After Nature is the very first literary work by W. G. Sebald, author of Austerlitz

'The greatest writer of our time' Peter Carey

After Nature by W.G. Sebald, author of Austerlitz, is his first literary work and the start of his highly personal and brilliant writing journey.

In this long prose poem, Sebald introduces many of the themes that he explores in his subsequent books. Focusing on the conflict between man and nature, each of the three distinct parts of After Nature give centre stage to a different character from a different century - the last being W.G. Sebald himself.

'A deeply intelligent book, but also a marvellously warm, exciting and compassionate one' Andrew Motion

'A debut of rare poetic grandeur' Irish Times

'Astonishing writing. A true poet at work' Evening Standard

'Graceful, allusive, serious, but also immensely readable' Sunday Telegraph

'When you read Sebald you are transported to another realm' Literary Review


W . G. Sebald was born in Wertach im Allgau, Germany, in 1944 and died in December 2001. He studied German language and literature in Freiburg, Switzerland and Manchester. In 1996 he took up a position as an assistant lecturer at the University of Manchester and settled permanently in England in 1970. He was Professor of European Literature at the University of East Anglia and is the author of The Emigrants, The Rings of Saturn, Vertigo, Austerlitz, After Nature, On the Natural History of Destruction, Campo Santo, Unrecounted, For Years Now and A Place in the Country. His selected poetry is published in a volume called Across the Land and the Water.