“Seethaler’s success rests on a nostalgia-tinged sympathy for the small lives, the ‘everyday insanities’ of his characters, and a brilliant ear for dialogue. But The Café with No Name is also filled with memorable images... What might have been a tired formula—the rundown cafe transformed into a sanctuary for a band of likeable oddballs—is lit up by its cast, all in some way struggling with ‘a hairline rupture,’ all seeming to watch life pass them by. And while the novel stands up for the dignity of the human amid the casual violence of progress, it contains something more existential at its heart. It is haunted yet curiously timeless, a study of the battle against loneliness and despair, and of the traumas of war that persist through the generations: ‘There's a skull under every paving stone in Vienna.’ Katy Derbyshire has taken on the translation baton with confidence; her version captures capably the melancholy and comedy of Robert Seethaler’s beguilingly simple prose.”
Read the full review in the Times Literary Supplement.
