The Dark Room

Intensely observed debut… Perfectly balanced

Guardian

A startlingly powerful debut... Not to be missed

Daily Mail

A stunning trilogy of linked stories about the Holocaust. Seiffert's book reminds me of Bernard Schlink's The Reader, but unlike that fascinating and intellectually provocative discussion about complicity and collective guilt, The Dark Room never veers away from its fictional roots... It doesn't read like a first novel

Toronto Globe and Mail

Ambitious and powerful... Seiffert writes lean, clean prose. Deftly, she hangs large ideas on the vivid private experiences of her principal characters.... Poignant - and ultimately optimistic... Engrossing

New York Times

Excellent...a very readable, imaginative attempt to hold essential truths in living memory

The Economist

Explores the experience of "ordinary" Germans...the descendants of Nazis and Nazi sympathizers...and poses questions about the country's psychological and political inheritance with rare insight and humanity

New Yorker

Guilt, shame, responsibility, new beginnings, the individual in history - these are Seiffert's subjects, conveyed in a style of deceptive simplicity... Provocative and accomplished

The Times

It should be on everyone's reading lists

Sunday Times

The hopelessness of love and passion during one of history's darkest hours is gently eked out... Questions of identity, loyalty and secrets are unavoidable, whether they stand uniformed and proud or lie hidden in a photo album. The Dark Room offers a haunting perspective on the ripples the most extraordinary of actions can cause. Seiffert is sparing with historical specifics, crafting the tale so lovingly that the most affecting moments lie in words unspoken and truths untold

Scotland on Sunday

What a bold book... Compelling... Challenging and substantial

Time Out