Description

SHORTLISTED: THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD

LONGLISTED: WOMENS’ PRIZE FOR FICTION 2022

A NOVEL OF DEVASTATING BEAUTY SET IN BUCHENWALD DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR

“A powerful and disturbing study in terrible lies and the human need to believe them.”

ANNIE PROULX

Moving away from their lovely apartment in Munich isn’t nearly as wrenching an experience for Frau Greta Hahn as she had feared. Their new home is even lovelier than the one they left behind and life in Buchenwald would appear to be idyllic. Lying just beyond the forest that surrounds them is the looming presence of a work camp. Frau Hahn’s husband, SS Sturmbannfuhrer Dietrich Hahn, has been assigned as the camp’s administrator.

When Frau Hahn’s poor health leads her into an unlikely and poignant friendship with one of Buchenwald’s prisoners, Dr Lenard Weber, her naive ignorance about what is going on so nearby is challenged. A decade earlier, Dr Weber had invented a machine believed that its subtle resonances might cure cancer. But does it really work? One way or another, it might save a life.

A tour de force about the evils of obliviousness, Remote Sympathy compels us to question our continuing and wilful ability to look the other way in a world that is in thrall to the idea that everything-even facts and morals-is relative.

Publisher Review

"Immersive, profound, and beautifully plotted." * The Guardian * "Moving and unusual... Catherine Chidgey's novel is a fine achievement." * The Sunday Times * "Chidgey is a find." * TLS * "Powerful." * The New York Times * "With its multiple registers and complex view of humanity, this marks a vital turn in Holocaust literature." * Publishers' Weekly - starred * "One of the most original, brave and profound explorations of the darkest recesses of the human heart I have ever read." -- Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind "A richly imaginative, memorable story." * The Times (on The Wish Child) * "Chidgey experiments with and opens up new structural territory for what contemporary fiction might be." * New Zealand Herald (on The Beat of the Pendulum) * "Chidgey is a gifted writer... her confident, commanding prose and vivid atmospherics hold the attention." * The Guardian (on The Transformation) * "Wise, inventive, insightful and extraordinarily astute about both the darkness and the light in human nature, Catherine Chidgey gives us a riveting historical novel that is piercingly relevant to our time. What do we choose to see and what not to see and what are the consequences? Remote Sympathy broke and awakened my heart in equal measure. One of the best books I've read in years." -- Stacey D'Erasmo, author of Wonderland "A wonderful new talent." -- Nick Hornby "An insightful account of human nature set against the chaos of war. It is a moving examination of the human condition and well worth serious attention." * Historical Novels Review * "Insightful... staggering....chilling. Remarkably powerful." * Lizzy's Literary Life *