{"product_id":"capital-hc","title":"Capital HC","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eOne of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eTime\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e's \"Must-Read Books of 2019\"\u003cbr\u003eOne of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eVanity Fair\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e's Best Books of the Year, So Far\u003cbr\u003eA \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e Editors’ Choice Selection\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eWinner of the German Book Prize, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Capital\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e is an “omniscient, almost Balzac-ian” (Steven Erlanger, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e) panorama of splintered Europe.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e A highly inventive novel of ideas written in the rich European tradition, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Capital\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e transports readers to the cobblestoned streets of twenty-first-century Brussels. Chosen as the European Union’s symbolic capital in 1958, this elusive setting has never been examined so intricately in literature. Translated with \"zest, pace and wit\" (\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eSpectator\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e) by Jamie Bulloch, Robert Menasse's \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Capital\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e plays out the effects of a fiercely nationalistic “union.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRecalling the Balzacian conceit of assembling a vast parade of characters whose lives conspire to form a driving central plot, Menasse adapts this technique with modern sensibility to reveal the hastily assembled capital in all of its eccentricities. We meet, among others, Fenia Xenopoulou, a Greek Cypriot recently “promoted” to the Directorate-General for Culture. When tasked with revamping the boring image of the European Commission with the Big Jubilee Project, she endorses her Austrian assistant Martin Sussman’s idea to proclaim Auschwitz as its birthplace―of course, to the horror of the other nation states. Meanwhile, Inspector Émile Brunfaut attempts to solve a gritty murder being suppressed at the highest level; Matek, a Polish hitman who regrets having never become a priest, scrambles after taking out the wrong man; and outraged pig farmers protest trade restrictions as a brave escapee squeals through the streets.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThese narratives and more are masterfully woven, revealing the absurdities―and real dangers―of a fracturing Europe. A tour de force from one of Austria’s most esteemed novelists, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Capital\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is a mordantly funny and piercingly urgent saga of the European Union, and an aerial feat of sublime world literature.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Friends of the Mill Valley Library","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52275289555175,"sku":null,"price":4.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0730\/3397\/3991\/files\/41kshun3LBL.webp?v=1783111226","url":"https:\/\/friendsmvl.org\/products\/capital-hc","provider":"Friends of the Mill Valley Library","version":"1.0","type":"link"}