Berlin Noir
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
“A city with a rich noir past looks beyond its history to an equally unsettling present” in this anthology of original noir fiction set in Berlin (Kirkus Reviews).
From Christopher Isherwood to Philip Kerr, the long and rich tradition of noir fiction set in Berlin can make the genre a daunting challenge for contemporary German authors. But rather than retread the well-worn ground of interwar and Cold War history, the authors represented in Berlin Noir set their tales in the 21st century: a time of immigration, internet cafes, and AirBnB. Here you will find stories of moneyed libertines in upscale Grunewald, class tensions in the traditionally working-class district of Wedding, a marauding killer in Schöneberg, and more unrest in the German Capital.
Berlin Noir features brand-new stories by Zoë Beck, Ulrich Woelk, Susanne Saygin, Robert Rescue, Johannes Groschupf, Ute Cohen, Katja Bohnet, Matthias Wittekindt, Kai Hensel, Miron Zownir, Max Annas, Michael Wuliger, and Rob Alef. Translated from German by Lucy Jones.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The 13 stories in this welcome entry in Akashic's noir series, all set in 21st-century Berlin, are less about traditional crime and more likely to involve gentrification, immigrants, or Airbnb. Contemporary social themes are present, such as in Max Annas's "Local Train," in which a clumsy attempt by a group of immigrants to take revenge on a neo-Nazi thug comes to an unexpected conclusion, or Katja Bohnet's "Fashion Week," in which a woman retaliates against an abusive lover less for his personal violence than for his exploitation of foreign workers. Dark comedy is found in Susanne Saygin's "The Beauty of Kenilworth Ivy," which features a Dexter-like serial killer with a botanical bent, and in Robert Rescue's "One of These Days," a romp through the challenges of dealing with a suicide's inconvenient corpse. Rob Alef's "Dog Tag Afternoon" is one of the few stories to make use of the city's dramatic history, linking a contemporary homicide to the Berlin Airlift. Though the selections contain little actual noir, there's more than enough variety to entertain most readers.
