Waiting on Wednesday: The History of History

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases.

I love it when I read a book and wonder exactly what was going on in the author's head (in a good way). There are some stories so strange they could not have been written by anyone but the person who wrote them, and one upcoming example of that is the debut novel by Ida Hattemer-Higgins, The History of History.

A ferociously smart and electrifyingly original debut novel.

2002. A young woman named Margaret stumbles one morning from the forest outside Berlin—hands dirty, clothes torn. She can remember nothing of the night.

2004. An enigmatic letter arrives from an unknown doctor, a self-styled “memory surgeon” claiming to be concerned for her fate. Shortly after, the city of Berlin transforms. Nazi ghosts manifest as preening falcons; buildings turn to flesh.

This is the story of Margaret’s descent into madness and her race to recover her lost history—the night in the forest and the chasm that opened in her life as a result. Awash in guilt, Margaret finds her amnesia resonating—more and more clamorously—with two suppressed tragedies of Berlin’s darkest hour.

Harrowing and provocative, beguiling in its lyricism and sensuality, The History of History tells a tale of obsessive love, family ruptures, and a nation’s grief. And it is an elegy to “the history of history”—the role of the German past in the psychic life of the present age. With this first novel, thirty-year-old Ida Hattemer-Higgins establishes herself as a bold and prodigiously gifted talent.

Published January 18th 2011 by Knopf, The History of History will definitely be one strange book I can't wait to get my hands on.

How do you feel about odd literature? Do you have any truly weird books to recommend?