The City and Time
'The City and Time' consists of nine stories in chronological order, all of which take place in Brussels. The book begins during the 1958 World Fair, when Brussels is the ecstatic centre of the world for a whole summer long. Gradually, however, time devastates the city, creating something that can no longer be referred to by a single name. Brussels is the capital city of a divided country, the cultural centre of a multilingual society, a chaotic port of refuge. Driven by restlessness, the people in the story become increasingly displaced in a city that is steadily ceasing to exist.
Robijn fits his touching miniatures into a larger, meaningful story without his characters becoming puppets. *****De Standaard
A perfumery owner with a tearaway son, an ex-convict who becomes a master chocolate-maker, an Armenian pianist who risks her promising career because she falls passionately in love, an army doctor who wants to commit suicide, but is prevented from doing so by another suicide – they are curious characters, who come to life in stories full of subtle twists and turns.
Robijn’s characters all have difficulty getting by in life, but succeed by throwing themselves blindly into their regular activities. Until something – often love – turns up and turns everything upside down.
Each and every story sparkles with imagination. Robijn possesses the magic of the true storyteller.HDC Media