Grand Hotel Europa has dominated the Dutch general bestselling list for more than an entire year. More than 300,000 copies have been sold so far.
Grand Hotel Europa will be published in English in the United States by Farrar, Straus and Giroux and in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth by 4th Estate.
‘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 Europe, 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, globalization seems to be grabbing hold even on this place frozen in time.
Grand Hotel Europe 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. It is a theatrical and lyrical book about European identity, nostalgia to the end of an era. It is, how troubling it may be, his best book yet.
‘Grand Hotel Europe does not shy away from anything. It wants to impress, and it impresses. It is that big-bigger-biggest grip which makes the novel into an astounding masterpiece. It is also a wonderful book, which you will read with increasingly feverish eagerness. Pfeijffer captures the zeitgeist and serves it up irresistibly. He wrote the novel of the year.’ — ***** NRC Handelsblad (The Netherlands)
‘A masterpiece: grandiose style, brilliant and rich. It will defy the ages.’ — ***** Trouw (The Netherlands)
‘Grand Hotel Europe is not only an overwhelming reading experience, but Pfeijffer also gives you lots of food for thought. Who else in contemporary Dutch literature could do what he does, to turn up the heat on our zeitgeist in such a great way and to thumb the nose at all those timid, tiny novels full of first world problems?’ — De Morgen (Belgium)
‘Do not hesitate to call Grand Hotel Europe a pageturner. The most admirable thing about the novel is Pfeijffer’s fascination with these subjects, his involvement. […] Grand Hotel Europe is not only an reflection on our identity, but also a contribution to its continuation.’ — de Volkskrant (The Netherlands)
“A lively, clever and sometimes malicious book. […] Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer conceived his Grand Hotel Europa not only as a homage to the aged, mythically charged continent, but also as a stage and forum for debate for the contradictions and upheavals of our time. […] The pleasure of reading it all for yourself, right up to the amazing end, shouldn’t be taken away from you anyway. ” – Kristina Maidt-Zinke in the Süddeutsche Zeitung (Germany)
“The new Magic Mountain is perhaps called Grand Hotel Europe” – Neue Ruhr Zeitung (Germany)
“Between fantasy and irony, with a thousand and one cultural turns and twists that do not ignore our most direct experience of contemporary life, Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer has written a novel with an overflowing and joyful imagination. A fantastic metaphor for our old continent.” – ABC Cultura (Spain)
“A powerful and intriguing novel that one doesn’t forget easily.” – La Stampa (Italy)
“A great novel, brilliantly told and absolutely worth reading.” – Ruhr Nachrichten (Germany)
“One of the best novels I’ve read in recent years. […] A lucid, relentless and tragic reflection on the decline of Europe. […] This is not only a novel that amuses us, but it encourages us to think, re-read some of its more analytical passages and review our prejudices. […] Pfeijffer manages to perfectly match all the pieces of this puzzle of characters, plots, situations, scenarios and reflections, in a demonstration of clarity and order that imposes narrative harmony on rhetorical whims for the benefit of understanding and reader comfort. A masterful use of language contributes to this. The precise selection of words, the compositional skill and the modulation of the tone according to the situations give the narration the eloquence, simplicity, elegance and naturalness suitable for orienting oneself through the corners and cracks of the story, making the most of the different plots, to faithfully capture the emotions conveyed by his characters and the essence of the ideas that give meaning to the work as a whole. […] This excellent work allows the reader to see how Pfeijffer travels through different territories without missing a beat. […] Everything fits in this novel that is great in all respects, with passages that invite you to declaim, comic moments that trigger laughter (tip: look for a photo of the author online when you read the passage about the beach), characters carefully constructed and described with such precision that they themselves express the entire dimension of the piece they play and the idea they represent. In sum, a catalog of genres and styles that come together in harmony towards a finale that brings a revealing allegory and a surprise that completes a splendid task.” – La Opnión de Murcia (Spain)
“The best thing about this novel are the intelligent vision and the worldview that exceeds individual worries, fruit of Pfeijffer’s rare capacity to understand the zeitgeist. […] The author presents a multi-layered novel, which does not limit itself to one register and that is impressive, informative and attractive. In a seemingly natural way, the author connects various stories and with the help of all the means that a writer has at his disposal he manages to fascinate the reader. ” – Observador (Portugal)
