A review by anna_mackay
Transit by Anna Seghers

5.0

Much of Transit is spent going back and forth from cafes to embassies to bars to embassies to cafes and back to embassies. You begin to feel a sense of déjà vu that makes the book hard to finish. You go: “surely I’ve read this before?” and it’s that effect, the real feeling mirroring those of the characters that the book’s structure invokes, that makes you realize Seghers’ genius. As they remain trapped in Marseilles, almost futilely attempting to leave, so too the reader remains somewhat trapped alongside them.