The four long narratives in W.G. Sebald's The Emigrants at first appear
to be the straightforward biographies of four people in exile: a
painter, an elderly Russian, the author's schoolteacher as well as his
eccentric great-uncle Ambrose. Following (literally) in their footsteps,
the narrator retraces routes which lead from Lithuania to London, from
Munich to Manchester, from the South German provinces to Switzerland,
France, New York, Constantinople, and Jerusalem. Along with memories of
the Holocaust, he collects documents, diaries, pictures. Each story is
illustrated with enigmatic photographs, making The Emigrants seem at
times almost like a family album - but of families destroyed. Sebald
weaves together variant forms (travelog, biography, autobiography, and
historical monograph), combining precise documentary with fictional
motifs. As he puts the question to "realism, " the four stories merge
gradually into one requiem, overwhelming and indelible.