By Ann Englander: Sebald's work is not everyone's cup of tea. His sentences can go on and on (one single sentence in this book lasts for seven a half pages!) but it is well worth the effort. The fact that he wrote in his mother tongue, German, and was then translated into English may have something to do with what some regard as his overly long-winded style.
W.G. Sebald was a German writer who ended up teaching German literature at the University of East Anglia. Unfortunately for his many fans, he died in a car crash at the age of just 57. A colossal loss to the world of literature.
Although not Jewish, he seems to have been inspired, almost obsessively, by Jews and their experience of the Second World War. Austerlitz is regrettably Sebald's last novel. If he had lived, there are many who believe he would have won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
The book starts with the protagonist meeting the novel's unnamed narrator in Antwerp Central Station. The book is peppered throughout with grainy, black and white photographs which lend the narrative a feeling of truth and authenticity. The presence of a narrator gives the author the opportunity to recount the story of the main character.
The young Austerlitz had entirely forgotten the early part of his life until he suffers a nervous breakdown. He learns that he was born in Prague and sent via a Kindertransport to England and eventually adopted by a childless, Welsh couple. His adoptive father was a Nonconformist preacher and he never got any warmth and affection at home. He was was never told of his origins until the day he applied for university. He then learns that these were not his parents and his name is not Welsh but Jewish in origin.
He goes on to become an architectural historian. He starts searching for his roots by visiting Liverpool Street Station where the train had arrived and some memories of his seven-year old self return. He then goes to Prague and tracks down Vera, now an old lady, who looked after him as a child. He learns that his mother was a stunningly beautiful opera singer who ended up in Theresienstadt. With the rise of the Nazis, his father fled to Paris, never to be seen again.
The narrative is rather inconclusive. It appears that Austerlitz, never having had any love and affection, is incapable of expressing such alien feelings. He is the proverbial "lost soul" and without doubt a true victim of the war. During the course of the novel, the reader is taken on a guided tour of a lost European civilization, a world of fortresses (including Fort Breendonk), railway stations and libraries.
As a footnote, I am sure that many readers are aware that Fred Astaire's real name was Frederick Austerlitz.
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