Centroeuropa

'Our lives do not start entirely with our births.' Prussia, the early 19th century. As he attempts to bury his recently deceased wife, Redo Hauptshammer uncovers the frozen body of a uniformed soldier. As he continues to dig, the bodies start to pile up - all of them fallen cavalrymen bearing the secrets of an earlier era. For readers of W. G. Sebald and Agustin Fernandez Mallo, this archaeological novel digs into Europe's soil, uncovering a long history of violence and expropriation. Mora's writing is audacious, melancholy, and formally experimental. Each chapter is longer than the one that precedes it as the bodies proliferate, the story keeps getting more complicated. In a bold yet lyrical translation by Rahul Bery, Centroeuropa introduces English-speaking readers to one of Europe's pre-eminent experimental prose writers currently at work.