The Observer, in short

Lead article Ovidiu Simonca welcomes Romania’s improved cultural integration into Europe and laments the general lack of diplomatic preparation that has lead to the current impasse in the Mailat affair. Politics Ciprian Ciucu, Bedros Horasangian, Claudia Postelnicu, Alexandru Hancu and Ioana Paverman have much to say about the referendum on the uninominal vote as well as Romania’s European Parliamentary elections, to be held on November 25. The Observer publishes Claudia Postelnicu’s interview with Thomas Diez, professor of international relations at the University of Birmingham. Latest Ovidiu Simonca interviews Dan Shafran, director of the Romanian Cultural Institute in Stockholm, on the occasion of the first Marin Sorescu Award Ceremony. This year’s winner is the writer Steve Sem-Sandberg. The ceremony took place on November 13. Book reviews Bianca Burta-Cernat comments on Radu Tuculescu’s Umbra penei de gisca (Shadow of the Goose Feather, Tirgu-Lapus: Galaxia Gutenberg Publishing, 2007). Ana-Maria Popescu presents Olga Grushin’s Viata din visele lui Suhanov (The Life of Suhanov’s Dreams, Bucharest: Leda, 2007). Florina Pirjol discusses Jean Sevilla’s Terorismul intelectual: din 1945 pina in present (Intellectual Terrorism: from 1945 to the Present, Bucharest: Humanitas, 2007). Reportage Stefan Borbely publishes the 4th and final part of his “Trip to India