Grove Press
Grove Press
Grove Press
NEW!
“Wonderful reading.”—Scott Turow, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Presumed Innocent
An extraordinarily accomplished debut novel—a love story, mystery, and philosophical puzzle—told in the singular voices of the residents of a Beaux Arts apartment building in Belgium in 1939
On the eve of the occupation, in the heart of Brussels, life for the residents of eight apartments at 33 Place Brugmann is about to change forever.
Art student Charlotte Sauvin, daughter of a prominent architect in apartment 4L, knows all the details of the building and its people: how light falls and voices echo, the distinct knock of her dearest friend, Julian Raphaël, the eldest son of an art collector’s family across the hall in 4R. But all that’s familiar for Charlotte and the other residents of 33 starts to fracture as whispers of Nazi occupation become reality. The Raphaëls disappear—becoming refugees, nurses, soldiers, reluctant heroes. Masha, the seamstress on the 5th floor, deepens a dangerous affair with a wartime compatriot of Colonel Warlemont in 3R, a man far less feckless than he’d have his neighbors believe. In the face of a perilous new reality, every member of this accidental community will discover they are not the person they believed themselves to be. When confronted with a cruel choice—submit to the regime or risk their lives to resist—each discovers the truth about what, and who, matters to them the most.
33 Place Brugmann is a deeply empathetic and disarmingly hopeful tour-de-force about love, courage, and the role of art in a time of threat.
“33 Place Brugmann is an achingly suspenseful historical novel, sad at moments, but always intriguing, with a complex cast of vivid and involving characters. Wonderful reading.”—Scott Turow, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Presumed Innocent
“33 Place Brugmann is a riveting portrait of community during a time when the very notion of community was under siege. A master of time and place, Austen has a historian’s grasp of detail and a storyteller’s command of suspense. This is a beautiful and important novel.”—Jessica Shattuck, author of Last House and The Women in the Castle
“A work of art—stylish, charming and magnetic. There is a crisp immediacy in the writing so that the eve of a world war is now, here, close and not in the sepia colored past.”—Leila Aboulela, author of River Spirit
“In 33 Place Brugmann, Alice Austen is at ease with storytelling; the thoughts on art, music, mathematics, and architecture are awesome; the characters are marvelous—how not to love Charlotte and her father . . . What an achievement for a first novel. And the author manages to do something very different in a very written about period.”—Anik Lapointe, Salamandra (Spain)
“[A] remarkable novel—which has made me laugh, cry and think more than any other book I’ve read for a long time.”—Allegra Le Fanu, Bloomsbury (United Kingdom)
“A very bright and enthralling novel. I really loved that the author managed to draw such complex characters and the multilayered intrigue with many compelling topics. I was amazed by how she describes the conflictual relationship between the Flemish and the Walloon intertwined with all the spy intrigue that keeps you nervous until the end.”—Bénédicte Lombardo, Editions du Seuil (France)
“[33 Place Brugmann] is so very special, I love the voices, the composition, the wonderful idea, just everything about it, what a treasure! I can’t stop reading!”—Madlen Reimer, S. Fischer Verlag (Germany)
“I was transfixed from the onset and drawn into the lives of the protagonists, be it Charlotte, the Raphaels, Masha, all of them really; they all have their own voice, demons and histories to deal with and an uncertain future ahead of them . . . A beautiful novel.”—Renate Liesker, Ambo Anthos (Holland)
An Independent Literary Publisher Since 1917
