Among the greatest and most moving achievements of contemporary German writing"(Rheinischer Merkur), the four long narratives in W. G. Sebald's The Emigrants appear at first sight to be straightforward biographies of four Germans in exile. But Sebald has wrought something altogether new. Illustrated throughout with enigmatic photographs, it is an astonishingly beautiful book -- "one of the best novels to appear since WWII" (Review of Contemporary Fiction).The Emigrants was chosen three times -- by Susan Sontag, Tariq Ali, and A.S. Byatt -- in the London Times Literary Supplement as the 1996 International Book of the Year. Susan Sontag wrote: "W.G. Sebald's The Emigrants is the most extraordinary, thrilling new book I've read this year...indeed for several years. It is like nothing I've ever read...I know of no book which conveys more about that complex fate, being a European at the end of European civilization. I know of few books written in our time but this is one which attains the sublime".

奥斯特利茨，伦敦一艺术学院讲师，因改名之故，开始了对自己身世的追问。伴随着他对“自己到底是谁”的探寻，那段德国黑暗期的画面一幅幅展现，从古代日耳曼英雄到纳粹帝国对期的各类要员，从高层政治人物到底层市民百姓，从图书馆到地铁站，从安特卫普到柏林……作者以冷静寂寞的笔调，重现德国悲剧，以他独特的方式与历史相遇。该书为塞巴尔德生前出版的最后一部作品，集中体现了塞巴尔德创作命题与特色，2002年获美国全国书评家协会奖，2009年因其经典性被英国文学网站评为新千年最佳小说。