A sweeping, atmospheric novel about European identity, love, and the search for a lost Caravaggio masterpiece.
"[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
Longlisted for the 2023 DUBLIN Literary Award
A writer takes up residence in the stately but decaying Grand Hotel Europa 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 a thrilling search for the last painting made by Caravaggio.
Meanwhile, he becomes fascinated by the mysteries of the Grand Hotel Europa and its memorably eccentric characters, all of whom seem to hail from a halcyon era. But 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.