A panoramic novel of European history, by an internationally bestselling writer.
The whole truth, as the name implies, is the collective knowledge of all those involved. Which is why you can never really piece it together again afterwards. Because some of those who possessed a part of it will already be dead. Or they're lying, or their memories are bad.
It's 1989, and in a small town on the Austria-Hungary border, nobody talks about the war; the older residents pretend not to remember, and the younger ones are too busy making plans to leave. The walls are thin, the curtains twitch, there is a face at every window, and everyone knows what they are not supposed to say.
But as thousands of East German refugees mass at the border, it seems that the past is knocking on Darkenbloom's door.
Still, though, nobody talks about the war.
Until a mysterious visitor shows up asking questions.
Until townspeople start receiving threatening letters and even disappearing.
Until a body is found.
Darkenbloom is a sweeping novel of exiled counts, Nazis-turned-Soviet-enforcers, secret marriages, mislabelled graves, remembrance, guilt, and the devastating power of silence, by one of Austria's most significant contemporary writers.
'In Eva Menasse's historical novel Darkenbloom, the wartime secrets of a small Austrian town are compromised by the urgent demands of the present ... disturbing events are tempered by rich, omniscient knowledge of the characters, whose quirky humour and humanity amid an impeccable backdrop of clandestine forests and ""undulating, dappled"" mountain views captivate. Heralding the expansive disruptions of social change, the intricate novel Darkenbloom muses through an Austrian town's troubled past.' -Foreword Reviews, starred review
'Journalism is quick, but literary art takes time. I have often wondered where it is, the great epic of complicity. Now it's finally here. Darkenbloom is a nice idyllic small town, but we gradually find out what each of its inhabitants did back then and what they subsequently deleted from their memories. Darkenbloom is truly one of the great European novels of our time, one that sets standards for how fiction can treat history.' -Daniel Kehlmann, author of Tyll
'Eva Menasse has produced a masterpiece ... While none of these motifs that Eva Menasse invokes are new, it feels like you're experiencing them here for the first time in Technicolor and Dolby Stereo. How does she do this? Entirely through language. And that is why Darkenbloom is a novel that will last ... As a novel, Darkenbloom is both a gripping linguistic thrill and a thriller - a thriller about coming to terms with the past. Until the very end, you want to know who knew what, and what they covered up or hushed up. The way Eva Menasse spreads this information throughout the novel in such a way that every word dropped at the beginning is resolved at the end and the suspense grows page after page is absolutely masterful ... Eva Menasse's novel is a stroke of genius.' -DIE ZEIT
