The Stronger Sex - Softcover

Kettenbach, Hans Werner

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1904738672 ISBN 13: 9781904738671

Publisher: Bitter Lemon Press, 2011

Synopsis

"Kettenbach provides answers that are either darkly humorous or melancholically tragic, depending on how black the reader's heart proves to be."—Booklist

"Black Ice is a devilish dive into an obsessed mind by a prolific German writer."—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

The cover cites Simenon and Highsmith in comparison. I'll not quibble with that."—Tangled Web

"A look into the individual's soul laid bare, into its abyss and its hopeless entanglements. Stories told along the razor-sharp edge of reality."—Die Zeit

Young lawyer Alexander Zabel has been pressured by the head of his law practice into defending the indefensible: a lying, power obsessed adulterer and ruthless industrialist accused of wrongfully dismissing his assistant and mistress. She is thirty-four; he, seventy-eight: a despot who has always had his way, now wheelchair-bound and dying of cancer. Alex must deal with a hopeless case, his growing sympathy for a repulsive client, and his sexual attraction to Klofft's elderly wife.

Less a thriller than an investigative and psychological cliffhanger, this novel examines how eroticism is somehow amplified by a sense of approaching death and presents insights into the corrosive desire for revenge, and the narrowing horizons of old age.

Hans Werner Kettenbach was born near Cologne. He published his first novel at the age of fifty. Previous jobs he has held include construction worker, court stenographer, football journalist, and foreign correspondent in New York. This is his third novel published by Bitter Lemon Press.

About this title

About the Author

Hans Werner Kettenbach: Hans Werner Kettenbach was born near Cologne. He is the author of several highly acclaimed novels. He came to writing late in life, publishing his first book at the age of fifty. Previous jobs he has held include construction worker, court stenographer, football journalist, foreign correspondent in New York and, most recently, newspaper editor. His crime novels have won the Jerry-Cotton Prize and the Deutscher-Krimi Prize, and five of them have been made into successful films, including Black Ice, previously published by Bitter Lemon Press.

Anthea Bell: Anthea Bell is a literary and prize-winning translator, most recently of Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald, and multiple works by E.T.A. Hoffmann. She won the 2010 Schlegel-Tieck prize for her work on Stefan Zweig's compelling novella Burning Secret. She also translated Black Ice and David’s Revenge by Hans Werner Kettenbach.

From Publishers Weekly

Kettenbach (David's Revenge) takes a deep, and sometimes disturbing, look at the karmic consequences of a lifetime of depravity in this fusion of psychological suspense and crime fiction. Herbert Klofft, an aging and gravely ill industrialist, stands accused of wrongfully dismissing a female employee, Katharina Fuchs, with whom he'd been having an affair for more than a decade. The lawyer defending Klofft, 29-year-old Alexander Zabel, soon gets entangled in his own ethical quagmire as he finds himself sexually attracted to Klofft's elderly but alluring wife, Cilly. But as Zabel finds out more about his ill-tempered client, a self-professed adulterer and ruthless businessman, he begins to see Klofft—and himself—in a different existential light. While the legal issue is far from intriguing and the pacing not exactly breakneck, Kettenbach's highly contemplative prose makes this cerebral and melancholic exploration into morality and mortality a powerful and haunting read. (June)

About this edition

• Publisher: Bitter Lemon Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1904738672
• ISBN 13: 9781904738671
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 327