The Sweetness of Life

It is Christmas in the alpine town of Furth am See and a six-year-old girl is playing ludo with her grandfather. The doorbell rings, and the old man goes to answer. The next time the girl sees him, he is lying with 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, reluctantly becomes involved in solving the murder along with Detective Superintendent Ludwig Kovacs. Their parallel researches sweep through the town: a young mother who believes her new-born child is the devil; a Benedictine monk who uses his iPod to drown the voices in his head; a high-spending teenager who tortures cats. The psychological profile of this claustrophobic, winter-held town is not reassuring - which, if any, of its inhabitants was the brutal night-time slayer of the suffering girl's grandfather?

Long-listed for Deutscher Buchpreis (The German Book Prize) 2006

“'An extraordinary book, a disquieting psychological shocker set in a claustrophobic town ... elegantly, subtly told' Susanna Yager, Sunday Telegraph.”

'A truly stimulating find' Jonathan Gibbs, Independent. Independent
'A scrupulous, serious novel ... Impressive' Jessica Mann, Literary Review. Literary Review
Sunday Telegraph
'Beautifully written, in cool clear prose' Hamish Whyte, Scotland on Sunday. Scotland on Sunday

Paulus Hochgatterer is a writer and child psychiatrist in Vienna. He has won sundry literary prizes and commendations, most recently the Elias Canetti Stipend of the city of Vienna. The Sweetness of Life is his first work to be translated.

Jamie Bulloch has worked as a languages teacher and history lecturer, and is now a translator and freelance writer.

It is Christmas in the alpine town of Furth am See and a six-year-old girl is playing ludo with her grandfather. The doorbell rings, and the old man goes to answer. The next time the girl sees him, he is lying with 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, reluctantly becomes involved in solving the murder along with Detective Superintendent Ludwig Kovacs. Their parallel researches sweep through the town: a young mother who believes her new-born child is the devil; a Benedictine monk who uses his iPod to drown the voices in his head; a high-spending teenager who tortures cats. The psychological profile of this claustrophobic, winter-held town is not reassuring - which, if any, of its inhabitants was the brutal night-time slayer of the suffering girl's grandfather?

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