Hotel Savoy

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 and lodges at the Hotel Savoy. The owner is absent, the guests are deranged and murder and chaos ensue.

'"A pity," says Abel Glanz, "it was a good hotel."' 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 eastern town at the gates of Europe and lodges in the huge Hotel Savoy. The owner is absent, and 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 - and murder and chaos ensue. Written in 1923, Hotel Savoy is a dark, witty parable of Europe in the shadow of fascism and war: this is Roth at his best.