Quinto Bookshop

Just in: a proof copy and a signed first edition of W.G. Sebald’s masterpiece Austerlitz.

The proof copy is No. 086 of 100 limited edition signed proofs, as stated on a bound-in limitation page. Unfortunately Sebald must have forgotten to sign this particular copy – no signature is present… To compensate for this we have also put out a signed first printing of this remarkable novel.

I read Austerlitz many years ago and the book made a real impact on me. There’s something intangible and mysterious about it. It’s full of diversions, anecdotes, stories within stories; it feels as if Sebald doesn’t quite know where he’s going or is afraid of arriving somewhere he doesn’t want to be.

It’s about a man who arrived in Britain as a Jewish infant refugee on a kinderstransport and is adopted by a Welsh couple. He doesn’t know about his background, but in the novel he’s slowly working things out – both through intellectual probing and instinct. The text is illustrated with photographs, as is the case with all of Sebald’s books, and these somehow add to the sense of unease and disembodiment.

Sebald quotes Thomas Bernard, Borges and Nabokov as influences, but his work diverges from these predecessors. You could say that like them – especially Borges – he’s created his own unique universe. Sebald’s work is really incomparable to anything else I’ve read.

The proof copy and first trade edition are noticeably different. The proof copy has fewer pages (357 rather than 415), is smaller in size and the print is smaller too. No translator is mentioned on the title page (or anywhere else for that matter).

W.G. Sebald (18 May 1944 – 14 December 2001), who lived in the UK for large parts of his life, died shortly after the publication of this brilliant final novel.