But He’s Not Dan “Inferno” Brown!
Contemplating the continuing growth in the popularity of a certain serious author, Robert McCrum observes: ‘Whenever readers despair of contemporary book culture, pointing to the horrors of Dan Brown or EL James; or to the mind-blowing inanities of “writing classes”; or the death of bookselling; or the alleged crimes of Amazon, I have one simple answer: the name of a writer whose life and work – a strange and deep response to the atrocities of history – has become a wonderful vindication of literary culture in all its subtle and entrancing complexity. His name? Sebald.’
