The History of History
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Wednesday 11 May 2011 |
Introduction
For the next Dialogue Book Club held in May we’ll be reading The History of History by Ida Hattimer-Higgins, and as we hosted an event with Ida on Sunday 10 April at Soho House, Berlin we’ll have signed copies for our Book Club
2002. A young American woman stumbles one morning from the forest outside Berlin — hands dirty, clothes torn. She can remember nothing of the previous night. She returns to the life she once knew, but soon an enigmatic letter arrives from an unknown doctor claiming to be ‘concerned for her fate’.
Shortly after, the city of Berlin transforms. Nazi ghosts manifest as preening falcons; buildings turn to flesh. This is the story of Margaret’s descent into madness and her race to recover her lost history — the night in the forest and the chasm that opened in her life as a result. Awash with guilt, Margaret finds her amnesia resonating — more and more clamorously — with two suppressed tragedies of Berlin’s darkest hour.
With this first novel, Ida Hattemer-Higgins establishes herself as a bold, inventive and gifted writer.