The Scrapbook
An intoxicating novel of first love and the shadows of history
Published on 19. June 2025
256 pages
978-1-5299-4606-2 (ISBN)
Description
An exhilarating debut novel about a life-changing romance in the long shadow of European history, inspired by the author's real discovery
'Stunningly good' Julia Boyd
'You won't be able to put it down' Samantha Rose Hill
'Worthy of reading and rereading' Bookpage
Harvard, 1996. Anna is about to graduate when she falls in love with Christoph, a German student visiting campus. As she visits Christoph in Germany and tries to understand the young, elegant man who fascinates her, he reveals his country to her.
Germany is still reckoning with the Holocaust and its pretty new squares belie the war's destruction. Anna wants to believe in Christoph and the future he promises her but as their relationship becomes increasingly unsettling, she must face up to everything she has been unwilling to see, and everything Christoph has chosen to ignore.
'As if a Sally Rooney novel merged with Richard Linklater's film, Before Sunrise' Booklist
'A swiftly-moving, molecularly perceptive, singular portrait of intoxicating young love' Aube Rey Lescure
'An elegant, unsettling novel about the burden of history and the illusions of love' Sana Krasikov
'A masterpiece' Rebecca Donner
'Stunningly good' Julia Boyd
'You won't be able to put it down' Samantha Rose Hill
'Worthy of reading and rereading' Bookpage
Harvard, 1996. Anna is about to graduate when she falls in love with Christoph, a German student visiting campus. As she visits Christoph in Germany and tries to understand the young, elegant man who fascinates her, he reveals his country to her.
Germany is still reckoning with the Holocaust and its pretty new squares belie the war's destruction. Anna wants to believe in Christoph and the future he promises her but as their relationship becomes increasingly unsettling, she must face up to everything she has been unwilling to see, and everything Christoph has chosen to ignore.
'As if a Sally Rooney novel merged with Richard Linklater's film, Before Sunrise' Booklist
'A swiftly-moving, molecularly perceptive, singular portrait of intoxicating young love' Aube Rey Lescure
'An elegant, unsettling novel about the burden of history and the illusions of love' Sana Krasikov
'A masterpiece' Rebecca Donner
Reviews / Votes
An ambitious, stirring debut * People * Clark, in prose at the same time richly philosophical and light of touch, accomplishes a double feat. She has written both an aching love story and an incisive examination of the politics of memory * Literary Review * An incredibly smart novel, with an intricate and perfectly paced depiction of a delicate and intense relationship. It's as if a Sally Rooney novel merged with Richard Linklater's film, Before Sunrise * Booklist * Clark uses her first novel to explore a highly literary and highly troubled relationship... At once a rich historical novel and a philosophical study of how much influence past generations have on our affections * Los Angeles Times * Phenomenal... Worthy of reading and rereading * Bookpage * Offer[s] a flying tour of literary representations of the Holocaust and its legacy-a lightly annotated reading list that includes fiction writers such as Tadeusz Borowski and W. G. Sebald-as well as a meditation on the cost of political crimes to a nation's trustworthiness and honor, even generations later * New York Times * It's a wonderful novel; highly literary, yet page turning... It's the sort of book you press on everyone you know, and spend hours discussing, once they've read it too * Irish Examiner * A swiftly-moving, molecularly perceptive, singular portrait of intoxicating young love. Clark captures the psychological nuances and emotional currents of two youthful intellects wrestling with the weight of history and questions of legacy, moral responsibility, and the blinders and dissonance of a complicated romance -- Aube Rey Lescure, author of River East, River West An elegant, unsettling novel about the burden of history and the illusions of love. With a biographer's eye for detail and a novelist's grasp of human frailty, The Scrapbook traces the fault lines between past and present, between nations and individuals, revealing how history lingers-not in grand narratives, but in intimate entanglements -- Sana Krasikov, author of The Patriots Through an exquisitely observed love affair, Clark explores how the Nazis' lingering legacy can still haunt the lives of those born long after the war. A stunningly good novel. -- Julia Boyd, author of A Village in the Third ReichMore details
Edition
New edition
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Vintage Publishing
Edition type
New edition
File size
1,22 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-5299-4606-2 (9781529946062)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Heather Clark is the author of four works of non-fiction, including Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath (published by Jonathan Cape), which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the LA Times Book Prize in Biography, and was the winner of the Slightly Foxed Prize and the Truman Capote Prize (awarded by the Iowa Writers' Workshop). It was a Book of the Year in the Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Times and New York Times. Her work has appeared in publications including the New York Times, Time, Lit Hub, and TLS. She has recently received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the New York Public Library's Cullman Centre. The Scrapbook is her debut novel.
