The history of history : a novel of Berlin

Fiction. Literature. HTML:A ferociously intelligent debut novel about a young amnesiac�??s descent into madness in contemporary Berlin, and a country wrestling with its dark past. A young woman named Margaret stumbles one morning from a forest outside Berlin, hands dirty, clothes torn. She can remember nothing of the night in the woods, nor�??she soon realizes�??anything of the previous months. She returns home to her former life. Two years later, she receives a letter from a mysterious doctor, who summons her to an appointment, claiming to be concerned for her fate. Margaret keeps the appointment, but when she leaves the doctor�??s office, the entire city is transformed. Nazi ghosts manifest as preening falcons; buildings turn to flesh; reality itself wheels. This is the story of Margaret�??s race to recover her lost history�??the night in the forest, and the chasm that opened in her life as a result. Awash in guilt, careening toward a shattering revelation, Margaret finds her personal amnesia resonating more and more clamorously with a nation�??s criminal past, as she struggles toward an awakening that will lead her through madness to the truth, and to the unanswerable agony of her own actions. Ida Hattemer-Higgins has written a novel about amnesia�??individual, cultural, historical�??about memory and oblivion, fantasy and reason, myth and redemption in our time. An unforgettable story from a bold and prodig… (more)