The sweetness of life
By: Paulus Hochgatterer ; translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch
Publisher: Quercus
Published: 2012
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
ISBN-13: 9781847247711
Subjects: Child psychologists; Psychic trauma in children; Fiction
Work titles: Sü_e des Lebens
Description: It is Christmas in the alpine town of Furth am See and a six-year-old girl is playing a game of Parcheesi with her grandfather. The doorbell rings, and the old man gets up to answer, but never returns. When the young girl finally goes to see what has happened, she finds him lying by the barn, his skull broken; his face a red pulp against the white snow. From that time on, she does not speak a single word. Raffael Horn, the psychiatrist engaged to treat the silent child, is drawn into solving the crime along with Detective Superintendent Ludwig Kovacs. In search for answers to the murder, their parallel researches sweep through Furth, revealing a deeply troubling psychological profile of the tiny snowbound town.
Notes: This translation originally published: London: MacLehose, 2008.