalist and author and is a special correspondent for The Economist. He has worked for many major publications and broadcasts, notably writing wartime reportage from Afghanistan to Ukraine for The New York Review of Books, but also reporting from countries such as Iraq, Iran, Madagascar, Niger, Senegal, Sudan, North Korea, Darfur, Haiti, France and Armenia. Since February 2022 he has spent much of his time in Ukraine covering the conflict for The New York Review of Books and The Economist in addition to a series for The Financial Times. He was shortlisted for the 2022 Bayeux Calvados-Normandy award for war correspondents. He is the author of three books on the Balkans—The Serbs: History, Myth and the Destruction of Yugoslavia (2000), Kosovo: War & Revenge (2002) and Kosovo: What Everyone Needs to Know (2008)— and published a book on the conflict in Ukraine, In Wartime: Stories from Ukraine (2016). As a fellow of the Europe’s Futures project he has researched on demography, depopulation, emigration and immigration in central, eastern and south-eastern Europe since 2018. He is the president of the boards of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) and the Kosovar Stability Initiative (IKS).
Author: Tim Judah
Produced as part of the Europe's Futures project, a strategic partnership initiative of the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM Vienna) and ERSTE Foundation in Vienna, Austria.
Year: 2025
Pages: 216
