1989: In Darkenbloom, a town on the Austria–Hungary border, people know not to talk about what happened there during the war — until a mysterious stranger appears, and starts asking questions. A novel about culpability, collective amnesia and the corrosive power of silence.
This event is free. The discussion will be followed by a book signing and drinks reception.
About DARKENBLOOM:
A panoramic novel of European history, by an internationally bestselling writer.
The whole truth, as the name implies, is the collective knowledge of all those involved. Which is why you can never piece it together again properly afterwards. Because a few of those who possessed a part of it are always already dead. Or lying, or their memories are bad.
It’s 1989, and in a small town on the Austria–Hungary border, nobody talks about the war; the older residents pretend not to remember, and the younger ones are too busy making plans to leave. The walls are thin, the curtains twitch, there is a face at every window, and everyone knows what they are not supposed to say.
But as thousands of East German refugees mass at the border, it seems that the past is knocking on Darkenbloom’s door.
Still, though, nobody talks about the war.
Until a mysterious visitor shows up asking questions.
Until townspeople start receiving threatening letters and even disappearing.
Until a body is found.
Darkenbloom is a sweeping novel of exiled counts, Nazis-turned-Soviet-enforcers, secret marriages, mislabelled graves, remembrance, guilt, and the devastating power of silence, by one of Austria’s most significant contemporary writers.
‘Darkenbloom is an epic achievement that ought to take its place as an essential text of European literature, devastating in its portrayal of how atrocities are perpetuated and disavowed.’
Kate McLoughin, TLS
‘Journalism is quick, but literary art takes time. I have often wondered where it is, the great epic of complicity. Now it’s finally here. Darkenbloom is a nice idyllic small town, but we gradually find out what each of its inhabitants did back then and what they subsequently deleted from their memories. Darkenbloom is truly one of the great European novels of our time, one that sets standards for how fiction can treat history.’
Daniel Kehlmann, author of Tyll
‘Eva Menasse has produced a masterpiece … While none of these motifs that Eva Menasse invokes are new, it feels like you’re experiencing them here for the first time in Technicolor and Dolby Stereo. How does she do this? Entirely through language. And that is why Darkenbloom is a novel that will last … As a novel, Darkenbloom is both a gripping linguistic thrill and a thriller — a thriller about coming to terms with the past. Until the very end, you want to know who knew what, and what they covered up or hushed up. The way Eva Menasse spreads this information throughout the novel in such a way that every word dropped at the beginning is resolved at the end and the suspense grows page after page is absolutely masterful … Eva Menasse’s novel is a stroke of genius.’
DIE ZEIT
