Roland Schimmelpfennig – författare

"A highly original and often hypnotic work . . . exactly the type of book that readers in search of striking European voices should embrace" John Boyne, author of THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMASA contemporary Berlin fairy tale that bristles with urban truths - the first novel of Germany''s best-known contemporary playwright One clear, ice-cold January morning shortly after dawn, a wolf crosses the border between Poland and Germany. His trail leads all the way to Berlin, connecting the lives of disparate individuals whose paths intersect and diverge. On an icy motorway eighty kilometres outside the city, a fuel tanker jack-knifes and explodes. The lone wolf is glimpsed on the hard shoulder and photographed by Tomasz, a Polish construction worker who cannot survive in Germany without his girlfriend. Elisabeth and Micha run away through the snow from their home village, crossing the wolf''s tracks on their way to the city. A woman burns her mother''s diaries on a Berlin balcony. And Elisabeth''s father, a famous sculptor, observes the vast skeleton of a whale in his studio and asks: What am I doing here? And why? Experiences and encounters flicker past with a raw, visual power, like frames in a black and white film. Those who catch sight of the wolf see their own lives reflected, and find themselves searching for a different path in a cold time. This first novel of Germany''s most celebrated contemporary playwright is written in prose of tremendous power and precision. Translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch

A thrilling, filmic immersion into Berlin''s legendary club scene - a skillfully told novel about the fragility of life.Berlin, Görlitzer Park: The body of a young woman in a white wedding dress floats in the canal. Who is she, and where does she come from? Suspended drugs investigator Tommy trawls Berlin''s clubs and criminal clans to uncover the woman''s story.On his odyssey through the city, he meets survivors and fighters, the lost and stranded from all over the world: from the Japanese tattoo master to the Indian fire-eater. Wide awake and dead tired, suspended between a dreamscape and reality, Tommy dives deeper and deeper into the Berlin underworld and into his own past. A breathless noir novel that is as hard-hitting as it is emotional, exploring the fragility of life and our longing for community.PRAISE FOR One Clear, Ice-cold Morning at the Beginning of the Twenty-first Century"A highly original and often hypnotic work . . . exactly the type of book that readers in search of striking European voices should embrace" John Boyne (author of THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS), Irish Times"A brilliantly kaleidoscopic morality tale"- Eileen Battersby, Financial Times"A magnificent achievement, a novel of terrific originality" - Charlie Connelly, New European"The exhilarating narrative is wonderfully concise, and the imagery is intensely cinematic" - Barry Forshaw, GuardianTranslated from the German by Jamie Bulloch