The Cafe with No Name
Published on 9. April 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
208 pages
978-1-83726-102-4 (ISBN)
Description
THE NUMBER ONE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
'How I loved this book . . . Seethaler is in his very own league' Elizabeth Strout
'[A] moving, charming novel about to what extent we must change as the world around us hurtles into the unknown'
Observer
It is 1966, and Robert Simon has just fulfilled his dream by taking over a cafe 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, 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 cafe, and to Robert's dream.
The Cafe with No Name has charmed millions of European readers. It is an unforgettable novel about how we carry each other through good and bad times, and how even the most ordinary life is, in its own way, quite extraordinary.
'How I loved this book . . . Seethaler is in his very own league' Elizabeth Strout
'[A] moving, charming novel about to what extent we must change as the world around us hurtles into the unknown'
Observer
It is 1966, and Robert Simon has just fulfilled his dream by taking over a cafe 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, 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 cafe, and to Robert's dream.
The Cafe with No Name has charmed millions of European readers. It is an unforgettable novel about how we carry each other through good and bad times, and how even the most ordinary life is, in its own way, quite extraordinary.
Reviews / Votes
How I loved this book! Filled with truth after truth, poignantly rendered and given to us with tender open-handedness. Seethaler is in his very own league, capturing a place and time that is ultimately universal -- ELIZABETH STROUT [A] moving, charming novel about to what extent we must change as the world around us hurtles into the unknown -- ELLEN PEIRSON-HAGGER * * The Observer * * [Seethaler's] latest fable-like miniature invites quiet wonder into the ordinary * * Financial Times * * In a world of action movies and social media there's little time for quiet contemplation. Seethaler reminds us we're part of a whole * * Spectator * * Rewarding . . . written with an understated and elegant restraint that is no less poignant and powerful for it -- TAN TWAN ENG Seethaler's subtly understated voice remains warmly welcome in a literary culture that often displays its intentions too obviously. Many will love this calming, gentle and unsentimental story. Certainly, Seethaler remains admirably true to his creative vision. A poet of the small, the random and the event without consequence, his is a world we can all enjoy * * Guardian * * While the novel stands up for the dignity of the human amid the casual violence of progress, it contains something more existential at its heart. It is haunted yet curiously timeless, a study of the battle against loneliness and despair, and of the traumas of war that persist through the generations * * Times Literary Supplement * * A gallery of vibrant characters presented with an appealing blend of understated honesty and unsentimental warmth * * New York Times Book Review * * Mr. Seethaler's quietly beguiling eighth novel, The Cafe With No Name, is his most uplifting to date . . . The sense of community that emerges in the nameless coffee house recalls the connections forged between quirky, lonely people in Haruki Murakami's stories and in Satoshi Yagisawa's novel, Days at the Morisaki Bookshop * * Wall Street Journal * * Evocative and aching, Seethaler's tale is as true as life itself * * Toronto Star * *More details
Edition
Main
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 131 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
158 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-83726-102-4 (9781837261024)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Persons
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 Cafe 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.
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.
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.