Book Review – The Café with No Name by Robert Seethaler, translated by Katy Derbyshire @canongatebooks

About the Book

It is 1966, and Robert Simon has just fulfilled his dream by taking over a café on the corner of a bustling Vienna market. He recruits a barmaid, Mila, and soon the customers flock in.

Factory workers, market traders, elderly ladies, a wrestler, a painter, an unemployed seamstress in search of a job, each bring their stories and their plans for the future.

As Robert listens and Mila refills their glasses, romances bloom, friendships are made and fortunes change. And change is coming to the city around them, to the little café, and to Robert’s dream.

Format: Hardcover (224 pages) Publisher: Canongate
Publication date: 13th February 2025 Genre: Historical Fiction

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My Review

Set in 1960s Vienna, The Café with No Name is the deceptively simple story of mild-mannered Robert Simon. He rents a room from an elderly widow with whom he often shares breakfast, providing each with quiet companionship. He harbours an ambition to open a café and one day comes across a property on the edge of the local market. It’s a bit rundown but he’s not afraid of hard work and sets to work refurbishing it. Unable to decide on a name for the cafe, it remains without one.

Customers start to come to the café. They drink a coffee, a beer or a glass of wine – possibly more than one – and eat the cafe’s simple food offering of bread and dripping. At the suggestion of the widow he adds hot punch to the menu – with great success – and thanks to his friend, the butcher across the street, he acquires a barmaid, Mila.

Some customers of the café sit alone, some strike up conversations with other customers, others join friends for a game of cards. There are regular patrons, including traders from the market. Others are simply passers-by. The café is the scene of assignations, quarrels and gossip. It’s a place to unburden yourself or just to sit in quiet reflection. It’s everything Robert hoped the café would be. ‘[He] couldn’t help smiling at the thought of all the lost souls who came together in his café every day.’

Gradually we learn more about the lives of some of the café’s customers. There are moments of joy and sadness, of hope and despair. I found certain scenes intensely moving but I also enjoyed the touches of humour, chiefly provided by two female customers whose gossipy conversation the author allows us to eavesdrop on periodically.

Change is in the air as Vienna continues to rebuild after the war. And for Robert and the café, as in life, it’s time to move on. The Café with No Name explores the lives of ordinary people with an engagingly deft and compassionate touch.

I received an advance reader copy courtesy of Canongate via NetGalley.

In three words: Tender, insightful, emotional
Try something similar: These Dividing Walls by Fran Cooper

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About the Author

Robert Seethaler was born in Vienna in 1966 and is the author of several novels including A Whole Life, which was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, and The Tobacconist, which was a number one German bestseller. Originally published in 2023, Seethaler’s novel The Café with No Name was an instant number one bestseller, spending 44 weeks on the bestseller list. His works have been translated into over 40 languages. (Photo: Goodreads)

About the Translator

Katy Derbyshire is a Berlin-based translator. She has translated works by Christa Wolf, Inka Parei and Clemens Meyer, most notably Meyer’s novel Bricks and Mortar, which won the Straelener Prize for Translation. Meyer and Derbyshire have twice been longlisted for the International Booker Prize.