The novelist, poet, and essayist W. G. Sebald (1944 - 2001) was perhaps the most original German writer of the last decade of the 20th century ("Die Ausgewanderten", "Austerlitz", "Luftkrieg und Literatur"). His writing is marked by a unique 'hybridity' that combines characteristics of travelogue, cultural criticism, crime story, historical essay, and dream diary, among other genres. He employs layers of literary and motion picture allusions that...