On the face of it, Robert Seethaler’s new book might seem twee. The novel – an instant hit upon its German publication in 2023 – is set in Vienna in 1966. It tells of Robert Simon, who follows a long-held dream when he gives up doing odd jobs around the market to set up a cafe, which becomes a hub of community.
But Seethaler’s prose is unexpected, taking the novel, far from being an easy-sailing story of the simple joys of community-building, somewhere knottier. The author, whose previous works include the International Booker-shortlisted A Whole Life and the German bestseller The Tobacconist, was himself born in Vienna in 1966 – and so the story, set over a decade, tracks the modernising city of his childhood. The cafe sits on the corner of Karmelitermarkt in Leopoldstadt – the historic Jewish district after which Tom Stoppard named his 2020 play.
