Description

‘A book of excruciating sobriety and warmth and a magical concreteness of observation… I know of no book which conveys more about that complex fate, being a European at the end of European civilization’ Susan Sontag

At first The Emigrants appears simply to document the lives of four Jewish emigres in the twentieth century. But gradually, as Sebald’s precise, almost dreamlike prose begins to draw their stories, the four narrations merge into one overwhelming evocation of exile and loss.

‘An unconsoling masterpiece… Exquisitely written and exquisitely translated…a true work of art’ Spectator

Publisher Review

A sober delicate account of displacement, and a classic of its kind. Modest and remote, it resurrects older standards of behaviour, making most contemporary writing seem brash and immature. No book has pleased me more this year * Anita Brookner, Spectator * A spellbinding account of four Jewish exiles. Its restrained and meditative tone has stayed with me all year * Nicholas Shakespeare * An unconsoling masterpiece...It is exquisitely written and exquisitely translated...a true work of art * Spectator * This deeply moving book shames most writers with its nerve and tact and wonder * Michael Ondaatje * Strange, beautiful and terribly moving * A.S. Byatt *