A fascinating volume that confirms Sebald as one of Europe's most mysterious and best-loved literary imaginations Evening Standard Sebald was in possession of the uncanny ability to make his own intellectual obsessions, immediately, compulsively his reader's Observer Shows a writer at his most inquisitive, gazing deeply under the surface of things Financial Times Irresistible ... an intimate anatomy of the pathos, absurdity and perverse splendour of trying to find patterns in the chaos of the world Independent Erudite, truthful, moving The Times A beautiful book ... about the crazy quest for meaning, and how we persist with it despite the shadows that slide towards us -- Joanna Kavenna Spectator