The History of History: A Novel of Berlin - Softcover

Hattemer-Higgins, Ida

3.19

287 ratings by Goodreads

9780571250516: The History of History: A Novel of Berlin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0571250513 ISBN 13: 9780571250516

Publisher: Faber and Faber, 2012

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2002. A young American woman stumbles one morning from the forest outside Berlin - hands dirty, clothes torn. She can remember nothing of the night. She returns to the life she once knew, but soon an enigmatic letter arrives from an unknown doctor claiming to be 'concerned for her fate'. Shortly after, the city of Berlin transforms. Nazi ghosts manifest as preening falcons; buildings turn to flesh.

This is the story of Margaret's descent into madness and her race to recover her lost history - the night in the forest and the chasm that opened in her life as a result. Awash with guilt, Margaret finds her amnesia resonating - more and more clamorously - with two suppressed tragedies of Berlin's darkest hour.

The History of History tells a tale of obsessive love, family ruptures, and a nation's grief.

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Review:

'Hattemer-Higgins rangy assemblage of narrative voices is virtuosic. . . . The History of History offers persuasive evidence of an erudite and fiercely self-examining writer.

--Jan Stuart, The Boston Globe

'[An] eerie, brilliant novel. . . . Hattemer-Higgins shows her kinship with H. G. Adler. . . . A remarkable achievement.' --Sam Sacks, San Francisco Chronicle

'[A] profound and unsettling first novel.' --Anna Mundow, The Boston Sunday Globe

'[A] bold debut novel . . . full of harrowing twists--and proves a brilliant rumination on trauma and identity.' armela Ciuraru, More magazine 'A multilayered narrative that finally resolves into a tale of personal trauma. . . . compelling, both in its lyrical prose and in the mystery that it lays out.' --Charlotte Ryland, The Times Literary Supplement

Book Description:

A ferociously smart and electrifyingly original debut novel.

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