33 Place Brugmann

An unforgettable historical debut set in Second World War Brussels: exploring love, resistance and courage in all their forms

1939. Art student Charlotte Sauvin and her father wake up in their apartment at 33 Place Brugmann to discover that their closest neighbours and friends – the Raphaël family on the fourth ­floor, and Russian seamstress Masha on the fifth – have vanished overnight without a word.

While the Raphaëls and Masha are ­flung on their own adventures across the continent – from occupied Paris to Blitz London, where they reinvent themselves as refugees, nurses, soldiers, heroes – Charlotte and the rest of her neighbours at Place Brugmann have their own choices to make in a city cast under the deep shadow of occupation.

Over the course of the war, every member of this accidental community will discover that they are not the person they believed themselves to be. And when tested, each will confront the truth about what, and who, matters to them the most.

Uplifting, sweeping and full of unforgettable characters, 33 Place Brugmann is a novel about beauty, family, friendship and home: and how the courage to resist can be found in the most surprising places.