33 Place Brugmann, Alice Austen
33 Place Brugmann, Alice Austen
List: $26.99 | Sale: $18.89
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33 Place Brugmann

Author: Alice Austen

Narrator: Shiromi Arserio, Jilly Bond, Nicholas Boulton, Billie Brown Fulford, Danielle Cohen, Raphael Corkhill, Matthew Lloyd Davies, James Meunier, Joshua Riley, Simon Slater

Unabridged: 11 hr 18 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/11/2025


Synopsis

A 2026 Audie Award Finalist for Literary Fiction and Classics

“Wonderful reading.” —Scott Turow, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Presumed Innocent

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 house in Belgium during World War II.

On the eve of the Nazi occupation, in the heart of Brussels, life for the residents of eight apartments at 33 Place Brugmann is about to change forever.

Charlotte Sauvin, an art student raised by her beloved architect father in apartment 4L, knows all the details of the building and its people: how light falls on gleaming wood and voices echo off marble, the distinct knock of her dear friend, Julian Raphaël, the eldest son of the art dealer’s family across the hall. Then the Raphaëls disappear, leaving behind everything but their invaluable art collection, which mysteriously vanishes.

All that’s familiar fractures when whispers of German occupation become reality. A Nazi functionary moves into the building, and the residents’ lives become increasingly entwined. Charlotte’s godmother Masha, a beautiful seamstress upstairs, deepens her dangerous affair with a wartime compatriot of Colonel Warlemont in 3L—a man far more calculating than his neighbors believe. As relationships shift and new alliances form, the question of who to trust becomes a matter of life and death.

In the face of their perilous new reality, every member of this accidental community will discover they are not the person they believed themself to be. When confronted with a cruel choice—submit to the regime or risk their lives to save one another—each learns the truth about what, and who, matters to them the most.

A propulsive and hopeful tour de force, 33 Place Brugmann champions the restorative power of love, courage, and art in times of great threat.

About Alice Austen

Alice Austen won the John Cassavetes Award for her debut film Give Me Liberty (writer/producer). She is a past resident of the Royal Court Theatre and her internationally produced plays include Animal Farm (Steppenwolf Theatre), WaterCherry Orchard Massacre (Vestnik Evropy), and Girls in the Boat (Dramatic Publishing). She studied creative writing under Seamus Heaney at Harvard, where she received her JD, after which she moved to Brussels and lived on Place Brugmann. Austen currently lives in Milwaukee and is working on a new film and her next novel.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Ruben on February 22, 2025

This is what my GR-friend David calls a 'bridge book', written for an American audience with the objective of educating them on a certain topic, in this case the Second World War in Belgium. I requested an arc because I live in Brussels and like the neighborhood of Place Brugmann. The idea of taking......more

Goodreads review by nat ☕︎ on August 13, 2024

This book offers a thought-provoking exploration of World War II through the eyes of the long-time residents of an apartment building in Belgium. It begins before the war, capturing the growing menace of Naziism and the looming threat of invasion. The narrative delves into the hardships of rationing......more

Goodreads review by emily *:・゚✧*:・゚ on February 24, 2025

what an incredible but heartbreaking book. this book takes place before WWII and follows the residents of a building in Brussels through the war. It accounts the horrible things the people endured during this time. Its written from multiple POVs which was a little hard to keep up with at first but,......more

Goodreads review by Karine on December 31, 2024

I picked up this book just because I lived many years in Brussels, not very far from the actual Place Brugmann and I was interested in reading about the people who lived there just a 40-something years before me, during the most horrible time of our modern history. I went in with low expectations,......more

Goodreads review by Kate on March 28, 2025

33 Place Brugman is the story of ordinary Belgians during the German occupation. It follows various of the occupants over a short period of time at the beginning of the war. Francois and Charlotte Sauvin are a creative father and daughter, Agathe Hobert is a single woman seemingly disappointed by lif......more


Quotes

"Alice Austen’s debut novel is a small jewel, and the multiple narratives by expert audio actors bring light to each facet. The tenants at 33 Place Brugmann in Brussels just before the Nazi occupation live fascinating, if ordinary, lives. But as everything changes, intimate individual portraits of the residents, wonderfully performed, move the plot forward, heighten the tension, and illustrate the wartime dangers each character faces. From building manager Jan Everard to nosy harridan Miss Hobart in 3R, from architect François Sauvin to art dealer Leo Raphaël and their families—each story is filled with intelligent observations, philosophical musings, ongoing mysteries, and stirrings of romance. Austen’s compassionate look at a group of people trapped by circumstance allows each textured performance to ring with truth."