Rachel Seiffert explores the complex impact of history on a nation’s psyche through the individual stories of three 20th-century Germans.
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, 50 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.
Rachel Seiffert
About the Author
Rachel Seiffert is daughter of an Australian father and a German mother. Her novel The Dark Room was shortlisted for the 2001 Booker Prize.