Lucasta Miller

W.G. Sebald’s borrowed truths and barefaced lies

Carole Angier reveals how the celebrated writer risked his reputation by pointlessly falsifying his sources

Sebald was tormented, riven by self-doubt and wrote to stave off madness, according to Carole Angier [fondation horst tappe/bridgeman images] 
issue 21 August 2021

W.G. Sebald is the modern master of the uncanny — or perhaps that should be ‘was’, as he died in a car crash near Norwich in 2001 at the age of 57. Deciding which tense to use depends on whether you mean ‘W.G. Sebald’ as a shorthand for his body of work, which outlives him, or to refer to the man who wrote it, known to his acquaintances as Max.

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