Adam Scovell

Haunted Strasbourg
Review of the Influx Press paperback edition (Feb. 2020)

I don't know if there are enough examples yet existing for this type of book to be grouped into a genre. If there were, then the category title could be something like the "fictional memoir" or perhaps the "fictional travelogue." Maybe there are only a few of these a year that are published. "Lost Children Archive" (2019) by Valeria Liuselli and "War and Turpentine" (2013/ English Translation 2016) by Stefan Hertmans and "Sudden Death" (2013 / English Translation 2016) by Alvaro Enrigue are three other recent examples of the genre that I've also enjoyed in recent years.

The main hallmark of the genre is an outer framework (which can be fictional or non-fictional) inside which an examination or investigation of mixed fictional and non-fictional people or events is reported on. An especial quirk that is used is the use of archival photographs or documents that are inserted into the text as if to provide photographic proof of the true nature of the story, even if the photos are perhaps fake and actually are just "found" objects that are being used to lend an extra faux layer of reality to the text. Liuselli's "Lost Children Archive" tells the story of her marriage break-up with Álvaro Enrigue as if it is a cross-country trip with their children, with one of the children taking Polaroid photos to document the journey. Hertmans "War and Turpentine" reconstructs his grandfather's life as a painter and soldier from the old man's diary. Enrique's "Sudden Death" covers everything from the painter Caravaggio, the conquistador Cortés, archaic tennis rules & the designs of Aztec featherwork. In all of these cases you're not sure how much of the stories are true or not.

Adam Scovell's How Pale the Winter Has Made Us goes even deeper into the genre as he adds layers of historical non-fiction and elements of supernatural fiction to the mix. The lead character Isabelle is avoiding her real-world responsibilities to her family, partner and job by hiding away in Strasbourg, France where she is haunted by memories of her dead-by-suicide father combined with "sightings" of the death-snatching King of the Fairies called the Erl-King (or the Erlkönig as he is named in Goethe's famous poem set to music by Schubert).

While in Strasbourg she gradually investigates various famous former residents of the city. Most of these can also be viewed as characters inserted into the panes of glass in the picture of Strasbourg Cathedral's Rose Window used as the cover image in this Influx Press edition. Poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe stands out with his prominent nose at 7 o'clock, dadaist Jean Hans Arp at 4 o'clock, Johannes Gutenberg at 11 o'clock (back cover view only), Gustave Doré and others. The historical investigations (which do all appear to be from true facts) are guided by encounters with fictional characters such as a street vendor, a street beggar, a university professor, etc. that Isabelle meets in her wanderings.

All of this lends itself to her reconstructing the history of Strasbourg while simultaneously repairing the gaps in her persona that had led her previously to disassociate from life and her role in it. In the end she (small spoiler) emerges from the cloistered world of bookshops, libraries and cathedrals as if newborn into the world and looks at herself in amazement at "how pale the winter had made her."

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and already feel that it is one of my top reads for 2020.

I read How Pale the Winter Has Made Us as the February 2020 book perk from my support of The Republic of Consciousness Prize for small independent publishers.… (mais)