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Fight or flight?: 33 Place Brugmann, by Alice Austen, reviewed

Residents of a sedate apartment block in Brussels react in very different ways to the Nazi invasion of Belgium in 1940

22 March 2025

9:00 AM

22 March 2025

9:00 AM

33 Place Brugmann Alice Austen

Bloomsbury, pp.368, 16.99

In May 1940, as the Nazis invade Belgium, the residents of a sedate apartment block in Place Brugmann, Brussels, wake to find that their longtime neighbours, the Raphaëls, have disappeared. Alice Austen uses this moment as the starting point for her subtle debut novel about how a diverse group of Belgians react to the Nazi occupation.

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