The Quiet Twin
Author(s): Dan Vyleta
Vienna, 1939. Professor Speckstein's dog has been brutally killed and he wants to know why. But these are uncharitable times and one must be careful where one probes...When an unexpected house call leads Doctor Beer to Speckstein's apartment, he finds himself in the bedroom of Zuzka, the professor's niece. Wide-eyed, flirtatious, and not detectably ill, Zuzka leads the young doctor to her window and opens up a view of their apartment block that Beer has never known. Across the shared courtyard there is nine-year-old Anneliese, the lonely daughter of an alcoholic. Five windows to the left lives a secretive mime who comes home late at night and keeps something - or someone - precious hidden from view. From the garret drifts the mournful sound of an Oriental's trumpet, and a basement door swings closed behind the building's inscrutable janitor. Does one of these enigmatic neighbours have blood on their hands? Doctor Beer, who has his own reasons for keeping his private life hidden from public scrutiny, reluctantly becomes embroiled in an enquiry that forces him to face the dark realities of Nazi rule.
General Information
- :
- : Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- : Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- : 01 February 2011
- : United Kingdom
- : 01 March 2011
- : books
Other Specifications
- : Dan Vyleta
- : Paperback
- : 1
- : 384
More About The Product
Crime and Punishment meets The Lives of Others via Rear Window on the eve of World War Two From the eugenics programme to the spread of anti-semitism, a fascinating story of the Nazification of the cultural capital of Europe For fans of Embers and The Reader
'The Quiet Twin reveals Vyleta to be a magical storyteller, a master of the macabre and a writer who illuminates the noir with a new darkness ... Vyleta creates a vivid Viennese waltz that explores the darkness of his chosen period in a way that both thrills and disturbs' David Park 'Heavy with atmosphere and moral menace, full of shadow and suspicion' Georgina Harding PRAISE FOR PAVEL & I: 'Pavel & I does for Berlin what The Third Man achieved for Vienna. The city sparkles like drizzle in lamp light' Spectator 'Part thriller, part love story and partly a story about the brutal aftermath of war, this is a novel as chilling as a German winter, brilliantly liberated from genre by Vyleta's quick prose' Independent
Dan Vyleta is the son of Czech refugees who emigrated to Germany in the late 1960s. He holds a PhD in History from the University of Cambridge. His first novel, Pavel & I, was published to international acclaim. Dan Vyleta lives and works in Canada.