“With Grand Hotel Europe the Dutchman Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer has written a European social novel, full of irony and wit.” – Welt am Sonntag (Germany)
“The work is a declaration of love and at the same time a book of doom that brings the mental state of Europe to life in a gripping narrative. After reading it, you are proud of this continent, but also a little worried about how things will go on with this Europe. ”- Tobias Haberl in the Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin (Germany)
“Pfeijffer develops enchantingly weird figures, has a great talent for ironic description and is such a passionate and convinced European himself, an author so in love with art and history that there is hope in that alone.” – NDR Kultur (Germany)
“Timely, fun, superinteresting and superrelevant.” – Expresso (Portugal)
“Entertaining, instructive and informative, full of thoughts, insights, analyzes, smirking, angry, melancholic, satirical, revealing, over-the-top, in short: interesting and varied.” – Bayerischer Rundfunk (Germany)
“Pfeijffer’s voice, astonished, sensual and disarmed when he rethinks Clio, harsh and judgmental when he analyzes those who move only to find confirmation of their own prejudices, sympathetic and admiring in listening to Abdul, becomes almost tender and lyrical in his lovesong for the old continent. […] Just enter the majestic lounge of the Grand Hotel Europa and you will know that not even a second will be wasted.” – Il Piccolo (Italy)
“Knowingly, funnily and benevolently, the real Ilja Pfeijffer designs a literary building that can be more than a roof over your head and temporary accommodation for changing guests. Grand Hotel Europe aims at something much bigger: to put an old idea into new sexy light. ” – Galore Literatur (Germany)
“This novel is overflowing with stories like a Renaissance cathedral with sculptures. Everywhere you want to pause, but the narrative flow pushes on from one astonishing internal story to the next, from original to original, from a polished dialogue to the reliably following, strikingly precise punchline. Pfeijffer does not shy away from romance, fantasy and cultural history excursions. His novel is a cornucopia of fresh ideas […]. Everywhere one can see how contemporary art is falling to its knees before the upheavals of this time or how it hides itself in a mouse hole. This voluptuous book doesn’t. ” – Freie Presse (Germany)
“A skilful fictional inventory in a sometimes hilarious, touching, entertaining style of writing.” – Weilheimer Tagblatt (Germany)
“With Grand Hotel Europe Pfeijffer has written what has all the characteristics to be defined as the ‘Great European novel’. […] Grand Hotel Europe is Pfeijffer’s brilliant novel-metaphor about the old continent.” -– Fatti Italiani (Italy)
‘Every sentence in Grand Hotel Europa is dipped in both homesickness and trepidation.’ — De Standaard (Belgium)
“In the long run, Grand Hotel Europa could turn out to be an epochal work that documented and predicted a turning point in the history of Europe in the form of a novel.” – IPG-Journal (Germany)
‘In spite of the loaded subject, his great European novel is a pageturner.’ — De Tijd (Belgium)
‘You should put Grand Hotel Europe by Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer on the shelf next to Europe books by Thomas Mann and Harry Mulisch. Rarely have we read a novel that ingeniously links a tragic but beautiful love story with serious, but never dull, often witty reflections on the phenomenon that is Europe. […] Grand Hotel Europe is a love letter to an old beloved, a dead-tired but stunning continent.’ — De Limburger (The Netherlands)
‘With the virtuosic gesture with which Pfeijffer tends to take on his versatile and coquettish narratives, and with the graceful elegance of his sentences, he wrote both a novel and a reflection on the paradoxes of tourism and migration, and on the longing for history that is innate to Europe.’ — Klara Radio (Belgium)
‘Whether he writes about refugees, mass tourism, globalization, selfies or Caravaggio: not only what Pfeijffer tells us, but also his mastery of language and the pleasure that radiates from it, keeps you under a spell until the final page. As far as we are concerned the novel of 2018 at the last minute.’ — Het Laatste Nieuws (Belgium)
‘Un-Dutch good. In a word: fantastic, grandiose, magnificent, splendid, sublime, superbe, wonderful.’ — TZUM (The Netherlands)
‘A spectacle.’ — De Leeuwarder Courant (The Netherlands)
*****
A selection of reactions from the acquiring international publishing houses:
– “I’ve been following Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer’s fiction for years now, thanks to the excellent translations published in the US by Open Letter Books and Deep Vellum Publishing. Pfeijffer’s prose is funny, nasty, sharp, and at once self-conscious and absolutely light on its feet. I’m so pleased to be able to publish his biggest and most important statement to date here in the New World: the Great European Novel indeed!” – Jeremy Davies, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (North America)
– “I’m thrilled that we will be publishing Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer’s magnificent Grand Hotel Europa. It is a rich, bold and endlessly intelligent novel, sewn with narrative threads that are intriguing and tell an intimate personal story as well as painting a larger picture: the journey Europe has taken and the challenges it now faces.” – Nicholas Pearson, 4th Estate (United Kingdom and the Commonwealth)
