‘The human drama…takes centre stage.’ An interview with Robert Seethaler

/ Sarah Escritt

The Café with No Name, the latest novel by International Booker Prize listed author, Robert Seethaler, has recently been published in English translation by Katy Derbyshire. In advance of his visit to the UK to speak about his book, he found time to catch up with New Books in German.

You grew up in Vienna but have lived for many years in Berlin. What is it that pulls you back to Austria in your writing?

It is not only in my writing that I am drawn to Vienna. Vienna is a living city, not just something to write about. And it is my home, the place where I grew up, with all the associations that go with that, the good and the really terrible. I grew up in a working class district. Life is very different there from the way it is in the centre where everything is spruced up for the tourists. Home is the place where things happen for the first time. The first time alone. The first time as a pair. The first shock. The first kiss. The first punch-up and the last. All this has a lifelong influence.

That aside, Vienna is quite simply a lovely city. And it smells good: have you ever been to the Prater in springtime?

The Austria that you return to is an Austria of a few decades ago. Do you have a sense of wanting to ensure that what remains of a particular time and people is not forgotten? Do you seek to preserve on paper what you have heard from older generations about ordinary lives in the immediate pre- and post-war decades in Austria?

To be honest I’m not trying to preserve anything. There is no specific intent behind my books. I’m not trying to convey a moral message or launch a campaign. Art is ephemeral. That’s also the case for literature. I’m more interested in stories than in history. Any place and any time can be the setting for a good story and you can change both time and place and still have the story. I see the setting as stage scenery which is painted in as a backdrop to what is actually important: the human drama that takes centre stage. That is what it is all about.

The cafĂ© in your novel, The CafĂ© with No Name, is like a stage set. Simon sets it up in chapter 2 and dismantles it in the penultimate chapter. In the intervening scenes, people’s lives unfold. You have introduced some wonderful chapters which evoke the hubbub of overlapping conversations in a cafĂ©: they are like chorus scenes. Does your theatre training and work in film inform your approach to writing?

But life itself is much more inspiring than theatre, film or any other art form: life in a family, amongst neighbours, on the streets or in a café in a run-down part of town.

Robert Seethaler

Not consciously, but probably in some way. At the end of the day, all writers draw on their own experience. But life itself is much more inspiring than theatre, film or any other art form: life in a family, amongst neighbours, on the streets or in a café in a run-down part of town.

Simon’s cafĂ© is in the middle of a city that has only recently risen from the rubble. It’s a place where people who have not exactly had a sunny start in life meet, console each other and argue. A place is only as interesting as the people who bring it to life. Here we see them in all their contrariness and we see their nasty side. But we also empathise with them in their struggles and aspirations, little victories and great defeats. It is the scars that make a person human.

Your books celebrate manual labour and the discipline of turning up every day. Do you see writing too as a craft?

I have no idea what people are talking about when they say that writing is a source of constant joy. If you take it seriously, it’s hard work.

Robert Seethaler

I come from a working class family. It’s a world that I understand. I have no idea what people are talking about when they say that writing is a source of constant joy. If you take it seriously, it’s hard work. Not as hard as pouring hot tar on to a street all day long or driving a delivery lorry until you have a sore bottom – but it’s certainly not enjoyable all the time. The moments when everything flows beautifully are rare.

Your prose is deceptively simple. It is precise and evocative. It is the signature of your novels. But your work has been translated into many different languages including into English by two different but equally excellent translators, Charlotte Collins and Katy Derbyshire. How do you feel about this proliferation of your work? Does it change your relationship to your writing?

I am delighted that my books are read all over the world but this has no impact on my writing. I tell stories and write about passing moments. Words and pictures are all that count. And that’s why I don’t think about what effect my work is going to have. There’s no point in trying to meet the expectations of people you don’t know. The only useful measure is your own. All you can do is to try to give the best you can at this particular time in your life. To aim for anything else would be to betray your own work.

Your earlier book, A Whole Life, was shortlisted for the 2016 Man Booker International Prize.The Café with No Name, only recently published in English, has already been shortlisted for the Prix Médicis and the Prix Femina in France. Do you have a sense that different national readerships take different things from your writing? Have you ever been surprised by the way in which one of your books has been presented in translation?

It’s interesting that internationally my books are positioned differently from the way they are in Germany. In France, for example, they are regarded as literary classics and are shelved between Kafka and Faulkner. Elsewhere I have won a prize for romantic fiction – for my book, The Field, in which the dead, buried in a graveyard, raise their voices one last time. So that was quite surprising. Unfortunately I can’t claim to judge the quality of the translations because I don’t rate my knowledge of other languages. But I’ve frequently been told that my two English-language translators have produced excellent work. It’s always interesting to see things from a perspective that is different, new and perhaps even incomprehensible. I like receiving new translations in the post. The covers are sometimes a bit off the wall, but often they are real works of art.

Author photo  Â© Urban Zintel

The Cafe with No Name is out now with Canongate (see here) and with Europe Editions (more here).

The book was a New Books in German jury choice and you can read our recommendation here.

Forthcoming readings in England

Bath

The Café with No Name with Robert Seethaler
Tue 1 Apr 2025

7:00pm at Bath Elim Church, Charlotte St, Bath BA1 2ND

More information and tickets, click here.

London

Book Presentation & Discussion: Robert Seethaler and Charlotte Collins – The CafĂ© with No Name
Wed 2 Apr 2025 7:00PM
Austrian Cultural Forum London
28 Rutland Gate
London SW7 1PQ
Currently sold out, but click here for further information and to be added to the waiting list.

Oxford

Oxford Literary Festival

The CafĂ© with No Name – Robert Seethaler and Karen Leeder
Thursday, 3 April 2025 2:00pm

Bodleian: Convocation House

For further information and tickets, click here.

DE → EN – Enjoy in English

This regular page brings you a selection of German-language titles that have just been, or are soon to be, published in English. We cover fiction, crime, nonfiction, children’s and YA, short stories, poetry and dramatic arts.

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