Robert Seethaler

Das Café ohne Namen (The cafe without a name) is the new novel by the bestselling Austrian author about the human urge to set out. With a cast of unforgettable characters and his special attention to the details of life, Robert Seethaler tells of how a new world comes into being that, like everything new, already bears its end within itself.

Vienna in 1966. Robert Simon earns his living as a casual laborer at the Carmelite market. He is content with his life, but twenty years after the end of the war, the city has risen from its ruins. New things are growing everywhere, and Simon, too, gets carried away. He leases an inn and opens his own café. The offering is manageable, and strictly speaking, it's not really a café at all, but people from the neighborhood come, and they bring their stories with them - of longing, of loss, of unexpected happiness. They come looking for companionship, some even hope for love, and as the city awakens around them, Simon's own life transforms as well.

Robert Seethaler, born in Vienna in 1966, is one of the most successful German-language writers, who has received numerous awards for his work. His novels The Tobacconist (2012), A Whole Life (2014) and The Field (2018) became major international bestsellers. He also writes screenplays and can be seen as an actor on television and in the cinema. He lives in Vienna and Berlin.