Author:W. G. Sebald,Anthea Bell
Sebald's On the Natural History of Destruction explores German writers' silence about a moment of mass destruction
In the last years of World War II, a million tons of bombs were dropped by the Allies on one hundred and thirty-one German towns and cities. Six hundred thousand civilians died, and three and a half million homes were destroyed. When it has cast such a very dark shadow over his life and work, Sebald asks, how have so many writers allowed themselves to write it out of their experience and avoid articulating the horror? W.G. Sebald's On the Natural History of Destruction sparked a wide-ranging debate in the German press.
'Sebald makes exquisite art out of vile history' Boyd Tonkin, Independent
'One of the most important writers of our time' A.S. Byatt, New Statesman
'Demands to be read for its grand emotional power ... it absorbs and horrifies and illuminates' Scotsman
'Brilliant and disturbing' Antony Beevor, The Times
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 1996 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, Campo Santo, Unrecounted, For Years Now and A Place in the Country. His selected poetry is published in a volume called Across the Land and the Water.
Winner of the Wolfson History Prize, the Bruno Kreisky Prize in Austria for Political Book of the Year, and the inaugural British Academy Book Prize.
—— Prizes and awardsMagisterial ... anyone who wishes to understand the third reich must read Kershaw, for no on has done more to lay bare Hitler's morbid psyche
—— Niall Ferguson , Sunday TelegraphAn achievement of the very highest order ... Kershaw communicates a genuine sense of tension as Hitler embarked on ever-riskier stratagems, bringing a fresh eye to the over-familiar diplomatic or military story ... a marvellous book
—— Michael Burleigh , Financial TimesExtraordinarily convincing ... I do not know any other Hitler biography that so coolly, factually and devastatingly presents the phenomena of "obedience" and charisma
—— Gitta Sereny , The TimesFor the present generation, Kershaw's Hitler stands as our clear beacon of truth, illuminating a dark age of terror and mendacity
—— Craig Brown , Mail on SundayNo previous biographer has examined Hitler's devilishness in Kershaw's detail ... his book is so comprehensive, so richly documented and so judicious that it will not soon be superseded
—— Daniel Johnson , Daily TelegraphA riveting narrative ... the text positively crackles with fascinating insights and interesting perceptions ... this is unquestionably an outstanding biography
—— Frank McLynn , Herald