Four stories, each telling of a man who left his homeland and lived in exile, are linked through a narrator who reconstructs their lives from photographs, diaries, and memories. They include Dr. Henry Selwyn, a Lithuanian-born doctor living in England, the teacher Paul Bereyter, who was half-Jewish, Ambros Adelwarth, a great-uncle who worked as a valet in America, and the painter Max Ferber in Manchester. Sebald's long, flowing sentences and black-and-white images weave grief and memory together.
Readers who like slow, meditative prose about loss and the shadow of the Holocaust will find it a rewarding classic. It suits those who enjoy books that blur memoir, history, and fiction.
Deep, inward-looking, contemplative and thought-provoking; a moderate read.
Best for readers like The Wisdom Collector. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 2002
- Publisher
- Fischer
- ISBN
- 9783596120567
- Language
- DE
