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33 Place Brugmann is a skillfully written and intellectually stimulating work of historical fiction centring around the residents of a small, elegant apartment building in Brussels in the time leading up to and during World War II. Austen’s novel presents the German occupation of Brussels, antisemitism and the plight of Jews (focusing on one cultured Jewish family in particular) within that city, the operations of the resistance network that returned downed airmen to England, and the importance of art to civilization (one character is intimately involved in the transporting of the treasures of Britain’s National Gallery to mines in Wales, where they’re protected from bombing). Philosophy (Wittgenstein), mathematics (especially risk, chance, probability), and love also figure in this rich and sophisticated creation.

Initially, I found the novel fragmented and rather slow going due to the presentation of multiple points of view, but I’m glad I held on. It’s an ambitious work, perhaps too much so. I did not understand the author’s purpose in including so many abstruse passages from Wittgenstein’s Tractatus. Most were well beyond me. Furthermore, the central character, the completely colourblind ethereal young artist Charlotte, did not convince, a major flaw in the work in my view.

In the end, though, I felt rewarded and changed by reading this. With its mixture of realistic and surreal elements and its European flavour, I can imagine it as the basis for a motion picture. This is unusual historical fiction. It won’t be for everyone, but I do recommend it.

Many thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for providing me with an advance reading copy of the book.