Silent Catastrophes
‘A profoundly affirming book about the potential for literature . . . One of the few essential writers of this generation’ The Scotsman
From acclaimed critic, novelist and academic W. G. Sebald, author of Austerlitz and The Rings of Saturn, a collection of essay on the Austrian writers who inspired him
Appearing for the first time in English, Silent Catastrophes brings together W. G. Sebald’s essays on the Austrian writers who meant so much to him.
The evolution of Austria from vast empire to diminutive Alpine republic, followed by its annexation by Nazi Germany, had a profound traumatic impact on the literary output of the nation. Essays on the writings of Kafka, Handke, Bernhard and more, explore the concepts of ‘home/land’, ‘borderland’ and ‘exile’ with deep compassion and insight.
A revelation to Sebald’s English-language readers, Silent Catastrophes traces many of the themes which animate Sebald’s own work and illuminates how melancholy – the contemplation of disaster in progress – is itself a form of resistance.
‘One of Europe’s most mysterious and best-loved literary imaginations’ Evening Standard
W. G. Sebald (Author)
W. G. Sebald was born in Wertach im Allgäu, Germany, in 1944 and died in December 2001. He studied German language and literature in Freiburg, Switzerland and Manchester. In 1966 he took up a position as an assistant lecturer at the University of Manchester and settled permanently in England in 1970. He was Professor of European Literature at the University of East Anglia and is the author of The Emigrants, The Rings of Saturn, Vertigo, Austerlitz, After Nature, On the Natural History of Destruction, Unrecounted, Campo Santo, A Place in the Country and a selection of poetry, Across the Land and the Water.
Jo Catling (Translator)
Jo Catling taught German and European literature at the University of East Anglia where she worked closely with W G Sebald from 1993 until his death. Translator of Sebalds A Place in the Country, she is editor (with Richard Hibbitt) of Saturn's Moons: W G Sebald - A Handbook (Legenda, 2011) and has published widely on Sebald and on Rainer Maria Rilke.