Liebesgeschichte (Lovestory)

Of the terror of not being loved – a perplexing novel about desire.

One evening, a shady man enters the surgery of general practitioner Alexander Wertheimer. He is accompanied by a badly injured, possibly under-age Ukrainian girl. The doctor takes her in, tending to her around the clock. What at first seems a responsible act by a concerned man gets creepier with every page. Finally, one is sucked in by an eerie suspense that is owed to the particular perspective of the book. The journal-like style of the story slams Alexander’s thoughts smack into the reader’s face just as they flash through his mind.

In his unparalleled, elegant style Thomas Jonigk turns the typical perpetrator profile upside down. He depicts Alexander Wertheimer as a person prone to self-reflexion and feminism who should know better, which makes for a growingly spooky read.

Love Story is yet another of Jonigk’s works that not only reveals his unique craftsmanship in his portrayals of violence and dependence, of the power of imagination und the longing for redemption, but displays his usual subversive wit in a particularly disturbing way.

Rights sold to Bulgarian (Black Flamingo)