33 Place Brugmann

Description

33 Place Brugmann
by Alice Austen

ISBN: 9780802164087
Hardcover, new
Publication Date: 3/11/2025

Brief Description:
“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 begins 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. And 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 will discover 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”–