Austerlitz
W. G. Sebald · 1944–2001 · Germany / England
Originally Austerlitz (German) · translated by Anthea Bell
Why it matters
A man raised in Wales slowly uncovers the Kindertransport childhood taken from him: memory reassembled in train stations and archives. Sebald's only true novel and his masterpiece; published months before his death.
At a glance
postmodernwar novelpsychological novel
Difficulty 7/10slow pace416 pagesSingle sprawling sentences run for pages, nested within a frame narrator's retelling.
Deep dive
A novel built almost entirely out of other people's sentences relayed at second and third hand, and photographs presented as evidence that withhold exactly the one fact you want them to confirm.
