Remote Sympathy

One of the most original, brave and profound explorations of the darkest recesses of the human heart I have ever read. - Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind\r\n\r\nChidgey is a gifted writer. - The Guardian\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nA novel of devastating beauty set in Buchenwald during the Second World War.\r\n\r\n\r\nMoving away from their lovely apartment in Munich isnt nearly as wrenching an experience for Frau Greta Hahn as she had feared. Their new home is even lovelier than the one they left behind and life in Buchenwald would appear to be idyllic. Lying just beyond the forest that surrounds them is the looming presence of a work camp. Frau Hahns husband, SS Sturmbannfuhrer Dietrich Hahn, has been assigned as the camps administrator.\r\n\r\n\r\nWhen Frau Hahns poor health leads her into an unlikely and poignant friendship with one of Buchenwalds prisoners, Dr Lenard Weber, her naive ignorance about what is going on so nearby is challenged. A decade earlier, Dr Weber had invented a machine believed at the time that its subtle resonances might cure cancer. But does it really work? One way or another, it might yet save a life.\r\n\r\n\r\nA tour de force about the evils of obliviousness, Remote Sympathy compels us to question our continuing and wilful 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.\r\n\r\n\r\nWith its multiple registers and complex view of humanity, this marks a vital turn in Holocaust literature. - Publishers Weekly - starred\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nNETGALLEY - Top Ten Books of April 2021\r\n\r\nSHORTLISTED: Okham New Zealand/Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction