- Audio CD
- Publisher: Tantor Media; Unabridged,Unabridged CD edition (July 9 2009)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1400112508
- ISBN-13: 978-1400112500
- Product Dimensions: 13.9 x 16.5 x 2.7 cm
- Shipping Weight: 318 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Based on the obscure four-month-long disappearance of the corpse of Rosa Luxemburg, the "Devil Jewess" Socialist Democrat revolutionary, after her summary execution on January 15, 1919, this brooding, studiously researched fiction noir from Rabb (The Overseer; The Book of Q) imagines the maelstrom of conspiracy and political unrest in post-WWI Germany. For six dreary weeks, starting in early December, veteran Det. Insp. Nikolai Hoffner--along with Hans Fichte, an ambitious 23-year-old detective trainee--has been baffled by the corpses of middle-aged women appearing around Berlin with signature designs carved into their backs. In mid-January, Hoffner is called to see a fifth corpse in an abandoned subway station, and at the morgue, he is shown a sixth body--that of the infamous Rosa Luxemburg. Her corpse has similar markings, but there are subtle differences. These suspicious variations--coupled with the arrogant intervention of the powerful Polpo (political police), who spirit the corpse away to a morgue upstairs--launch Hoffner on a perilous, labyrinthine inquiry. Sometimes the novel's prose is rather tangled and Rabb struggles to get his story told, but subtexts of love, betrayal and a detective at war with his feelings illuminate this gothic tapestry of anti-Semitism and ethnic elitism with its foreshadowing of the Nazi era.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Rabb (author of the critically acclaimed Overseer, 1998) writes a wonderfully evocative novel about Berlin immediately after World War I. At its center is a historical mystery: Who murdered longtime revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg, imprisoned throughout the war, galvanized into forming the first German Communist Party after the war, and found drowned in the Landwehr Canal in 1919? In this take on what happened, Berlin Detective-Inspector Nikolai Hoffner and his assistant, Hans Fichte, return after the war to their jobs and to a city ripped open by the ravages of war. They investigate four murders in the slums of Berlin: each woman has the same markings cut into their backs. When Rosa Luxemburg's corpse is discovered to have the same markings, the case turns political, with the German "political police" now edging in. This novel transcends the mystery genre by offering readers a glimpse into the economic and political chaos in Berlin after the war and then transcends politics by giving a pulsatingly detailed account of individual life at a particular moment in history: dress (what prostitutes wore, what police wore), food, furnishings, and street life. Casting a longtime police detective as the hero works brilliantly, since the reader shares Hoffner's shock at the changes writ large on every piece of Berlin pavement. Connie Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Red Rosa, Red Rosa,
By
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This review is from: Rosa: A Novel (Hardcover)
Rosa, the novel, bases its plot around the real life character of Rosa Luxembourg. In reality Luxembourg's body went missing for 4 months, this book fills in those four months with a fictional story line. Rabb does an amazing job with recreating the sense of post WW1 Berlin and sets the stage for the rise of Nazi Germany ... though this is not what the book is about ... Historical fiction succeeds only if the author can recreate a time but not be captured by that time. Rabb succeeds
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent read,
By Rob Nicol (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Rosa: A Novel (Paperback)
This is an excellent historical mystery. The characters are engaging, the plot is intriguing and it keeps moving along at a great pace. The period and location -- post-WW I Berlin -- are original and Rabb does a great job of bringing them to life. There are a couple of shocks along the way and the conclusion is exciting but credible. If you like good historical fiction, you couldn't ask for a better read than this. Globe and Mail named it one of the top 12 mysteries of 2005 -- and for good reason.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Mystery of Berlin that is NOT set in WWII !,
By
This review is from: Rosa: A Novel (Hardcover)
A real thinkers' novel, it explores rather deftly society in post-WWI Berlin. At the centre is a rather gruesome series of murders which are highlighted by the fact that one of the apparent victims is a noted socialist, Rosa Luxembourg. It is so much more than a simple murder mystery that at times I was hard put to approach it in the usual fashion; who did it, who's doing it, and why. A society in torment where no one appears to be really in control, it was a time where various ideologies competed for space on the world stage. What Inspector Hoffner soon discovers is that his own personal emotions are teased out to the breaking point, all while the city anxiously awaits the solution to the traditional who & why? But are Berliners really interested in that, or are they more concerned with with getting on with life and commerce. See what I mean?! With an artist's touch Jonathan Rabb deftly paints a portrait of Berlin from the slums to the mansions of Charlottenburg. I kept thinking the authour would turn into an unfocused rant the discussion of Socialism's place in German society, but was pleasantly surprised at every turn. It can be read and enjoyed in so many different ways that you could be equally at home reading this at the beach as in your study. Just be prepared to be challenged and entertained! A must have read from the recent crop of books on the market.
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