Europolis

Set in the decaying, multicultural port town of Sulina at the edge of the Danube Delta, Europolis is a hauntingly atmospheric novel that captures a world on the brink of vanishing. In this isolated outpost, where Greek, Romanian, Ukrainian, Jewish, Turkish, and Armenian characters coexist amid steamships and faded empires, the return from America of Nikola Marulis—rumored to be a wealthy émigré—sparks a wave of gossip, ambition, and dreams. But Nikola’s homecoming is not what it seems. As illusions unravel, passions flare, and destinies collide, Europolis transforms from a tapestry of port life into a poignant meditation on disillusionment, mortality, and the slow erosion of a once-vital community. First published in 1933 and now available in English for the first time, Bart’s masterpiece is an elegy for a town, a time, and the lost promise of modernity.