From Publishers Weekly
German novelist Hettche's first book to be translated into English is a suspenseful, serious crime story set in postwar West Germany. Based on an infamous actual case, this legal thriller tells how Hans Arbogast, a young traveling salesman, spent almost 15 years in prison for the inexplicable death of Marie Gurst, an East German refugee, during a casual, if somewhat mutually violent, sexual romp. In Gaffney's crisp translation, Hettche's story traces the quiet ups and downs of Arbogast's long imprisonment: "After his hopes of imminent release had faded, he found that the world within him shrank. Like a suffocating man desperate for larger lungs and more oxygen, he wished for more memories, more of a past." The political atmosphere is equally stifling in a stern postwar West Germany intolerant of both Arbogast's sexual impropriety and any questioning of its leading forensic pathologists. Only after an East German expert, a crusading Swiss novelist and a tough West German lawyer delve into the mystery of Gurst's death does anybody begin to rethink Arbogast's case. Readers craving action and thrills might find Hettche's novel slightly slow going, but its psychological depth and sociological heft make it a solid achievement.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
German author Hettche makes his English-language debut with this gripping erotic thriller based on a sensational German criminal case. A woman's naked body is discovered in a field, and Hans Arbogast was the last to see her alive--she died while they were making love. Did he kill her? The prosecutor has no doubts about his guilt, and the case he presents is persuasive enough to land Arbogast behind bars, where he remains for 16 years. Eventually others challenge the evidence on Arbogast's behalf and spend years trying to free him. The novel is sharp with courtroom procedure and forensics, but what really gives it its edge are the deftly sketched psychological portraits and Arbogast's sexual obsession, which drives the whole erotic tone of the narrative. Many of the secondary characters are also gripped by this tone, and at least one, forensics expert Katja Lavans, is partially caught up in Arbogast's obsession. This novel challenges readers' preconceptions of guilt and innocence; its untold story is as powerful as its narrated one. Frank Caso
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"Breathtaking . . . A gripping legal thriller."
--Frankfurter Rundschau
"Coolly detailed and surely paced, The Arbogast Case is an intelligent, involving forensic drama. Thomas Hettche goes beyond the procedural in search of something deeper."
--Stewart O'Nan, author of The Night Country
--Frankfurter Rundschau
"Coolly detailed and surely paced, The Arbogast Case is an intelligent, involving forensic drama. Thomas Hettche goes beyond the procedural in search of something deeper."
--Stewart O'Nan, author of The Night Country
Book Description
A compelling international thriller that explores the terrain between erotic love and death
On a warm September evening in 1953 Hans Arbogast, a young travelling salesman, picks up a hitchhiker, a refugee from East Germany. As dusk fall they make passionate love in a meadow. And then she is dead, her body found nestled against blackberry brambles. Even though the evidence is inconclusive, Arbogast is tried for murder, convicted, and sentenced to life imprisonment, all the while protesting his innocence. But Germany during the postwar years has no tolerance for scandal; all appeals are denied. For the next fourteen years he grows to inhabit his cell like a second skin, until finally a journalist, lawyer, and forensic pathologist from East Berlin set out to reexamine the evidence and have the case reopened.
Inspired by an actual criminal case that caused a furor at the time, The Arbogast Case elegantly weaves dramatic courtroom scenes with detailed forensic descriptions and authentic details of the grim postwar era. The result is a compelling legal thriller in which erotic love and death are intimately intertwined, by a young German writer whose lyrical style and utter originality have brought him renown throughout Europe and is now being published in English for the first time.
On a warm September evening in 1953 Hans Arbogast, a young travelling salesman, picks up a hitchhiker, a refugee from East Germany. As dusk fall they make passionate love in a meadow. And then she is dead, her body found nestled against blackberry brambles. Even though the evidence is inconclusive, Arbogast is tried for murder, convicted, and sentenced to life imprisonment, all the while protesting his innocence. But Germany during the postwar years has no tolerance for scandal; all appeals are denied. For the next fourteen years he grows to inhabit his cell like a second skin, until finally a journalist, lawyer, and forensic pathologist from East Berlin set out to reexamine the evidence and have the case reopened.
Inspired by an actual criminal case that caused a furor at the time, The Arbogast Case elegantly weaves dramatic courtroom scenes with detailed forensic descriptions and authentic details of the grim postwar era. The result is a compelling legal thriller in which erotic love and death are intimately intertwined, by a young German writer whose lyrical style and utter originality have brought him renown throughout Europe and is now being published in English for the first time.
About the Author
Thomas Hettche was born in 1964. He studied German and Philosphy and now lives in Frankfurt, Germany. His previous books include Ludwig Must Die, Incubations, and Nox. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Robert Walser Prize.
Elizabeth Gaffney is a novelist and editor at The Paris Review.
Elizabeth Gaffney is a novelist and editor at The Paris Review.
