Currents Summer 2022 Vol. 38, No. 2 | Page 27

Discovering German Literature in Translation : Austerlitz

BY MICHAELA A .

This month , a single book from the Deutsche Welle list of “ 100 German Must-Reads ”: Austerlitz by W . G . Sebald , on the list for the year 2001 .

Sebald was born in Bavaria in 1944 but spent much of his life in England as a professor of European literature at the University of East Anglia . His other works include Vertigo , The Emigrants and Rings of Saturn . Austerlitz was published to much acclaim just weeks before his sudden death from a heart attack while driving at age 57 .
Austerlitz is a moving and highly original book that can take some getting used to . It begins with the accidental meeting of a nameless narrator with a man named Jacques Austerlitz at the main train station in Antwerp , a meeting that introduces us to the structure of the entire novel : a man telling a story about Austerlitz telling his story across various meetings over 30 years . It feels breathless , as there are no chapter breaks or paragraphs , only diagrams or black and white photos scattered throughout , some of which have more connection to the text than others .
Austerlitz ’ s story soon becomes deeply engrossing as we learn of his attempts to understand his past , the unfolding of his repressed childhood memories , family , language , and home . He was just a five-year-old child when he was sent to England on the Kindertransport in 1939 , and he lost all connection to his roots for the next 50 years . The unfolding of his story , told to us through this nameless narrator in dialogue with Austerlitz , weaves historical fact with a fictional story , the photos adding to the sense of blurred borders . The narrator , and therefore we , the readers , serve an important role in bearing witness to Austerlitz ’ s trauma , and it seems to be the intention of Sebald to speak to wider themes of memory , reconciliation , and commemoration
In an excellent essay on the text , Erik Beyersdorf described Austerlitz as “ a seminal example of literary commemoration , which aims to communicate sensitive war-time memories without trivializing victim suffering , or , in other words , without desanctifying the Holocaust .”
Austerlitz is a book to be read when you have plenty of time — I found it hard to dip in and out of and still follow the story and narration closely . It ’ s a great book to dive deep into on summer vacation perhaps — a long train ride would make the perfect setting . It ’ s a hauntingly beautiful and deeply thoughtful book .
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