The novelist, poet, and essayist W. G. Sebald (1944 - 2001) was perhaps the most original German writer of the last decade of the 20th century ( and "Die Ausgewanderten and ", and "Austerlitz and ", and "Luftkrieg und Literatur and "). His writing is marked by a unique ';hybridity' that combines characteristics of travelogue, cultural criticism, crime story, historical essay, and dream diary, among other genres. He employs layers of literary and motion picture allusions that contribute to a sometimes enigmatic, sometimes intimately familiar mood; his dominant mode is melancholy. The contributions of this anthology examine W. G. Sebald as narrator and pensive observer of history. The book includes a previously unpublished interview with Sebald from 1998.