Synopses & Reviews
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. He is also the author of
The Mattress House.
Jamie Bulloch has worked as a languages teacher and history lecturer, and is now a translator and freelance writer. He lives in south London with his wife and three daughters.
Review
"An extraordinary book, a disquieting psychological shocker.... This is not a conventional linear narrative; instead Hochgatterer presents... a disturbing collection of criminals and the mentally ill. Is the perpetrator of this horrific murder already known to Kovacs or is he one of Horn's patients? The grim tale is elegantly, subtly told in Jamie Bulloch's smooth translation from the original German."--Susanna Yage, The Sunday Telegraph
Review
"You might say that, for Hochgatterer, the standard features of the crime genre are just a framework for the really interesting stuff: not how people die, but how they live. His rather abstruse approach makes this a fascinating but demanding read: a truly stimulating find, but perhaps not one for the beach."--Jonathan Gibbs, The Independent
Review
"This is a scrupulous, serious novel, in which crime and detection, though convincing, are mechanisms allowing the author to examine the psychology of his characters... an impressive, cheerless tale."--Jessica Mann, Literary Review
Review
"Beautifully written in cool, clear prose."--Scotland on Sunday
Review
"[A] remarkable thriller . . . Skillfully mixing the observations of these two middle-aged kindred spirits-experienced enough to have lost their illusions, but not their humanity-with those of some of the more damaged townsfolk, Hochgatterer, himself a Vienna child psychiatrist, tells a suspenseful and shattering story with an elegance of expression that matches his exceptional insight into hearts and minds."
--Publisher's Weekly