His distinctive and innovative novels were written in an intentionally somewhat old-fashioned and elaborate German (one passage in "Austerlitz" famously contains a sentence that is 9 pages long). Sebald closely supervised the English translations (principally by Anthea Bell and Michael Hulse). They include "Vertigo", "The Emigrants", "The Rings of Saturn" and "Austerlitz". They are notable for their curious and wide-ranging mixture of fact (or apparent fact), recollection and fiction, often punctuated by indistinct black-and-white photographs set in evocative counterpoint to the narrative rather than illustrating it directly. His novels are presented as observations and recollections made while travelling around Europe. They also have a dry and mischievous sense of humour.