33 Place Brugmann

Alice Austen

Hardcover

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"Alice Austen uses her considerable gifts to remind us that the past and the present are more connected than we wish to believe, and that vigilance, loyalty and art hold the key to survival. This is a beautiful and deeply engaging novel." -- Ann Patchett, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Tom Lake

An outstanding debut novel--a love story, mystery, and philosophical puzzle, told in the singular voices of the residents of a Beaux Arts apartment house in Belgium during World War II.

On the eve of the Nazi occupation, in the heart of Brussels, life for the residents of 33 Place Brugmann is about to change forever.

Charlotte Sauvin, an art student raised by her beloved architect father in apartment 4L, knows all the details of the building and its people: how light falls on wood floors and voices echo off the marble staircase, the distinct knock of her dear friend, Julian Raphaël, the son of the art dealer's family across the hall. Then the Raphaëls disappear, leaving everything behind but their priceless art collection, which has simply vanished.

All else that's familiar fractures when whispers of German occupation become reality, and the lives of the residents grow increasingly intertwined. Charlotte's godmother Masha, a beautiful seamstress living upstairs, deepens her risky affair with a wartime compatriot of Colonel Warlemont in 3L--a man far more calculating than his neighbors believe. When a Nazi functionary with an interest in the Raphaëls moves into the building, knowing who can and cannot be trusted becomes a matter of life and death.

In the face of their perilous new reality, every member of this accidental community will discover they are not the person they believed themself to be. When confronted with a cruel choice--submit to the regime or risk their lives to save one another--each learns the truth about what, and who, matters to them the most.

A propulsive and exquisitely written tour de force, 33 Place Brugmann champions the restorative power of love, courage, and art in times of great threat.

Book Details

Publisher: Grove Press
Publish Date: Mar 11st, 2025
Pages: 368
Language: English
Edition: undefined - undefined
Dimensions: 8.98in - 5.91in - 1.50in - 1.10lb
EAN: 9780802164087
Categories: • Literary• Historical - 20th Century - World War II & Holocaust• Family Life - General

About the Author

Alice Austen won the John Cassavetes Award for her debut film Give Me Liberty (writer/producer). She is a past resident of the Royal Court Theatre and her internationally produced plays include Animal Farm (Steppenwolf Theatre), Water, Cherry Orchard Massacre, and Girls in the Boat (Dramatic Publishing). She studied creative writing under Seamus Heaney at Harvard, where she received her JD, after which she moved to Brussels and lived on Place Brugmann. Austen currently lives in Milwaukee and is working on a new film and her next novel.

Praise for this book

Praise for 33 Place Brugmann

"33 Place Brugmann is set in the turmoil of the Nazi occupation of Belgium. Austen's device of using one apartment building, its memorable tenants, and their individual transformations is brilliant. A compelling and beautiful read." -- Abraham Verghese, New York Times bestselling author of The Covenant of Water

"In 33 Place Brugmann, a seemingly ordinary apartment building in the heart of Brussels becomes a microcosm of a world on the brink of war. Through multiple perspectives, Alice Austen weaves an extraordinary tapestry of lives intertwined by fate, fear, and resilience as Europe teeters on the edge of chaos in 1939. Offering a fresh perspective on a much-written-about era, this profoundly moving novel demonstrates the power of storytelling to illuminate the darkest corners of history." -- Christina Baker Kline, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Orphan Train

"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 and Presumed Guilty

"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, New York Times bestselling author of The Women in the Castle and Last House

"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, A New York Times Best Historical Fiction Book of the Year

"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)