The Scrapbook is a novel that is a modern-day love story in the shadow of German history—a Germany of artists, philosophers, virtuosos—and World War II.
At the fore of it all, we meet Anna O’Brien, a young woman who is a student at Harvard. She meets a visiting student from Germany. Christoph is a contrast to Anna. He is worldly. She has dedicated herself to her studies. But she falls for him. Hard.
She devises a way to meet him after he returns to Germany. Their relationship is intense and serious, but it's affected by a very strange fact. Both of their grandfathers were in World War II.
Anna’s grandfather witnessed the plight of Holocaust victims in the days after liberation and helps to capture Hitler’s Eagles Nest.
Christoph's grandfather fought for Nazi Germany.
Two generations later, these two meet—and are still affected by the idea of dark family legacies of historical conscience, and of not quite being able to get a hold of this strange force linked to the past that threatens to tear them apart.
Guest:
Heather Clark is the author of The Scrapbook. She is also the author of Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath, The Grief of Influence: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, The Ulster Renaissance: Poetry in Belfast 1962–1972, and Sylvia Plath: A Very Short Introduction. Red Comet was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the LA Times Book Prize in Biography, and was one of the New York Times’ 10 Best Books of 2021. Red Comet was also a “Book of the Year” in The Guardian, The Times (London), The Daily Telegraph, The Boston Globe, Lit Hub, The Times of India, Trouw (Netherlands), and elsewhere, and has been translated into five languages. Clark’s work has appeared in publications including The New York Times, Harvard Review, Time, Air Mail, Lit Hub, Poetry, and The Times Literary Supplement.
