Grand Hotel Europa

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER 
Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer’s moving and addictive masterpiece of European identity, nostalgia and the end of an era. 
‘A masterpiece: grandiose style, brilliant and rich. It will defy the ages’ Trouw (The Netherlands) 
‘The love of my life lives in my past. That is, despite the alliteration, a terrible sentence to write. I do not want to come to the conclusion that, as it is the case for the hotel where I am staying and the continent after which it is named, the best time is behind me and that I have little more to expect from the future than to live on my past.’ 
A writer takes residence in the illustrious but decaying Grand Hotel Europa, to think about where things went wrong with Clio, with whom he fell in love in Genoa and moved to Venice. He reconstructs a compelling story of love in times of mass tourism, about their trips to Malta, Palmaria, Portovenere and the Cinque Terre and their thrilling search for the last painting of Caravaggio. Meanwhile, he becomes fascinated by the mysteries of Grand Hotel Europe and gets more and more involved with the memorable characters who inhabit it, and who seem to come from a more elegant time. All the while, globalisation seems to be grabbing hold even on this place frozen in time. 
Grand Hotel Europa is Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer’s masterly novel on the old continent, where so much history resides that there is no place left for a future and where the most realistic future perspectives are offered in the form of exploiting the past in the shape of tourism.

Literature & Fiction

Pfeijffer, Ilja Leonard

Contemporary

Fourth Estate

A sweeping, atmospheric novel about European identity, centered on a hotel that encapsulates the continent's manifold contradictions. The love of my life lives in my past. Despite the alliteration it's a terrible line to have to write. I don't want to come to the conclusion, just as the hotel I'm staying in and the continent it is named after, that the best times are behind me and that I've little more to expect of the future than living off my past. A writer takes up residence in the stately but decaying Grand Hotel Europa in order to contemplate where things went wrong with Clio--an art historian and the love of his life. His recollections take him back to when they first met in Genoa, his wanton visits to her in Venice, and their dulcet trips to Malta, Palmaria, Portovenere, and the Cinque Terre in their thrilling search for the last painting made by Caravaggio. Meanwhile, he becomes fascinated by the mysteries of the Grand Hotel Europa and the memorably eccentric characters who inhabit it, all of whom seem to hail from a halcyon era. All the while, globalization is laying claim to even this place, where a sense of lost glory hangs sulkily in the air. Grand Hotel Europa is Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer's masterly novel of the old continent, where there's so much history that there hardly seems space left for a future. Cinematic, lyrical, and brimming with humor, this is a novel about the European condition, which like the staff and residents of the Grand Hotel Europa may have already seen its best days.

Grand Hotel Europa: A Novel

Literary

Farrar. Straus and Giroux

“[Grand Hotel Europa] calls to mind Nabokov, Tom Wolfe, Baudrillard, Umberto Eco, Wes Anderson . . . [A novel of] incorrigible high spirits.” ―Rand Richards Cooper, The New York Times Book Review\nA sweeping, atmospheric novel about European identity, centered on a hotel that encapsulates the continent’s manifold contradictions.\nThe love of my life lives in my past. Despite the alliteration it’s a terrible line to have to write. I don’t want to come to the conclusion that, just as for the hotel I’m staying in and the continent it is named after, the best times are behind me and I’ve little more to expect of the future than living off my past.\nA writer takes up residence in the stately but decaying Grand Hotel Europa in order to contemplate where things went wrong with Clio―an art historian and his one great love. His recollections take him back to when they first met in Genoa, his wanton visits to her in Venice, and their dulcet trips to Malta, Palmaria, Porto Venere, and the Cinque Terre in their thrilling search for the last painting made by Caravaggio. Meanwhile, he becomes fascinated by the mysteries of the Grand Hotel Europa and the memorably eccentric characters who inhabit it, all of whom seem to hail from a halcyon era. All the while, globalization is laying claim to even this place, where a sense of lost glory hangs sulkily in the air.\nGrand Hotel Europa is Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer’s masterly novel of the old continent, where there’s so much history that there hardly seems space left for a future. Cinematic, lyrical, and brimming with humor, this is a novel about the European condition, which, like the staff and residents of the Grand Hotel Europa, may have already seen its best days.

