The Dark Room

A debut novel that retells the history of twentieth-century Germany through the experiences of three ordinary Germans. Helmut: A boy born with a physical deformity finds work as a photographer's assistant during the 1930s and captures on film the changing temper of Berlin, the city he loves. But his acute photographic eye never provides him with the power to understand the significance of what he sees through his camera. . . . Lore: In the weeks following Germany's surrender, a teenage girl whose parents are both in Allied captivity takes her younger siblings on a terrifying, illegal journey through the four zones of occupation in search of her grandmother. . . . Micha: Many years after the war, a young man trying to discover why the Russians imprisoned his grandfather for nine years after the war meets resistance at every turn; the only person who agrees, reluctantly, to help him is compromised by his own past. "The Dark Room" evokes the experiences of the individual with astonishing emotional depth and psychological authenticity. With dazzling originality and to profound effect, Rachel Seiffert has re-envisioned and illuminated signal moments of the twentieth century in all their drama and complexity.

Review :
"Deftly (Seiffert) hangs large ideas on the vivid private experiences of her principal characters who appear in separate, self-contained sections. In a poignant-and ultimately optimistic-fashion, they trace a progress in moral awareness: from Hitlerian delusion and postwar denial to a readiness for truth and responsibility. Loosely, they form an allegory of the German soul in its passage over 80 years." -- "The New York Times Book Review" "Seiffert gives us pictures as evocative as they are ghostly, as fragmented as they are telling. The novel unfolds as a triptych . . . (of) ordinary people. . . whom Seiffert brilliantly captures in her lens." -- "Los Angeles Times ""This lyrical debut collection of novellas explores the experience of 'ordinary' Germans-the descendents of Nazis and Nazi sympathizers-and poses questions about the country's psychological and political inheritance with rare insight and humanity." "-- The New Yorker " "A novel about the German soul in the 20th century, this debut work stuns with its simplicity of style and hugeness of subject." -- "Philadelphia Inquirer" "A novel of uncommon perception, THE DARK ROOM deserves to be placed alongside such exemplary postwar German fictional works as Bernhard Schlink's "The Reader "and Hans-Ulrich Treichel's "Lost,"" -- "Book Forum" "Rachel Seiffert's storytelling is completely absorbing and finally overwhelming in its detail, its relentless action, and its beautiful, shy eloquence. The Dark Room, in its strategies for approaching the unwatchable, the unseeable, is brilliant, and in its closing pages, it brings to light a set of images that no reader is ever likely to forget." --Charles Baxter, author of "The Feast of Love" "Rachel Seiffert writes movingly about three generations of Germans confined by selective blindness and silence: a patriotic photographer who limits his vision to the eye of the camera; a courageous refugee girl who stays focused on her own family's suffering; and a teacher who is compelled and yet terrified to pursue his search for the truth. Outstanding." --Ursula Hegi, author of "Stones from the River"