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.
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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.
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You need to have a taste for the post-modern style of construction and also for Proust and for psychoanalysis to completely appreciate to the texture and beauty of Sebald's prose, and for the plot, elusive at first, but profoundly compelling by the mid-point surprise.
Eli L
May 1, 2014
Interesting read
Well written and interesting. Took nearly half the book to arrive at the where I expected the book to start, that is the kinder transport. but still we'll worth reading and probably very realistic. Beautifully written, thought provoking and good psychological detail.
