33 Place Brugmann

Playwright Austen debuts with a kaleidoscopic portrait of the early days of WWII from the perspectives of a Brussels apartment building's 16 residents. At first, the residents seem more interested in each other than the threat of occupation that hangs over them. Foremost in this regard is Charlotte Sauvin, an art student who lives with her architect father, Francois, and is juggling two potential suitors. She has known Cambridge student Julian Raphaël since childhood but feels a growing attraction to fellow art student Philippe. As the war heats up, Julian becomes a pilot. His family, including his art dealer father and his wife and daughter, are passionately anti-Hitler and eventually flee to London, where they join the Allied war effort. A saltier perspective is provided by maid Masha Balyayeva, whose story line turns tragic after she takes up with the much older, rakish Harry. Other residents include the widowed Belgian colonel Herman Warlemont, the blunt and no-nonsense proto-feminist Agathe Hobert, and the insightful, sardonic Martin DeBaerre. Austen's experience as a playwright serves her well in providing texture via multiple distinct narrative voices. Spanning nearly four years, the novel is both epic in scope and intimate. It's a noteworthy portrait of life during wartime. Agent: Dorian Karchmar, WME. (Mar.)

The dramatically intertwined fates of the residents of a Beaux Arts apartment building in Brussels, 1939-43. The fiction debut of filmmaker and playwright Austen, this novel opens with a notarized roster of building residents, from the refugee seamstress Masha Balyayeva in the 5th floor maid's room to the Sauvin and Raphaël families in 4L and 4R, to the building manager and preparer of this list, Jan Everard, on the ground floor. In an impressive display of Austen's storytelling skill, about a dozen of these individuals become point-of-view characters, unfurling an unusually colorful and intelligent, poignant and rich World War II novel, a special treat for the many fans of that genre. "To me, architecture is an idea about how we should live. A good architect creates a system of communication and relationships," says Francois Sauvin, architect, in conversation with his neighbor, the art dealer Leo Raphaël--an idea that resonates through the novel in many ways. These two are the parents of Charlotte Sauvin, a gifted though colorblind painting student, and Julian Raphaël, aspiring filmmaker doing maths at Cambridge, childhood best friends and would-be lovers, if only Charlotte hadn't met someone else at art school. In any case, all these lives are about to be derailed by the arrival of the Nazis, and as the novel opens in 1939, the Raphaël family has already disappeared overnight, along with their important painting collection (the mystery of the location of the paintings is one of myriad subplots Austen manages brilliantly). As the novel rotates among its plethora of first-person narrators, each with a distinctive voice, from the wry and cultured Sauvin to the horrible busybody Miss Hobert in 3R, the issue of how to live in terrible times is explored with insight, compassion, and steeliness. Among many ancillary pleasures is the ongoing attempt of the characters to make sense of the philosophy of Wittgenstein, and from his writing arises imagery that gives the novel's fabric a furbelow of magical realism. Excellent banter also leavens the mix. In an exchange between horrible Hobert and architect Sauvin: "'If I were you--' she began. 'And thank goodness, you're not. If life has taught me anything, it's that we need fewer men in this world.'" After a somewhat decorous launch, the charming characters get themselves a thrilling, moving plot. Crème de la WWII novel. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.