Awards

• Short-listed for Booker Prize for Fiction 2001
• Short-listed for Guardian First Book Award 2001
• Shortlisted for Booker Prize for Fiction 2001.
• Shortlisted for Guardian First Book Award 2001.

Overview

'An important book, a powerful commentary on the moral issues of the last century with the realisation that no one is completely blameless - extraordinary' Sunday Express The Dark Room tells the stories of three ordinary Germans- Helmut, a young photographer in Berlin in the 1930s who uses his craft to express his patriotic fervour; Lore, a twelve-year-old girl who in 1945 guides her young siblings across a devastated Germany after her Nazi parents are seized by the Allies; and, fifty years later, Micha, a young teacher obsessed with what his loving grandfather did in the war, struggling to deal with the past of his family and his country.

Full Product Details

9780099287179

Table of Contents

Reviews

A startlingly powerful debut... Not to be missed Daily Mail 20020530 Ambitious and powerful... Seiffert writes lean, clean prose. Deftly, she hangs large ideas on the vivid private experiences of her principal characters... Poignant - and ultimately optimistic... Engrossing New York Times 20020530 What a bold book... Compelling... Challenging and substantial Time Out Guilt, shame, responsibility, new beginnings, the individual in history - these are Seiffert's subjects, conveyed in a style of deceptive simplicity... Provocative and accomplished The Times Explores the experience of ordinary Germans...the descendants of Nazis and Nazi sympathizers...and poses questions about the country's psychological and political inheritance with rare insight and humanity New Yorker 20020530

Intensely observed debut... Perfectly balanced Guardian A startlingly powerful debut... Not to be missed Daily Mail Ambitious and powerful... Seiffert writes lean, clean prose. Deftly, she hangs large ideas on the vivid private experiences of her principal characters... Poignant - and ultimately optimistic... Engrossing New York Times What a bold book... Compelling... Challenging and substantial Time Out Guilt, shame, responsibility, new beginnings, the individual in history - these are Seiffert's subjects, conveyed in a style of deceptive simplicity... Provocative and accomplished The Times

Intensely observed debut… Perfectly balanced * Guardian * A startlingly powerful debut... Not to be missed * Daily Mail * Ambitious and powerful... Seiffert writes lean, clean prose. Deftly, she hangs large ideas on the vivid private experiences of her principal characters.... Poignant - and ultimately optimistic... Engrossing * New York Times * What a bold book... Compelling... Challenging and substantial * Time Out * Guilt, shame, responsibility, new beginnings, the individual in history - these are Seiffert's subjects, conveyed in a style of deceptive simplicity... Provocative and accomplished * The Times *

Author Information

The daughter of a German mother and an Australian father, Rachel Seiffert has spent most of her life in Oxford and Glasgow. She now lives in Berlin.

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