Dimensions
130 x 197 x 8mm
The central character of this novel, Gabriel Dan, is a former soldier in the Austrian army who returns from a Siberian prison camp, some time after the First World War. He arrives in an unnamed town that might be in Poland, at the gates of Europe, and lodges in the huge Hotel Savoy. The owner is absent; the guests are odd, deranged, longing for salvation, dreaming of a release from the unbearable tensions of their lives. A former citizen who has made his fortune in the USA is rumoured to be on his way home; murder and chaos ensue. Written in 1932, 'Hotel Savoy' is a dark, witty parable of Europe on the verge of fascism and war: Roth at his best.