The Capital By Robert Menasse (Trans: Jamie Bulloch)
MacLehose, £15
The Capital could hardly be more topical. Set in Brussels, the capital of the EU, it is about Eurocrats but has a Holocaust twist. It won the German Book Prize in 2017 and has sold an astonishing 400,000 copies.
One reason for this might be its wide, European range. The novel is cosmopolitan from start to finish, with characters from Greece and Turkey to Poland and Belgium. But the deeper reason for its success is the way the narrative moves cleverly between a number of central characters, EU civil servants, yes, but also police detectives (one called Maigret but no relation), doctors and Holocaust survivors.
Some officials in the EU Department of Culture have been assigned to promote the image of the EU Commission and devise a “Big Jubilee Project” event. The celebration is meant to mark the birthday of the EU Commission, to show the people of Europe that the Commission is “sexy”, that “people are glad that we exist”, and that “there is something which connects us.”
One bureaucrat, Martin Susman, comes up with the idea of using concentration-camp survivors in Auschwitz to celebrate the EU, to put them “at the very centre of our jubilee celebrations.” This sounds bizarre, perhaps even offensive. But this isn’t some weird joke about Juncker or Brexit; Susman has a serious moral purpose — to show that “the Commission represents our common values with regard to human dignity and the law.”
A second part of the plot involves a murder. A male corpse has been found in a Brussels hotel, with a forged passport, identity unknown. Inspector Brunfaut is assigned to the case but is soon told by his superiors to back off — an order from the very top. He then finds his files on the case have disappeared from his desk and from his computer. And then there are the mysterious pigs, let loose around Brussels. How are these stories — pigs, a murder, EU civil servants and Auschwitz survivors — connected?
The storytelling is clever but also dark. Don’t be fooled by the Brussels bureaucrats and the mysterious pigs. Many of the characters have a tragic past. Mateusz Oswiecki is a Polish Catholic. His grandfather was tortured and shot by the Nazis. His father (significantly born in Kielce) was tortured to death in 1960s Poland. David de Vriend’s father was killed at Auschwitz. Professor Erhart’s father was not a victim. He shot Jews during the war.
Above all, the novel is European, far removed from our own Brexit chaos. It is about Europe reconnecting with its ideals via a tragic past, full of cemeteries and corpses. It’s a smart read, unlike anything being written in Britain today.
David Herman is a senior JC reviewer
