Austerlitz [Paperback]

W G Sebald (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 4, 2002

In the summer of 1939, five-year-old Jacques Austerlitz is sent to England on one of the Kindertransports and placed with foster parents in Wales. For reasons of their own, the childless Calvinist couple erase from the boy all knowledge of his identity. Throughout his life Austerlitz is haunted by feelings of otherness, but it is not until retirement that he embarks on a journey to make sense of his curious early memories and explores what happened to him half a century ago.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Sebald is the Joyce of the 21st Century" The Times

About the Author

W.G. Sebald was born in Germany in 1944 and died in December 2001. He is the author of the highly acclaimed THE EMIGRANTS, THE RINGS OF SATURN and VERTIGO. Hamish Hamilton is publishing AFTER NATURE to coincide with the paperback of AUSTERLITZ.

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books (July 4, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140297995
• ISBN-13: 978-0140297997
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #903,885 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Austerlitz" is a gorgeous book, July 10, 2008

By 

J. Turmes (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Austerlitz (Paperback)

This is a beautifully written book, and although it is a work of fiction it reads simply as recollections told to a narrator, who meets Jacques Austerlitz during his wanderings throughout Europe. Rather than tell Austerlitz's story directly, Sebald allows it to unfold through a series of chance encounters with the narrator (whose name escaped me, if he has one in the book). It is the story of a man who literally does not know who he is or where he came from, and who sets out on a journey through his past. Through the use of detailed images and specific observations, Sebald binds us to the present time, yet the book has a luminous, dreamlike quality. Were I restricted to one adjective for this book, it would be this: haunting. Both with beauty and with ghosts. I intend to read this book again.

4 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful..., June 5, 2008

By 

Charles F. Jurgus "[e-mail]" (Englewood, Chicago) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Austerlitz (Paperback)

I still havn't gotten further then 30 pages into this book. Each time I pick it up I start at the beginning again and I don't get far before I put it down and get lost in thought. And it can take months before I can pick it up again--it's been years.