The Capital

Starred review from March 1, 2019
This is a smart, entertaining sprawl of a book that dissects, chides, and pays homage to the European Union.A prologue flags the busy narrative that lies ahead: As a pig runs loose on the streets of Brussels, five of the main characters are introduced, tied to a trade dispute, a pan-European project, and a murder that is possibly linked to NATO and the Vatican. Pig references abound, revealing both the complexities of trade deals and the author's impish side. Menasse (Enraged Citizens, European Peace and Democratic Deficits: Or Why the Democracy Given to Us Must Become One We Fight For, 2016, etc.), an Austrian who won Germany's top literary prize for this novel, has many threads to weave. Like Musil in The Man Without Qualities, he has fun with efforts to organize something grand to celebrate an anniversary, here the 50th of the European Commission's founding (he even parodies that book's opening passage). The narrative mosaic's main tiles concern the commission's bureaucratic circus, its subtle and petty power games. Menasse conveys a broad range of the human comedy with brisk, sometimes-mordant prose--and the guidance of a fine translator. Here are two bureaucrats in their first tryst: "He faked desire for her; she faked an orgasm. The chemistry was right." Through it all is the steady message that more unites the people of the European Union than divides them. The narrative reinforces this with personal histories that cross borders and intersect. There are also two disparate characters following different paths to a similar vision of "the commonality of Europeans," born, like the commission itself, from a hope to never again let nationalist madness become Holocaust. Each makes unsettling use of Auschwitz, however, and some speechifying that turns a message of story-borne subtlety into neon glare. These are rare missteps in this ambitious panorama that arrives amid the throes of Brexit and the Chinese Year of the Pig.Intelligent, fun, sad, insightful--an exceptional work.

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Starred review from April 15, 2019
Menasse’s witty but humane satire, his English-language fiction debut (after Enraged Citizens, European Peace and Democratic Deficits), follows a sprawling, multinational cast grappling with the realities of European Union bureaucracy. Greek Fenia Xenapoulou detests her post as an executive of the budgetless, much-maligned culture department of the European Commission. She launches a desperate, determined effort for reassignment by proving herself with a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Commission. Austrian Martin Susman, in a feverish haze after a visit to Auschwitz, proposes centering the concentration camp as the birthplace of the European Union, while his brother who inherited the family’s pig farm pressures him to improve the negotiating power of pig farmers with China. Meanwhile, Brussels police inspector Émile Brunfaut tries to discover why his murder investigation is being officially squashed by his superiors, and Polish seminarian-turned-assassin Ryszard Oswiecki realizes his victim (and focus of Brunfaut’s murder investigation) was the wrong person. Other characters include Auschwitz survivor David de Vriend, who mourns the diminishing number of fellow survivors, and Austrian professor Alois Erhart, who grows frustrated with his new think tank colleagues and their conservative goals. All the characters bumble through bureaucratic meddling, language differences, and competing ambitions toward an open-ended yet rewarding conclusion. The massive cast never becomes unwieldy thanks to Menasse’s delightful prose. This epic, droll account of contemporary Europe will be catnip for fans of mosaic novels and comical political machinations.

June 14, 2019

Out of nowhere, a pig appears in central Brussels, and thus begins this bureaucratic satire about the European Union. Fenia Xenopoulou, a director in the European Commission's Department of Culture looking to transfer to a department with more importance, sees her chance when the office is tasked with developing an idea to improve the commission's image for its 50th anniversary. She assigns colleague Martin Susman to draft something promoting the commission's work. His idea, a rededication to the organization's original vision with a focus on Auschwitz, replete with concentration camp survivors, stirs a hornet's nest of political intrigue and nationalistic turmoil. Intersecting threads of this panoramic tale involve the cover-up of a mysterious murder in a Brussels hotel, an economics professor delivering a talk to a think tank on the need for a new European capital--to be built at Auschwitz--and, of course, the elusive pig. VERDICT The tension between a supranational European vision and a rising tide of nationalism is at the center of this trenchant political satire. Given that increasing nationalism is not a strictly European phenomenon, this German Book Prize winner may well find an audience on this side of the Atlantic. [See Prepub Alert, 12/3/18.]--Lawrence Rungren, Andover, MA

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April 15, 2019
This utterly unique novel set in the European Union buildings in Brussels is based on Manasse's extensive research of this much-maligned institution. Without a central plot, it offers a kaleidoscopic view of the machinations and tribulations of a huge cast of characters who undertake the widely varied work of the European Commission. One strand follows the attempts of Martin Susman and Fenia Xenapoulou, bureaucrats in the Department of Culture, to organize a jubilee that emphasizes why the EU was founded, namely, to bring together historically bitter rivals who would no longer commit horrors like those of WWII. Menasse pairs a hapless Belgian detective story line along with satirical depictions of the modern workplace that bring to mind Joshua Ferris' Then We Came to the End (2007). In constantly blending styles and genres, Manasse captures the wonderful diversity of cultures that the EU has brought together. Winner of the German Book Prize, this is part celebration of the EU and part farce, a strange, timely novel emphasizing the benefits of international institutions at precisely a moment when they are increasingly under stress.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)