Short Circuit

“Highly entertaining. But it’s not just one book; it’s at least three in one, all of which are highly enjoyable. He plays cleverly with form and structure—not just as a gimmick but as a fundamental part of the story. Wolf Haas has mastered the rules of writing so completely that he can just as easily ignore them.”—Der Spiegel

A clever, electrifying puzzle of a novel, inspired by MC Escher’s optical illusions, in which two mirrored plots —a man waiting for an electrician and a mafia informant entering witness protection— delightfully converge.
Franz Escher is waiting for the electrician. His power outlet has a loose connection. To pass the time, he buries himself in a book about a Mafioso-turned-informant Elio Russo. Elio is in jail, awaiting his imminent release into witness protection. He has betrayed so many people that he fears for his life. Unable to sleep, he lies awake at night reading a book about a man named Franz Escher who's waiting for the electrician. His power outlet has a loose connection. . .

So begins Wolf Haas’s Short Circuit, an inventive new take on the detective novel. Styled
after one of M. C. Escher’s impossible drawings, its two stories gradually intertwine only to solve each other, culminating in one final short circuit. A phenomenon after its German
publication, this brilliantly entertaining novel promises to defy all expectation.