The Rings of Saturn by W.G. Sebald

I reread this shape-shifting book every few years and each time I feel as if I am a new reader discovering the pleasures of its peregrinations— part memoir, a walking tour of England, a history of silk mills, Rembrandt’s “Anatomy Lesson”, the herring trade, WWII bombings and the rubble of European cities, and the dowager Empress Tzu Hsi. Sebald invented the genre, and his Rings of Saturn remains one of my most treasured companions.