[1] John Banville reviewed the book for The Guardian: "On the Natural History of Destruction is a quietly spoken but fierce protest at the mendacity and moral evasiveness of our time.

One can do no better than to say of Sebald's work what he himself quotes Elias Canetti saying of the diary, 'notable for precision and responsibility', of a survivor of Hiroshima: 'If there were any point in wondering what form of literature is essential to a thinking, seeing human being today, then it is this.

'"[1] Kenneth Baker of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote: "Sebald's matter-of-fact evocation of the wartime events on which his collection turns make sickening reading.

He relies on the written recollections of a few contemporary witnesses, notably Hans Erich Nossack and Alexander Kluge but offers long descriptions of the terrible events in his own even voice."

Baker ended the review: "On the Natural History of Destruction leaves an aftertaste of sadness that flows from both its own bleak reflections and the knowledge that Sebald's indispensable voice has been silenced.