There are times when reading can feel like the comfort of a warm blanket, the reassuring velvet touch of the petal of a pansy…. The Cafe with No Name by Robert Seethaler, translated brilliantly by Katy Derbyshire published this year by Canongate (beautifully produced!) is one of those books.
It is an engaging, warm, and hopeful read; all of humanity is here with doubts, kindness, cruelty, hopes and love. Seethaler also evokes wonderfully a sense of place and the changes in the city of Vienna. Highly recommended.
Cover Image of: The Café with no Name by Robert Seethaler TR: Katy Derbyshire (Cannongate, 2025). Photograph of book by Shauna Gilligan.
Shauna Gilligan Writer 