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Silent Catastrophes

byW. G. Sebald, Jo Catling (Translator)

Essays in Austrian Literature

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Appearing for the first time in English, Silent Catastrophes brings together W. G. Sebald’s essays on the Austrian writers who meant so much to him.

The evolution of Austria from vast empire to diminutive Alpine republic, followed by its annexation by Nazi Germany, had a profound traumatic impact on the literary output of the nation. Essays on the writings of Kafka, Handke, Bernhard and more, explore the concepts of ‘home/land’, ‘borderland’ and ‘exile’ with deep compassion and insight.

A revelation to Sebald’s English-language readers, Silent Catastrophes traces many of the themes which animate Sebald’s own work and illuminates how melancholy – the contemplation of disaster in progress – is itself a form of resistance.

A profoundly affirming book about the potential for literature . . . Since his death in 2001 it has become increasingly clear that WG Sebald is not just a very good writer, but quite simply one of the few essential writers of this generation . . . Nobody captures the epitaph quality of pastoral as well as he did

The Scotsman

About W. G. Sebald

W. G. Sebald was born in Wertach im Allgäu, Germany, in 1944 and died in December 2001. He studied German language and literature in Freiburg, Switzerland and Manchester. In 1966 he took up a position as an assistant lecturer at the University of Manchester and settled permanently in England in 1970. He was Professor of European Literature at the University of East Anglia and is the author of The Emigrants, The Rings of Saturn, Vertigo, Austerlitz, After Nature, On the Natural History of Destruction, Unrecounted, Campo Santo, A Place in the Country and a selection of poetry, Across the Land and the Water.
Details
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • ISBN: 9780141037028
  • Length: 240 pages
  • Price: £11.99
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