Jun 12, 2024
"Ich sage sogar, das ist der größte Fehler an unserer Welt, dass es nicht wenigstens ein paar Dinge gibt, die es nicht gibt."
- Der Brenner und der liebe Gott, Wolf Haas
(S. 183)
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"Ich sage sogar, das ist der größte Fehler an unserer Welt, dass es nicht wenigstens ein paar Dinge gibt, die es nicht gibt."
- Der Brenner und der liebe Gott, Wolf Haas
(S. 183)
Day 3: Your favorite series
The Inspector Brenner novels by Wolf Haas
Cheating a little bit here, I don’t read that many series and it probably would be a deadlock between Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings if I was honest, but they’re super famous and we all know them already, so let’s have something a bit more exotic instead!
Especially since I’ve just learned that they’re available in English too now. Not sure if they work in the translation though, because what makes this series of six (SIX! We ignore the money-grab additions in this house) stand-out from other crime novels is the very dark, very specific brand of humour and the peculiar writing style.
It’s all very Austrian, big parts of the books are in dialect and written like thoughts, half-sentences, derailed trains of thought and fillers included. They’re grimy, filled with people who aren’t likeable but interesting af and are just a perfect illustrations of Austrian mentality. I swear, even the more grotesque characters, you know them and have met them if you live here. It’s SO good.
The actual cases are really interesting too and they hold up on the big screen. They adapted a few of them and the movies are some of the best movies ever to come out of this country, dark humour and gross-out factor (not because of the gore, I wish it was because of the gore) are all intact!
"Du darfst bei der Beurteilung nie vergessen, vom Menschen die Trauer abzuziehen. Sonst kriegst du ein vollkommen falsches Bild und verliebst dich in die Trauer statt in den Menschen, und später entpuppt sich der als fröhlicher Kobold."
- Müll, Wolf Haas (S. 80)
"Weil natürlich beide Seiten kein Interesse, dass man da päpstlicher ist als der Papst, und im Zweifel für das gegenseitige Stillschweigen."
- Müll, Wolf Haas (S. 282)
Day 4: Favorite book of your favorite series
Out of that series my fave is the last one. The title alone... das ewige Leben... the eternal life. The first one is called Resurrection of the body, aka the penultimate line of the Catholic Creed, which is followed by this one. If you grew up in the Austrian countryside like I did, they are inseparable and your mind practically auto fills them! Couldn’t be more appropriate for the book.
The ending has some of the best POV mindfucks I’ve ever read, it’s SO clever and pretty much takes everything that makes the series great, the weird sentences, the dark humour, the general grimy noir mood and just turns them into this brilliant conclusion.
Again, I doubt getting them in English will make much sense since it’s such a distinct vernacular, but I still wish they were better known internationally and that more people checked out the movies with the brilliant Josef Hader playing the lead.
Books of Wolf Haas in order
Wolf Haas is an Austrian author of crime fiction novels. He writes the Detective Brenner series. Haas was born in the province of Salzburg in Austria. After university, he worked as a copywriter. He began writing detective stories in 1996, most of which featuring Simon Brenner. Three of the Detective Brenner novels were adapted into film. Among the awards Haas has won include the Deutscher Krimi Preis three times and the Literaturpreis der Stadt Bremen.
Brenner
Resurrection / Auferstehung der Toten (1996) — Buy on Amazon!
The Bone Man / Der Knochenmann (1997) — Buy on Amazon!
Come, Sweet Death / Komm, süßer Tod (1998) — Buy on Amazon!
Silentium! (1999) —
Wie die Tiere (2001) —
Das ewige Leben (2003) —
Brenner and God / Der Brenner und der liebe Gott (2009) — Buy on Amazon!
Brennerova (2014) —
Müll (2022) —
Standalone Novels
The Weather Fifteen Years Ago (2006) — Buy on Amazon!
Seine Ersparnisse waren ausreichend, um ein Jahr über die Runden zu kommen. Oder drei Moante, wenn er in der Schweiz blieb.
- Wackelkontakt, Wolf Haas
(S. 38)
Je mehr ein Mensch zu verbergen hat, umso mehr muss er reden.
- Wackelkontakt, Wolf Haas
(S. 105)