Omissions

A breathtaking literary archaeology of home, exploring how the unspeakable silence of the past actively poisons the present

Heimesbach in the Hunsrück is a fictional place where ninety years of German history have become embedded in its walls and biographies. It is a community that actively conceals its past whilst simultaneously becoming a refuge for those seeking safety here. Moving fluidly across generations, the narrative spans from the 1930s rise of local Nazi groups who systematically destroyed Jewish families, to wartime profit-seekers who rebranded themselves as innocent bystanders after the war. Decades later, the Karimpour family flees the revolution in Iran to seek refuge in this quiet village, completely unaware that their new home rests upon unatoned historical crimes. Shida Bazyar crafts a masterful narrative mosaic about the burden of history, the lie of a new beginning, and the desire to finally find a home.