The Emigrants - Hardcover

W.G. Sebald; Michael Hulse

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0811213382 ISBN 13: 9780811213387

Publisher: New Directions, 1996

Synopsis

Journeying through England, Austria, and America to salvage memories of the Holocaust, four narratives capture the lives of four people in exile--a painter, an elderly White Russian, Sebald's schoolteacher, and his own eccentric Great Uncle Ambrose--in a family portrait of a family destroyed.

About this title

Review

In this remarkable work of fiction, W.G. Sebald explores the power of memory as he traces the lives of four people uprooted by war and prejudice. Each of the stories reflect the tragic impact of World War II on the survivors, who struggle with a loss of home, a loss of language, and a loss of self. Through memories, each person attempts to make sense of their histories and bridge the chasm the war ripped in their lives. Combined with each story are photographs that purport to show the subjects of the stories. The combination of photographs, biography, and autobiography combine to form a meditative, lyrical story that is at once powerful and introspective.

About the Author

W. G. Sebald was born Winfried George Maximillian Sebald in Wertach im Allgäu, in the Bavarian Alps in 1944. From 1975 he taught at the University of East Anglia, became Professor of German in 1986, and was the first director of the British Centre for Translation. He won the Berlin Literature, Literatur Nord, and Mörike Prizes, as well as the Johannes Bobrowski medal, plus the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Fiction (The Rings of Saturn). New Directions was the first to publish his book here: The Rings of Saturn, The Emigrants, and Vertigo. He died in an automobile accident in Norfolk, England, near his home in Norwich in East Anglia, England, on December 14, 2001.

About this edition

• Publisher: New Directions
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0811213382
• ISBN 13: 9780811213387
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 237