Austerlitz

was the fourth and final work of prose fiction by German author Winfried Georg Sebald, appearing shortly before his death at the end of 2001. The work depicts the tormented present and fragmented past of Jacques Austerlitz, and his painstaking quest to recover an identity lost to him upon his exile to Britain from Prague as a young child on the

Kindertransport

. In so far as the book dwells on memory, history, trauma, and the resounding human cost of war and social upheaval,

Austerlitz

is in keeping with the concerns of the rest of Sebald's fiction

oeuvre

. It is especially close, thematically, to

Die Ausgewanderten

[

The Emigrants,

1993], which is about four émigré Jewish men haunted by their past.

Of the four “novels” by Sebald Austerlitz is arguably the most deserving of

2777 words

Citation: Behrendt, Kathy Anne. "Austerlitz". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 July 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=8945, accessed 19 March 2024.]

8945 Austerlitz 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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