‘A profoundly affirming book about the potential for literature . . . One of the few essential writers of this generation’ The ScotsmanFrom 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 himAppearing 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