The Dark Room - Hardcover

Seiffert, Rachel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0434009865 ISBN 13: 9780434009862

Publisher: Heinemann, 2001

Synopsis

Ms. Seiffert's book, "The Dark Room", is notable as not only an auspicious debut for this young writer, but additionally for her remarkable talent in relating a feel for human events that took place decades before she was born. None of these three stories is based on Historical Fact, what she wrote she created. That the stories probably did occur in some manner, takes nothing away from the writing she offers readers. The book contains three stories or novellas that are not dependent upon one another, and while not all carried the same impact, the three are consistently well written. The Author writes in an understated manner, this is not a series of stories that shock by atrocity alone. The book is replete with human suffering both inflicted and endured, but it is delivered with a subtle pen. Ms. Seiffert also has taken a less familiar perspective in this book. The book does have a camp survivor as a pivotal player in the final story, however generally we see the other victims of the crimes of this war. The events that forever damage these people are explored both as they happened and as they are uncovered generations later. The final story is, "Micha", and I found it to be the strongest. Those who were affected by being present during the war and its aftermath generally struggle with grief or rage that is more familiar; they are the immediate victims of the conflict. The final story painfully demonstrates that certain conduct has ramifications that never subside, as they literally inhabit the generations that follow. Time does not in fact heal many things. I look forward to more of what this woman will offer as she has a manner of writing that that slowly invades the mind's eye, and in this case encompasses it with its horror and crimes. It is a powerful method of delivering themes that are all fundamentally appalling, without any added emphasis. She presents her stories without flourish and without preaching. A very talented young Author.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

Rachel Seiffert?s absorbing, internationally acclaimed debut explores the modern German psyche through the experiences of three ordinary people.

At the onset of World War II, a young photographer?s assistant is kept out of the war due to a physical disability, and instead spends his time capturing on film the changing temper of Berlin, the city he loves. Just weeks after Germany?s surrender, a teenage girl whose parents have been taken into allied custody leads her siblings on a harrowing journey to find their grandmother. And two generations after the war, a teacher searches for the reason why the Russians imprisoned his beloved grandfather. Evoking the experiences of the individual with astonishing emotional depth and psychological acuity, The Dark Room develops a portrait of the twentieth century in all its drama and complexity.

From the Back Cover

“A novel about the German soul in the twentieth century, this debut work stuns with its simplicity of style and hugeness of subject.” –The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Ambitious and powerful. . . . Seiffert writes lean, clean prose. Deftly, she hangs large ideas on the vivid private experiences of her principal characters [to] form an allegory of the German soul in its passage over eighty years.” —The New York Times Book Review

“[A] probing novel. . . . Seiffert gives us pictures as evocative as they are ghostly....” —Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Lyrical . . . explores the experience of ‘ordinary’ Germans–the descendents of Nazis and Nazi sympathizers–and poses questions about the country’s psychological and political inheritance with rare insight and humanity.” --The New Yorker

Edition details

• Publisher: Heinemann
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0434009865
• ISBN 13: 9780434009862
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 391