Sleepless
A Novel
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- $21.99
Publisher Description
Dark secrets past and present collide in Sleepless, a haunting novel of guilt and retribution from Romy Hausmann, the international bestselling author of Dear Child.
It's been years since Nadja Kulka was convicted of a cruel crime. After being released from prison, she's wanted nothing more than to live a normal life: nice flat, steady job, even a few friends. But when one of those friends, Laura von Hoven--free-spirited beauty and wife of Nadja's boss--kills her lover and begs Nadja for her help, Nadja can't seem to refuse.
The two women make for a remote house in the woods, the perfect place to bury a body. But their plan quickly falls apart and Nadja finds herself outplayed, a pawn in a bizarre game in which she is both the perfect victim and the perfect murderer...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Early in this grim psychological thriller from German author Hausmann (Dear Child), Berlin legal assistant Nadja Kulka is visited at her office by former coworker Laura van Hoven. The distraught Laura is looking for her lawyer husband, Gero. Since Gero isn't due back until evening, a lonely Nadja drives Laura home. In the van Hovens' living room lies Laura's lover, Aron Brucksätt, whom Laura killed during an argument. Nadja doesn't want Laura's four-year-old daughter to grow up motherless, so instead of calling the police, she agrees to transport Aron to a Spreewald cabin, where she and Laura will rendezvous to dig his grave. Upon arriving, Nadja finds not Laura, but an irate Gero—and the situation only deteriorates. Hausmann intercuts Nadja's present-day narration with letters recounting her traumatic childhood and scenes detailing a 2014 murder and the resulting trial. Though the mystery of how these story lines intersect provides tension and propulsion, the soapy, convoluted denouement fails to satisfy. Two-dimensional characters further disappoint. Fans will hope for better next time.
