Fiction | Fiction
The Capital

Robert Menasse

English

The Capital
Robert Menasse
Translation: Jamie Bulloch
London, MacLehhose Press 2019
432 pages

German

Die Hauptstadt
Robert Menasse
Berlin, Suhrkamp Verlag 2017
458 pages

This novel portrays various protagonists in the EU capital Brussels. Fenia Xenopoulou and Martin Susman work for the EU Commission and are planning a questionable event. The Belgian Inspector Brunfaut is supposed to put a murder case on hold, and Holocaust survivor David de Vriend moves into a nursing home. Other characters alternate episodically with their stories, meet occasionally or have nothing to do with each other. The result is a multi-layered portrait of a city that symbolises the centre of Europe.

Translation sponsored by the Goethe-Institut

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