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Remote Sympathy (B-Format)

By Catherine Chidgey
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Brief Description
Leaving their Munich apartment isn't as difficult as Frau Greta Hahn expected. Their new home in Buchenwald is even lovelier, with Europe's finest craftsmen right on their doorstep. Just beyond the surrounding forest lies a work camp where Frau Hahn's husband, SS Sturmbannführer Dietrich Hahn, takes... Read More
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Remote Sympathy examines the intersection of ordinary domestic life with extraordinary moral circumstances. A tour de force about the evils of obliviousness, this novel compels us to question our ability to look the other way in a world once more convinced that everything – facts, truth, morals – is relative.

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Leaving their Munich apartment isn't as difficult as Frau Greta Hahn expected. Their new home in Buchenwald is even lovelier, with Europe's finest craftsmen right on their doorstep. Just beyond the surrounding forest lies a work camp where Frau Hahn's husband, SS Sturmbannführer Dietrich Hahn, takes up his new position as administrator. As the prison population rises, corruption spreads and the infrastructure strains under pressure.

When Frau Hahn forms an unlikely alliance with prisoner Dr Lenard Weber, her wilful ignorance about what's happening so close to home is challenged. Dr Weber once invented the Sympathetic Vitaliser, believing its resonances might cure cancer. Whether it works or not, it might yet save a life.

Remote Sympathy examines the intersection of ordinary domestic life with extraordinary moral circumstances. A tour de force about the evils of obliviousness, this novel compels us to question our ability to look the other way in a world once more convinced that everything – facts, truth, morals – is relative.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781776923144

Publisher: Te Herenga Waka University Press

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 12 March 2026

Country: New Zealand

Imprint: Te Herenga Waka University Press

Edition: 2nd New edition

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 129.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 560

Collections

2026 Auckland Writers Festival Best Sellers at Book Hero Catherine Chidgey Fiction General Fiction In Stock Books In-Stock Fiction Books Literary Fiction New Release Fiction New Zealand and Australia Published New Zealand Fiction New Zealand Published

About the Author

Catherine Chidgey lives in Cambridge and lectures in creative writing at the University of Waikato. The internationally bestselling author of nine novels, she has won the Prize in Modern Letters, the Katherine Mansfield Award, the Katherine Mansfield Fellowship, the Janet Frame Fiction Prize, and the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction twice. Following The Wish Child and Remote Sympathy, Catherine’s novel The Book of Guilt (2024) completes a trilogy of novels about twentieth-century totalitarianism.

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