– “I was amazed by the fact that Ilja is able to do two things at the same time in his text – he creates a narrative which is full of tension and emotional depth, while simultaneously he is able to discuss the European history, culture, philosophy – and current situation in a most inspiring way. Not an easy concept – but most convincingly performed. I am sure that German readers (and not least critics) will recognize and appreciate this.” – Thomas Tebbe, Piper Verlag (Germany)
– “Finally it is here: The Great European Novel! We have been waiting for a book like this. It is both a beautiful love store and a very clever reflection on European identity, capturing the zeitgeist in a precise, impressive, ambitious and intelligent way. Written in a prose that literally dances across the pages, with smart sentences full of energy, refreshing reflections and insights […] To mold these issues into a work of great literary quality yet managing to be both accessible, gripping and page turning, is nothing short of impressive.” – Lene Sandvold Evensen, Gyldendal (Norway)
– “Grand Hotel Europe is unquestionably a masterpiece – sophisticated, semantically multi-layered and stylistically brilliant – a contemporary classic that could have been written only by an author of outstanding talent and enviable erudition. The novel is set in Venice, just a few hours’ drive from Croatia. The town serves not only as a metaphor for the old continent, but also as a place which shares a thankless tourist reality of many Croatian cities.” – Marija Bošnjak, V.B.Z. online bookshop & club. (Croatia)
Interview about Grand Hotel Europe for Domus (English)
Article in Forbes on Grand Hotel Europe and the future of the continent (English)
Review (*****) of Grand Hotel Europa in NRC Handelsblad
Review of Grand Hotel Europa in Trouw
Review of Grand Hotel Europa in De Volkskrant
Review of Grand Hotel Europa in De Morgen
Review of Grand Hotel Europa in Nederlands Dagblad
Review of Grand Hotel Europa in De Groene Amsterdammer
Essay by Lars Bernaerts on Grand Hotel Europa for De Reactor
Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer interviewed about Grand Hotel Europa in the late night television show of Eva Jinek (video)
Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer interviewed about Grand Hotel Europa by Carolina lo Galbo in the television program VPRO Books (video)
Interview with Jelle van Riet about Grand Hotel Europa in De Standaard
Interview with Janneke Siebelink about Grand Hotel Europa for Lees Magazine of bol.com
Interview with Roderik Six about Grand Hotel Europa in Knack
Interview with Maarten Moll about Grand Hotel Europa in Algemeen Dagblad and Parool
Interview with Thomas Peeters about Grand Hotel Europa in De Tijd
Interview with Kevin van Vliet about Grand Hotel Europa in HP De Tijd
Double interview met Stella Seitun in NRC Handelsblad
Debating evening about Grand Hotel Europa in De Balie, Amsterdam (video)
Interview at MAX Nieuwsweekend Radio about Grand Hotel Europa (audio)
Interview about Grand Hotel Europa at Nooit Meer Slapen, VPRO Radio (audio)
Interview about Grand Hotel Europa at Pompidou, Radio Klara, VRT (audio)
Interview about Grand Hotel Europa at Culture Club, Radio 1, VRT (audio)
Interview about Grand Hotel Europa at Opium Radio 4 (audio)
Review of Grand Hotel Europa in Leeuwarder Courant and Tzum
Review of Grand Hotel Europa in De Limburger
Review of Grand Hotel Europa in Het Laatste Nieuws
Review of Grand Hotel Europa in NCRV Gids
Review of Grand Hotel Europa on the blog of Pascal Cornet
Review of Grand Hotel Europa on the blog of Bettina Grissen
Five pressing reasons, according to Marcel Vanthilt of Radio 1 VRT, to read Grand Hotel Europa immediately
Review of Grand Hotel Europa for BoekBuis (video)
Interview by Dirk Vandenberghe about Grand Hotel Europa in the House of Books Theoria in Kortrijk, Belgium (video)
Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer reads the first chapter of Grand Hotel Europa in the Donner bookstore in Rotterdam (video)
Grand Hotel Europa in the world-wide bestsellers’ list of Il Libraio (in Italian)
Interview by Graziano Graziani at the Dutch embassy in Rome about La Superba and Grand Hotel Europa (in Italian, video)
Book trailer in English for the Portughese edition of Grand Hotel Europe:
Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer apresenta Grand Hotel Europa
Book trailers in Italian for Grand Hotel Europe:
Grand Hotel Europa – Trailer 1 – La storia d’amore con Clio (video)
Grand Hotel Europa – Trailer 2 – I luoghi e i misteri del libro (video)
Grand Hotel Europa – Trailer 3 – L’identità europea (video)
Grand Hotel Europa – Trailer 4 – Il concetto di amore (video)
Grand Hotel Europa – Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer racconta (video)
Book trailers in Dutch for Grand Hotel Europe:
Grand Hotel Europa – Trailer 1 – “Baliebel” (video)
Grand Hotel Europa – Trailer 2 – “Blanke pagina” (video)
Grand Hotel Europa – Trailer 3 – “De steeg” (video)
Grand Hotel Europa – Trailer 4 – “Titiaan” (video)
Grand Hotel Europa – Trailer 5 – “Toeristen” (video)
Grand Hotel Europa – Trailer 6 – “De cape” (video)
