33 Place Brugmann by Alice Austen

A book review

This novel follows the fictional residents of 33 Place Brugmann in Brussels from August 1939, just before the Nazi invasion, through the next two and a half years. Some residents marry, join the military, flee or die. New residents arrive. Each is a distinct personality who carries his or her share of the story, but Charlotte Sauvin stands out as central.

She lives with her father, an architect, in Apartment 4L. Her mother died when she was born, and father and daughter are devoted to each other. Color-blind Charlotte sees the world in shades of gray but develops a curious ability to sense color. “One might even say—although such a comparison is of course impossible—that Charlotte has a more discerning ability to see what is commonly called color than the rest of us.” She is accepted to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, but soon after she begins her studies, the Nazis upend everything.

Leo Raphaël, an art dealer, lives in Apartment 4R with his wife and two children, both old enough to require mandatory registration. Leo is clear-eyed about the coming danger. “Hitler has an idea, and that idea has caught fire. It’s not a good idea. It’s not a clear idea. It’s not factual. It is an idea that creates a picture that has very little to do with reality and nothing whatsoever to do with logic.” The family leaves in the middle of one night, silently disappearing, leaving all their possessions behind, except for the paintings and the silver, which also disappear.

It's hard to know who can be trusted. One or two residents, like nosy Miss Hobert in Apartment 3R, obviously cannot be. The menace infecting Brussels grows slowly. People worry and adapt as restrictions multiply. A strength of 33 Place Brugmann is its portrayal of the incremental and mostly undramatic ways that Brussels changes, tensions rising as people go about their everyday lives. Because amid the dangers of an authoritarian regime, people still have everyday lives to navigate. (2025, 343 pages)