A vivid, hallucinatory rediscovered classic about split identity in the wake of First World War trauma

Hans, an esteemed surgeon, has just returned from the hellish battlefields of the First World War. But everything in his home feels alien, even his wife Grete. As he tries to regain a sense of normality, he is haunted by nightmarish visions and a profound sense of dissociation. Has the war turned him into someone else? Or has another man wormed his way into Hans's life?

Told in a feverish monologue, A Shadow of Myself is a vivid, hallucinatory immersion in an unsettled mind. First published in 1926 and rediscovered in Germany only last year, this lightning-bolt of a war classic is now appearing in English for the first time.

"Flamm's captivating style and inner monologue create a fascinating, intoxicating flow that does not lose force until the last page" - Tagesspiegel

"A significant rediscovery" - Welt am Sonntag

"Like a heavy, concentrated red wine, it lingers for an extremely long time" - Deutschlandfunk Kultur

"Unsettling... Creates a picture of a tormented mind, and evokes the profound dislocation felt by veterans returning home from a savage conflict" - The Times