Austerlitz

I was tempted to abandon WG Sebald's novel many times. This gothic tale from the late University of East Anglia creative writing professor seemed turgid in the extreme with its  complete absence of chapters and paragraphs; its endless sentences - one, five pages long, and all those grainy old black and white photographs; the awkward double dialogue - the narrator relating what Austerlitz told him.

But now having finished it, I'm tempted to read it again straight away  - so haunting and sad was the tale. This obsession with terrifying old train stations and the like becomes so weird, compulsive and indicative of the theme.  I want to get to know it better and pick up on all those idiosyncratic observations. This is not to mention the strange and sad story of Austerlitz himself.

The introduction by James Wood, in the latest Penguin edition is illuminating. Reading it, like all such intros, I think should be left until the book is finished. It would be invidious to discuss the plot here: better for the reader to approach it afresh.