Slobodan Šnajder's novel 'Engel des Verschwindens' explores memory and history in a Zagreb tenement

Slobodan Šnajder's novel 'Engel des Verschwindens' (Angel of Disappearance) centers on a tenement building in Zagreb as a repository of memory, intertwining the lives of its inhabitants across different eras. The narrative explores how the building itself 'remembers' the traumas and histories of those who lived there, particularly focusing on the experiences of Germans from Slavonia after World War I. Šnajder, born in 1919 in Slavonia to a German family, weaves together living and dead, nature and history, time and space in a family saga that examines survival and fate. The novel is a companion to his earlier work 'Die Reparatur der Welt' (The Repair of the World), continuing his exploration of historical upheaval and personal destiny.