The Hottentot Room

0/5 ( ratings)

Squashed in among the tarnished bustle of Earl's Court is an exclusive establishment. A club for exiles. The Hottentot Room. Frau Katie - herself exiled from Nazi Germany - is Queen of the Hottentots. Now she lies on her deathbed while, all around, her carefully chosen subjects moan and sigh. Yearning for the past and their African homeland, they air again old arguments, dated philosophies - and gripe. Only the journalist Caleb Looper soothes Frau Katie's passion. She and Caleb will elope to Berlin together - her triumphant return!
What will happen to this little tribe when Frau Katie dies and English Rose - despising sentiment, welcoming change - takes charge? The Hottentots will be Hottentots again. What will Caleb Looper do? Will he be found out?
'Christopher Hope writes very impressively in a cold, intelligent, accurate rage' OBSERVER 'Entertaining and intelligent, it goes far deeper than its topical parallels drawn between the apartheid system and the presence of the Berlin Wall. From a motley group of exiles gathered in an Earl's Court club run by a refugee from wartime Berlin, Mr Hope has fashioned a story all the more exciting for its dextrous blurring of their sympathies and antagonisms' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'An entertaining novel, elegantly written and intricately plotted. It is also J more than that, since the entertainment seduces us into coming to grips with dirty politics and ruthless power games' TLS 'Christopher Hope has written a novel of compelling elegance and sadness. / challenge anyone not to be moved by it. I think it is his best to date' BRITISH BOOK NEWS
His writing is strong in detail, his description as instant and sharp as a well-researched movie. To race relations, indeed to world affairs, he brings a rare honesty and humour' MAIL ON SUNDAY