Last novel of
W.G. Sebald, published shortly before his
death in 2001.
In the 1960s, the unnamed
narrator meets one Jacques Austerlitz, a
Ludwig Wittgenstein-lookalike of indeterminate nationality based in
London. Over a period of many years, Austerlitz gradually reveals his story to the narrator. The disturbing tale he tells takes us back, via the kindertransport, to pre-war
Prague.
Sebald's themes -
time,
loss,
displacement - are suggested through an
imagery of
archaeology, old buildings,
natural history, people and places
submerged in water,
ghosts.
Is Austerlitz himself a ghost wandering the earth?
Avant garde elements - pictures, footnotes, no real chapters or paragraphs - complement a Germanic seriousness, producing something
sepulchral (like
marble - smooth, cool),
haunted.