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Cold Blood
The great new German novel by filmmaker Chris Kraus who proves himself a great narrator and finds images of biblical force.
An epos of two Baltic-German brothers in the maelstrom of the 20th century.
A novel that takes readers to the dark chambers arose from the rubble of the Nazi regime.
Cold Blood tells the story of an entire epoch: a drama of betrayal and self-delusion spanning the years 1905 to 1975 and taking us from Riga to Moscow, Berlin and Munich all the way to Tel Aviv.
The protagonists are Hubert, Konstantin and Ev Solm – two Baltic-German brothers and their Jewish adopted sister.
Their constant companion on their convoluted paths through life is a lie, disguised as a secret.
Two brothers from Riga climb the career ladder: first in Nazi Germany, then as spies for the young West Germany. Along with and between them is the Jewess Ev, the lover of both of them by turns. A passionate ménage à trois unfolds that takes the protagonists to terrifying moral and political depths.
The story of the Solms is also the story of twentieth-century Germany: the decline of an old world and the rise of a new one – under new auspices but with the same familiar protagonists.
1200 pages
2017
978-3-257-06973-0
World rights are handled by Diogenes
»Chris Kraus masterfully tells a story of moral chasms in politics, love and society in the last century.«
»The most hotly anticipated book of the German literary calendar is an epic tale of betrayal and self-delusion spanning seventy years. [...] Despite the weightiness of its topic, Kraus’s lightness of touch, combined with the compelling story he has to tell, make this a novel that is hard to put down.«
»A furious opus magnum. Full of the joy of storytelling and strong images, drunk on emotion, as sensual as it is unscrupulous. An insanely good book.«
»If you want to understand what Europe is today, and how Germany became what it is today, how it managed to overcome the terrible trauma of National Socialism, then you have to read Cold Blood.«
»We haven't read anything this ambitious since The Kindly Ones.«
»This barbarity which was continued in the shadows by the worst survivors, was awaiting its epic poem. Kraus has written it.«
»A breath-taking novel, at times simultaneously sad and funny, sometimes almost unbearable, covering 70 years of history.«
»Of course it makes you think of The Kindly Ones, but a lighter, more easily accessible version, less intellectual, very captivating and a times veering into the intimate.«
»With Cold Blood Chris Kraus climbs a mountain to the very top. A thousand things happen in this excellently translated novel.«
»A historical fresco, spy novel, political and philosophical fable: in this literary labyrinth you get lost with gusto.«
»A great novel. Brilliant!«
»The furors of the twentieth century present themselves to us in this great novel, which is as worthwhile reading as historical essays.«
»Love, family, blood, and tears: this extraordinary tome is a brilliant page-turner!«
»Don't be afraid of spending 900 pages in the company of a monster, you won't regret it.«
»I devoured Cold Blood, 887 pages of unprecedented terror.«
»A monumental symphony by a writer-filmmaker living in Berlin, Cold Blood loses many of its soldiers en route, but the scale of the project demands admiration.«
»This is a magnum opus.«
»It’s an impressive ride – the 900 pages, give or take, flow by with impetuous rhythm – a common thread through more than sixty years of the past century, from the rise of National Socialism into the Cold War.«
»Cold Blood is suspenseful, well written and vaguely reminds one of the novel The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell.«