“A neighborhood café sees everyday Viennese through personal tribulations and societal change... Around them, postwar Vienna is being remade. Booker nominee Seethaler (The Tobacconist, 2017) remains fascinated with the bigness of everyday lives and the constancy of change. Hard work—the constant sweeping, scrubbing, and cooking—is both oppressing and consoling. The café may not be much, but it’s a still point. As the world turns faster, and ‘throws people off course . . . Isn’t it a good thing if there’s a place for them to hold onto?’.”
Read the full review in Booklist.
