For our biggest mystery fans, you might be in a bit of a rut: you’ve just finished Henning Mankell’s The Man from Beijing, and you’ve still got a month to go before the final Stieg Larsson book, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, hits stands. What will keep you enthralled with a juicy, mind-bending thriller, and send you raving to your friends that you’ve just discovered the next must-read mystery? If this is your problem, may we recommend, then, our new must-read: Juli Zeh’s astounding novel, In Free Fall.
Renowned mystery critic Sarah Weinman writes “Give me a crime novel of ideas, where two physics professors, friends and rivals, opposites but startlingly similar, do emotional battle on an intellectual canvas, raise the stakes through betrayal, the possible kidnapping of a child, and embroil a romantic-leaning police detective in the complicated machinations of quantum theory, and holy hell, I think I have myself one of my favorite books of the year.” This gripping international bestseller fuses an ingenious detective tale with stunning, cinematic storytelling—and a provocative riff on quantum physics—from Germany’s foremost young literary talent.
A rising star who has garnered some of Europe’s most important literary prizes, Juli Zeh has established herself as the new master of the philosophical thriller. With In Free Fall, she now takes us on a fast-paced ride through deadly rivalry and love’s infinite configurations. Even her prologue opens with great mystery: A child is kidnapped but does not know it. One man dies, two physicists fight, and a senior constable falls in love. In the end, everything is different . . . yet exactly the same.
Against the backdrop of Germany and Switzerland, two physicists begin a dangerous dance of distrust. Friends since their university days, when they were aspiring Nobel Prize candidates, they now interact in an atmosphere of tension, stoked by Oskar’s belief that Sebastian fell into mediocrity by having a family. When Sebastian’s son, Liam, is apparently kidnapped, their fragile friendship is further tested. Entrusted with uncovering the truth, Detective Superintendent Schilf discerns a web of blackmail, while at the same time the reality of his personal life falls into doubt.
Unfolding in a series of razor-sharp scenes, In Free Fall is a riveting novel of ideas from a major new literary voice.
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