Visitation

Beginning 24,000 years in the past with the geological formation of a hill and lake, and ending in a summer house on the same spot in a recently reunified Germany, Visitation, a novel by Jenny Erpenbeck, presents a powerful meditation on the ceaseless changes wrought by time and the effects of those changes on several generations of one family. Erpenbeck's tone strikes a balance between cool distance and deep subjectivity with prose that's both idiosyncratic and teeming with emotion. Throughout the book, Erpenbeck musically repeats images and phrases to devastating effect, illustrating the superimposition of experiences that make up the history of a place. Among Visitation's many stories is that of a Nazi architect who has bought the property at half its value from its Jewish owners and who quells his conscience by thinking his money will help them escape; he's later driven from the place by invading Russian soldiers. A hidden closet becomes a key element in three episodes of life-changing consequence set at different points in time. The house is also a stand-in for Germany itself—a country taken over and retaken, divided, rebuilt, and in many ways haunted. But with impressive control of her material, Erpenbeck never overstates her themes and Visitation, for all its brevity, makes a lasting, reverberating impression.