Two major European novelists, Robert Menasse and Jonathan Coe, will be discussing their new novels and the state of Europe.
Jonathan Coe’s Middle England is a state-of-the-nation novel beginning eight years ago on the outskirts of Birmingham, where car factories have been replaced by Poundland, and in London, where frenzied riots give way to Olympic fever. It follows a brilliantly vivid cast of characters through a time of immense change.
The Capital by Robert Menasse, expertly translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch, is at once a sharp satire, a crime story, a comedy of manners and a philosophical essay. Billed as the major European novel, and published on the eve of Brexit, at its heart is a powerful pro-European message: no-one should forget the circumstances that gave rise to the European project in the first place.
The event will be chaired by the Literary Editor of the Financial Times, Frederick Studemann. Organized by Dulwich Books and produce by LiveLit, pard of the MILD Group, in conjunction with Maclehose Press. Supported by the Austrian Cultural Forum.
