
Author: Alice Austen
Published by: Grove Press on Mar. 21, 2025
Genres: Historical Fiction
Pages: 368
Format: Hardcover
Source: Publishers Group Canada
Book Rating: 8.5/10
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
Review:
Poignant, immersive, and compelling!
33 Place Brugmann is a rich, intriguing tale set in Brussels during WWII that takes you into the complex lives of about a dozen residents of one apartment building as they endeavour to navigate wartime living, the arrival of the Nazis, and one prominent Jewish family vanishing one night without a trace.
The prose is polished and evocative. The characters are feisty, multilayered, and resilient. And the plot, including all the subplots, intertwine and unravel into a moving tale of life, loss, heartbreak, betrayal, secrets, danger, survival, tragedy, friendship, and love.
Overall, 33 Place Brugmann is Austen’s colourful, absorbing, evocative debut that transports you to another time and place and immerses you so thoroughly in the feelings, lives, and personalities of the characters you can’t help but be fully invested.
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Thank you to PGC Books for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.