Picador Paper

"Frenzied in its imagination, unusually spirited, beautifully lyrical and furthermore, unexpectedly intense when the hero's sexual perversions hit the page. A pleasure to read."—NRC Handelsblad (Amsterdam)Rupert has been accused of a terrible crime, and his imagined defense begins the night he met the love of his life, Mira. By turns shockingly honest, incredibly funny, and clearly unhinged, Rupert's defense includes rants about the properly formed insult and men who wear comfortable sweaters. It also visits the memory-sites of Rupert and Mira's short-lived affair: her apartment, their favorite cafés and restaurants, and the city's public squares.With each story Rupert attaches to these places his defense becomes a little more outlandish, while he becomes increasingly convinced that his innocence is beyond doubt. When he reaches the end of his defense, delivering the decisive blow against his accusers and describing the scene of the crime, the full depth of Rupert's depravity is finally revealed.Rupert: A Confession is a brilliantly composed monologue that fully exposes—despite the misdirection and bizarre revelations of its teller—the innermost workings of a confused mind. Recalling Neil LaBute's In the Company of Men, Rupert: A Confession is simultaneously offensive, funny, and compelling, and it serves as a perfect introduction to one of the most talented and controversial writers at work in the Netherlands today.Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer is a poet, novelist, literary critic, and former Ancient Greek scholar at Leiden University. The winner of numerous prizes—he's the only Dutch author to have won both of the most coveted debut poetry and prose prizes in the Netherlands—Pfeijffer is the editor of the literary journal De Revisor and founder and editor of the poetry journal Awater. Rupert: A Confession is his first novel to be translated into English.Michele Hutchison studied at the Universities of East Anglia and Cambridge before taking a job in publishing. She lives in Amsterdam where she works as a translator and editor.

Rupert: A Confession

Open Letter

"If Italo Calvino decided to make one of his invisible cities visible, the result might look something like Pfeijffer's Genoa." — Benjamin Moser
An absolute joy to read, La Superba, winner of the most prestigious Dutch literary prize, is a Rabelaisian, stylistic tour-de-force about a writer who becomes trapped in his walk on the wild side in mysterious and exotic Genoa, centering on the stories of migration and immigration, legal and illegal, telling the story of modern Europe. Part migrant story, part perverse travel guide, La Superba is a wholly postmodern ode to the imagination that lovingly describes the labyrinthine and magical city that Pfeijffer calls home: Genoa, Italy, the city known as La Superba for its beauty and rich history.
Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer (b. 1968), poet, dramatist, novelist, renowned in the Netherlands as a master of language, is the only two-time winner of the Tzum Prize for "the most beautiful sentence written in Dutch" (including one in La Superba!).

La Superba

Humor & Satire

Deep Vellum Publishing

UN ROMAN D'AMOUR MAGISTRAL. 
UNE RÉFLEXION AMBITIEUSE SUR L'IDENTITÉ EUROPÉENNE, LE TOURISME DE MASSE ET L'IMMIGRATION. 
Un écrivain néerlandais pose ses valises au Grand Hotel Europa, un palace à la splendeur délabrée. 
Il vient de rompre avec son grand amour, Clio, historienne de l'art passionnée, et souhaite coucher sur le papier leur tumultueuse histoire. Si l'écriture est un remède à sa désolation, les autres clients et le personnel de l'hôtel le sont tout autant. 
Il y a là Abdul, le groom, rescapé d'un naufrage en Méditerranée ; M. Montebello, le majordome, nostalgique d'un passé fastueux ; un armateur crétois ; une poétesse française et, surtout, M. Wang, le nouveau propriétaire chinois, décidé à rendre l'endroit attractif pour ses congénères...

PRESSES CITE

Das schönste Mädchen von Genua

Aufbau-Verlag GmbH

Grand Hotel Europa: Roman

Piper Verlag GmbH

Grand Hotel Europa (Dutch Edition)

De Arbeiderspers

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Books by Pfeijffer, Ilja Leonard

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Pfeijffer, Ilja Leonard. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Grand Hotel Europa

Grand Hotel Europa: A Novel

Grand Hotel Europa

Rupert: A Confession

La Superba

Grand Hotel Europa

Das schönste Mädchen von Genua

Grand Hotel Europa: Roman

Grand Hotel Europa: Roman

Grand Hotel Europa (Dutch Edition)