A German Triple Play: Sascha Arango, Anna Maria Schenkel, and Nina George

Abstract

14 WLT MARCH / APRIL 2016 A lthough the impact of German culture on America is enormous in education, food, social practices, and many other aspects, only occasionally have German crime writers made a big splash in American publishing. In the 1960s, for example, Hans Hellmut Kirst’s The Night of the Generals became a best-seller in translation and was made into an exceptional movie starring Peter O’Toole and Omar Sharif. Yet this seemed to cause no vogue in German translation and did not pull even Kirst’s other books in its wake. Similarly, Nobel winner Heinrich Böll’s foray into crime, The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (1975), caused little curiosity in America about German crime writing in general. Most of the influential German crime writers who have been translated, like Pieke Biermann (“the Queen of German crime,” who writes with the viciousness of a George Grosz painting) and Ingrid Noll (a German thriller best-seller), are unfamiliar to American readers. Certainly, nothing like the Scandinavian tidal wave of crime novels has happened for German books. In 2015, however, three German authors achieved considerable attention, possibly leading future writers up the steep beach that a translated author must climb to achieve popularity in the United States. Sascha Arango, for example, had a brilliant debut with his first novel, The Truth and Other Lies, translated by Imogen Taylor. He has an unusual surname for a German, but he is one of their most successful screen and television writers. He has been nominated for several awards and won the Adolf Grimme Award in 2012 (an award that might be equated to an Emmy) for his work on Tatort (roughly “Crime Scene”), a police drama that is Germany’s longest-running television series. Episodes feature detectives in different cities, as if Law and Order, Homicide, and Hill Street Blues were all broadcast under the same title. The first Tatort appeared in 1970, so Arango was making his name in what might be called a television institution. He has done a number of movies as well, including adaptations of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Arango was working on an idea for another screenplay when asked by a publisher if he wanted to write a novel. His screenplay notes turned into The Truth and Other Lies, one of the best first novels in any year. Screen stories, especially crime stories, are naturally visual and oriented toward action. Usually when screen writers take up fiction, they are most comfortable exploiting these qualities. Surprisingly , Arango’s novel is a novelist’s novel, brilliantly executed. The psychological mysteries this clever plot contains are far more engaging than the actual physical action. It is narrated by Henry Hayden, a sociopathic best-selling novelist who does not write his own books. His wife, Martha, is the actual author but does not want any of the publicity that goes with it. When crime & mystery A German Triple Play Sascha Arango, Anna Maria Schenkel, and Nina George by J. Madison Davis Surprisingly, Arango’s novel is a novelist’s novel, brilliantly executed. The psychological mysteries this clever plot contains are far more engaging than the actual physical action. WORLDLITERATURETODAY.ORG 15 arango photo : frank may schenkel photo : jürgen bauer Henry’s mistress becomes pregnant, the plot thickens and murder soon follows. Hayden is a masterful fraud, making lying an art form—masking dark secrets in his past as well—but suddenly finds himself on the edge of being exposed. One is immediately reminded, with pleasure, of the sardonic and dark ironies of Patricia Highsmith’s work. Being exposed as a fraud is a common nightmare among writers. Stephen King’s Secret Window, Secret Garden, in which an author is harassed by a mysterious man accusing him of plagiarism, similarly takes up the theme. Henry Hayden, however, is a much cooler character, who uses his deep understanding of deception to control others’ understandings and suspicions. Another German author attracting attention in 2015 was Andrea Maria Schenkel . Her first novel, Tannöd, was a huge success in Europe from its publication in 2006, selling a million copies in Germany. It won the Deutscher Krimi Preis for best...