Paula Karst, a young French art student, trains to become a ‘trompe l’œil’ painter at an art school in Brussels. During her studies, she forms a lasting friendship with two fellow students, Jonas and Kate. Her career leads her to paint film sets in Moscow and Rome, but ultimately, she returns to the very roots of painting by participating in the creation of a replica of the prehistoric Lascaux cave.

Robert Menasse’s novel “The Capital” resolves around EU officials in Brussels who are planning a ‘Jubilee Project’ to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the European Commission. The novel features various eccentric characters, including an Austrian pig farmer, a retired economics professor, a Polish assassin who would have preferred to become a priest, and a Belgian police inspector who attempts to solve a murder case.

In her book “Mazel Tov”, J.S. Margot recounts her experiences working as a student for an Orthodox Jewish family in Antwerp, assisting the children with their homework and other household tasks. As a non-Jew, she was unfamiliar with the rules and customs of the Orthodox Jewish community, and she describes with humour and curiosity the cultural differences, misunderstandings, and the friendship she developed with the family.

In the novel “Will”, Wilfried (nicknamed “Will”) recounts his experiences in German-occupied Antwerp during the Second World War. As a new recruit to the local police force, Will initially assists the Germans in arresting ‘work dodgers’, but his collaboration gradually intensifies. At one point, the Antwerp police carry out a raid on the city’s Jewish population, rounding up entire families, with Will simply following his orders. At the same time, he also helps a Jewish diamond dealer hide from the Germans. The question is: what drives him? At least part of Will’s motivation appears to be a desire to ingratiate himself with his girlfriend’s family, who are active in the resistance.

“The Melting” tells the story of Eva, a young girl who grew up in a dysfunctional family in Bovenmeer, a fictional Flemish village inspired by the author’s hometown of Viersel, near Antwerp. Thirteen years after a sex game went out of control, Eva returns to her childhood village. She carries a block of ice in the trunk of her car, determined to exact revenge on the boys she grew up with.

Alphonse, a musician of Senegalese descent, relocates with his girlfriend from Brussels to the Westhoek, a rural area in West-Flanders (Belgium) near the French border, where he takes up work as a handyman. On many of his jobs, people confide in him, sharing their personal problems and secrets, but he also encounters racism and prejudice. The novel recounts thirty days in Alphonse’s life in the Westhoek, culminating in the fateful day when he visits a makeshift camp of Afghan refugees.

“Summer Before the Dark” recounts the summer of 1936, spent by a group of émigré writers from Austria-Germany, in Ostend, on the Belgian North Sea coast. Among them are two of Europe’s most celebrated authors, Stefan Zweig and Joseph Roth, both of Jewish descent, whose works have been banned by the Nazis. The book paints a vivid portrait of the friendship between these two men, as they spend a last summer in Ostend, enjoying the sun but also worrying about their finances and the future of Europe.

“Other People’s Countries” is a book about Bouillon, a small town in the Belgian Ardennes, near the French border. The book consists of 62 short episodes, each recounting events involving both ordinary and famous people in Bouillon. At its core, the book captures the author’s childhood memories in this charming Walloon town, offering a personal lens through which daily life and history intertwine.

“Expo 58” is a comic Cold War novel and love story, set against the backdrop of the 1958 World’s Fair in Brussels – the first since the Second World War and the largest of the century. Despite the tensions of the Cold War, nations from around the globe gathered beneath the futuristic Atomium to celebrate progress and modernity. The novel’s protagonist, Thomas Foley, is a young English civil servant sent to Brussels to manage a replica English pub at the British pavilion. In the Belgian capital, he meets Anneke, a Flemish Expo hostess, and soon finds himself entangled in both a love affair and a web of Cold War espionage.

The year is 1842, and a young Charlotte Brontë, along with her sister Emily, moves from the English countryside to Brussels to study French and German. Their hope is to open a school of their own upon returning to England. In Brussels, they enrol at a boarding school run by Claire Parent. The newly independent Belgium, with its catholic and worldly-liberal values, comes as a shock to the Brontë sisters. After Emily returns to England, Charlotte falls in love with her teacher, Mr Constantin Héger, who is married to the headmistress.