Remote Sympathy
Published on 29. March 2022
516 pages
978-1-60945-628-3 (ISBN)
Description
This polyphonic novel of an S.S. officer, his ailing wife, and a concentration camp survivor "marks a vital turn in Holocaust literature" (
Publishers Weekly, starred review).
Being appointed administrator of the Buchenwald work camp is a major advancement for SS Sturmbannführer Dietrich Hahn. But as the prison population begins to rise, his job becomes ever more consuming. His wife, Frau Greta Hahn, finds their new home even lovelier than their apartment in Munich. She enjoys life among the other officer's wives, and the ease with which she can purchase nearly anything her heart desires.
When Frau Hahn is forced into an unlikely alliance with one of Buchenwald's prisoners, Dr. Lenard Weber, her naïve ignorance about what is going on so nearby is challenged. A decade earlier, Dr. Weber had invented a machine: the Sympathetic Vitaliser. At the time he believed that its subtle resonances might cure cancer. But does it really work? One way or another, it might yet save a life.
A tour de force about the evils of obliviousness, Remote Sympathy compels us to question our continuing and willful ability to look the other way in a world that is once more in thrall to the idea that everything-even facts, truth and morals-is relative.
Shortlisted for the 2021 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards
Being appointed administrator of the Buchenwald work camp is a major advancement for SS Sturmbannführer Dietrich Hahn. But as the prison population begins to rise, his job becomes ever more consuming. His wife, Frau Greta Hahn, finds their new home even lovelier than their apartment in Munich. She enjoys life among the other officer's wives, and the ease with which she can purchase nearly anything her heart desires.
When Frau Hahn is forced into an unlikely alliance with one of Buchenwald's prisoners, Dr. Lenard Weber, her naïve ignorance about what is going on so nearby is challenged. A decade earlier, Dr. Weber had invented a machine: the Sympathetic Vitaliser. At the time he believed that its subtle resonances might cure cancer. But does it really work? One way or another, it might yet save a life.
A tour de force about the evils of obliviousness, Remote Sympathy compels us to question our continuing and willful ability to look the other way in a world that is once more in thrall to the idea that everything-even facts, truth and morals-is relative.
Shortlisted for the 2021 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards
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Person
Catherine Chidgey is an award-winning and bestselling New Zealand novelist and short-story writer. Her first novel, In a Fishbone Church, won the Betty Trask Award, and was longlisted for the Orange Prize. Golden Deeds was Time Out's book of the year, a Best Book in the LA Times Book Review and a Notable Book in the New York Times Book Review. Her fourth novel, The Wish Child, was published in 2016 and won the 2017 Acorn Foundation Fiction Prize, the country's richest literary prize.
Content
- Intro
- ALSO BY CATHERINE CHIDGEY
- REMOTE SYMPATHY
