It is early September 2002 and Niklas Kalf, a German writer, is in New York for the first time. He has just published a biography of a Jewish-German physicist named Eugen Meerkaz, who emigrated to the USA in the late 1930s. Niklas is accompanied by his wife Liz, who is several months pregnant. The hot NY summer and the first anniversary of the World Trade Center catastrophe weigh heavily on the city. On the morning of their third day, Liz is kidnapped. In return for her release her anonymous captor demands information on secret experiments that Meerkaz has supposedly conducted—information Niklas does not have. In desperation, he re-examines every fact about the scientist and every document in his possession and comes up with one faint lead—a letter addressed to Meerkaz's widow Elsa by a German soldier and postmarked in Marfa, TX. Niklas embarks on a tumultuous journey to this reclusive part of Texas, where he discovers secret links to an occultist group. Fearless, the young writer digs deeper and deeper, but nothing can prepare him for what he is going to find and the real identity of his enemies—who know no mercy.

What We Are Made Of

Literature & Fiction

Hettche, Thomas

Genre Fiction

Macmillan, UK

One of the most outstanding voices in German literary fiction delivers a powerful and cinematic literary thriller in the vein of David Lynch, exploring post-9/11 America from NYC to Marfa, TexasIt is early September 2002 and Niklas Kalf, a German writer, is in New York for the first time. He has just published a biography of a Jewish-German physicist named Eugen Meerkaz, who emigrated to the U.S. in the late 1930s. Niklas is accompanied by his wife Liz, who is several months pregnant. The hot New York City summer and the first anniversary of the World Trade Center catastrophe weigh heavily on the city. Their third day there, Liz is kidnapped. In return for her release her anonymous captor demands information on secret experiments that Meerkaz has supposedly conductedinformation Niklas does not have. In desperation, he reexamines every fact about the scientist and every document in his possession and comes up with one faint leada letter addressed to Meerkaz’s widow Elsa by a German soldier and postmarked in Marfa, Texas. Niklas embarks on a tumultuous journey to this reclusive part of Texas, where he discovers secret links to an occultist group. Fearless, the young writer digs deeper and deeper, but nothing can prepare him for what he is going to find and the real identity of his enemieswho know no mercy.

Literary

Pan/Macmillan

A compelling international thriller that explores the terrain between erotic love and death On a warm September evening in 1953 Hans Arbogast, a young travelling salesman, picks up a hitchhiker, a refugee from East Germany. As dusk fall they make passionate love in a meadow. And then she is dead, her body found nestled against blackberry brambles. Even though the evidence is inconclusive, Arbogast is tried for murder, convicted, and sentenced to life imprisonment, all the while protesting his innocence. But Germany during the postwar years has no tolerance for scandal; all appeals are denied. For the next fourteen years he grows to inhabit his cell like a second skin, until finally a journalist, lawyer, and forensic pathologist from East Berlin set out to reexamine the evidence and have the case reopened. Inspired by an actual criminal case that caused a furor at the time, The Arbogast Case elegantly weaves dramatic courtroom scenes with detailed forensic descriptions and authentic details of the grim postwar era. The result is a compelling legal thriller in which erotic love and death are intimately intertwined, by a young German writer whose lyrical style and utter originality have brought him renown throughout Europe and is now being published in English for the first time.

The Arbogast Case: A Novel

Farrar. Straus and Giroux

Pfaueninsel: Roman

btb Verlag

Herzfaden: Roman der Augsburger Puppenkiste

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Fantasy

Pfaueninsel

Contemporary

Kiepenheuer & Witsch GmbH

Der Fall Arbogast

Veltman Distributie Import Books

Der Fall Arbogast.

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Thrillers & Suspense

Ullstein TB-Vlg

DUMONT Literatur und Kunst Verlag

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hettche, Thomas. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Hettche, Thomas