Michael Hulse

The four long narratives in The Emigrants appear at first to be straightforward biographies of elderly Germans in exile. Sebald reconstructs the lives of a painter, a doctor, a teacher, and his own great-uncle Ambrose. Following (literally) in their footsteps, the narrator retraces routes of exile from Lithuania to London, from Munich to Manchester, from the German provinces to Switzerland, France, New York, Constantinople, and Jerusalem.
Along with memories, diaries, and documents of the Holocaust, he collects photographs—the enigmatic snapshots that stud The Emigrants and bring to mind family albums. Combining documentary with fiction, Sebald exerts a new magic, and as he puts the question to realism, the four stories merge into one unfathomable requiem.