- PART ONE. ALL THE BIRDS ARE HERE
- FROM LETTERS WRITTEN BY DOKTOR LENARD WEBER TO HIS DAUGHTER
- PART TWO. EICKEWEG
- FROM THE IMAGINARY DIARY OF FRAU GRETA HAHN
- FROM THE PRIVATE REFLECTIONS OF ONE THOUSAND CITIZENS OF WEIMAR
- FROM AN INTERVIEW WITH FORMER SS STURMBANNFÜHRER DIETRICH HAHN
- PART THREE. THE ANIMAL KINGDOM
- FROM LETTERS WRITTEN BY DOKTOR LENARD WEBER TO HIS DAUGHTER
- FROM THE IMAGINARY DIARY OF FRAU GRETA HAHN
- FROM AN INTERVIEW WITH FORMER SS STURMBANNFÜHRER DIETRICH HAHN
- FROM THE PRIVATE REFLECTIONS OF ONE THOUSAND CITIZENS OF WEIMAR
- FROM LETTERS WRITTEN BY DOKTOR LENARD WEBER TO HIS DAUGHTER
- FROM THE IMAGINARY DIARY OF FRAU GRETA HAHN
- PART FOUR. REMOTE SYMPATHY
- FROM AN INTERVIEW WITH FORMER SS STURMBANNFÜHRER DIETRICH HAHN
- FROM THE PRIVATE REFLECTIONS OF ONE THOUSAND CITIZENS OF WEIMAR
- FROM LETTERS WRITTEN BY DOKTOR LENARD WEBER TO HIS DAUGHTER
- PART FIVE. WONDER WEAPONS
- FROM THE IMAGINARY DIARY OF FRAU GRETA HAHN
- FROM THE PRIVATE REFLECTIONS OF ONE THOUSAND CITIZENS OF WEIMAR
- FROM AN INTERVIEW WITH FORMER SS STURMBANNFÜHRER DIETRICH HAHN
- PART SIX. COME, HOPE
- FROM LETTERS WRITTEN BY DOKTOR LENARD WEBER TO HIS DAUGHTER
- FROM THE IMAGINARY DIARY OF FRAU GRETA HAHN
- FROM AN INTERVIEW WITH FORMER SS STURMBANNFÜHRER DIETRICH HAHN
- FROM THE PRIVATE REFLECTIONS OF ONE THOUSAND CITIZENS OF WEIMAR
- FROM LETTERS WRITTEN BY DOKTOR LENARD WEBER TO HIS DAUGHTER
- PART SEVEN. THE FRUITS ARE RIPE, DIPPED IN FIRE
- FROM THE PRIVATE REFLECTIONS OF ONE THOUSAND CITIZENS OF WEIMAR
- FROM THE IMAGINARY DIARY OF FRAU GRETA HAHN
- FROM AN INTERVIEW WITH FORMER SS STURMBANNFÜHRER DIETRICH HAHN
- FROM LETTERS WRITTEN BY DOKTOR LENARD WEBER TO HIS DAUGHTER
- FROM THE IMAGINARY DIARY OF FRAU GRETA HAHN
- FROM AN INTERVIEW WITH FORMER SS STURMBANNFÜHRER DIETRICH HAHN
- FROM LETTERS WRITTEN BY DOKTOR LENARD WEBER TO HIS DAUGHTER
- FROM THE IMAGINARY DIARY OF FRAU GRETA HAHN
- PART EIGHT. NULL GAME
- FROM AN INTERVIEW WITH FORMER SS STURMBANNFÜHRER DIETRICH HAHN
- FROM LETTERS WRITTEN BY DOKTOR LENARD WEBER TO HIS DAUGHTER
- FROM THE IMAGINARY DIARY OF FRAU GRETA HAHN
- FROM THE PRIVATE REFLECTIONS OF ONE THOUSAND CITIZENS OF WEIMAR
- FROM AN INTERVIEW WITH FORMER SS STURMBANNFÜHRER DIETRICH HAHN
- FROM LETTERS WRITTEN BY DOKTOR LENARD WEBER TO HIS DAUGHTER
- FROM THE IMAGINARY DIARY OF FRAU GRETA HAHN
- PART NINE. THE TRANSPARENT MAN
- FROM AN INTERVIEW WITH FORMER SS STURMBANNFÜHRER DIETRICH HAHN
- FROM THE PRIVATE REFLECTIONS OF ONE THOUSAND CITIZENS OF WEIMAR
- FROM LETTERS WRITTEN BY DOKTOR LENARD WEBER TO HIS DAUGHTER
- FROM THE IMAGINARY DIARY OF FRAU GRETA HAHN
- FROM AN INTERVIEW WITH FORMER SS STURMBANNFÜHRER DIETRICH HAHN
- FROM LETTERS WRITTEN BY DOKTOR LENARD WEBER TO HIS DAUGHTER
- PART TEN. TO EACH HIS DUE
- FROM THE IMAGINARY DIARY OF FRAU GRETA HAHN
- FROM THE PRIVATE REFLECTIONS OF ONE THOUSAND CITIZENS OF WEIMAR
- FROM AN INTERVIEW WITH FORMER SS STURMBANNFÜHRER DIETRICH HAHN
- FROM THE PRIVATE REFLECTIONS OF ONE THOUSAND CITIZENS OF WEIMAR
- FROM LETTERS WRITTEN BY DOKTOR LENARD WEBER TO HIS DAUGHTER
- AUTHOR'S NOTE
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
