From RAF pilots and members of the resistance risking their lives, to Jewish refugee nurses caring for the desperately wounded, this American playwright’s first novel is packed with twists and turns
February 20, 2025 12:57
Alice Austen is an American playwright, screenwriter and producer. She lived for some years in Brussels at 33 Place Brugmann, one of the most popular and exclusive districts in the city. There she got to know some of the older residents and this became the setting for her powerful first novel, an extraordinary book about secrets, betrayal and courage.
The characters are a fascinating mix. There’s a Jewish art dealer and his family, including his son Julian, who is studying with Wittgenstein at Cambridge; an architect and his daughter, Charlotte; a retired colonel; Miss Hobert, an elderly gossip, who used to run a café; an attorney and his wife and their strangely unpleasant son, Dirk; a notary and his wife. On the top floor lives Masha, a seamstress and a Jewish refugee with a heart of gold. Many of the residents are Jews and their lives are about to be turned upside down as the Second World War begins.
It is never clear who you can trust or whether her characters are what they seem. Which of the Jews will escape and who will survive?
33 Place Brugmann is revealing about Belgium under the Nazis. The average Belgian lost around six kilos in the first year of the occupation alone. Like so many countries in Europe, Belgium was divided between collaborators, those who chose to resist and those who became refugees. Which will the residents of Place Brugmann become? Austen brings these choices to life and you quickly become drawn in to the lives of her cast of characters, their loves and grief, their astonishing bravery and their willingness to betray their neighbours and their country.
It is a clever novel, peppered with references to famous figures, from Wittgenstein and Alan Turing to the artists Frida Kahlo and Paul Delvaux. Early on, there is even a cameo appearance by “a man called Bellow, who hails from Chicago”, who originally came from Russia and speaks Russian “and some Yiddish”.
But, above all, it is a gripping thriller. It begins with this sentence: “The Raphaels leave in the middle of the night, and they leave everything behind.” Except for their collection of paintings. They have simply disappeared. Who are the Raphaels and why have they left? Where have they gone? From then on, the novel is full of twists and turns, astonishing scenes of courage, whether it’s RAF pilots or members of the resistance risking their lives, or Jewish refugee nurses caring for the desperately wounded. It is never clear who you can trust or whether her characters are what they seem. Which of the Jews will escape and who will survive? And will love triumph over evil?
33 Place Brugmann
By Alice Austen
Bloomsbury, £16.99