Breaking News (novel)

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Breaking News is a novel by the German writer Frank Schätzing that was published by Kiepenheuer & Witsch in March 2014 . The central theme of the documentary thriller is the current research of a journalist in Israel linked to the history of the settlements of Israel.

The German-language initial print run was 500,000 copies.

action

Breaking News tells the story of the formerly successful but now failed crisis and war reporter Tom Hagen and the emergence of the State of Israel against the background of an epic family saga .

Tom Hagen

The storyline around Tom Hagen begins in Afghanistan in 2008 with the description of the failed documentation of a hostage rescue. Tom Hagen's chance of a comeback after reporting on the fall of Muammar al-Gaddafi in 2011 fails due to a head injury. His supposed last chance is the possible illegal purchase of CDs with inside data on the activities of the Israeli domestic secret service Schin Bet . However, his old editorial team decided that the information was not worth the price asked. Hagen now claims that the CDs provide evidence of an assassination attempt on the former Prime Minister of Israel Ariel Sharon , who only apparently fell into a coma through natural circumstances in 2005.

Shortly afterwards, Hagen and his contact are attacked by masked men and asked about the CDs and his informant. After an exchange of fire, Hagen escapes his tormentors. He manages to get the explosive material from his hotel room shortly before the arrival of the secret service. He tracks down Yael Kahn, who can confirm the story of the Sharon assassination and who is on the run from the masterminds. The attempt to leave the country together fails: They are taken prisoner. It is becoming apparent that their hunters are Jewish fundamentalists who are not only trying to cover up the attack on Ariel Sharon, but also want to prevent an imminent attack from being thwarted. The group plans to connect to the radio control of an Israeli military drone and fire its rockets at the Al Aqsa mosque. Due to a telephone message that Tom Hagen sent to a Schin Bet agent before his capture, the attack was prevented at the last second.

Tom Hagen and Yael Kahn manage to escape, with Tom Hagen being shot in the stomach. A deal is reached between the parties: Hagen and Kahn undertake not to publish the material on the CDs and not to testify against the masterminds behind the two attacks. In return, the Schin Bet should not investigate Yael Kahn's involvement in the Sharon assassination.

The Kahns and Scharon

The story of the twins Jehuda and Benjamin Kahn and their friend Arik Scheinermann begins in 1929 with the immigration of their families to Kfar Malal .

It describes how they first become friends and then develop in different directions. Jehuda becomes an expert in irrigation technology and moves to Jamit with his wife Phoebe and two children . His slender brother Ben, who is crippled after an accident, devotes himself to studying the Torah and becomes a rabbi. Arik becomes a soldier and is honored for his services in the Palestine War, he rises to the rank of general. Only at this point is the reader revealed his identity as Ariel Sharon.

When Ariel Sharon evacuated Jamit in 1982 and Jehuda's son Uri committed suicide after traumatic experiences in the Lebanon War in 1982 , there was a break between Jehuda and Sharon, but both remained in contact without Phoebe's knowledge. The Kahns move to the Elei Sinai settlement in the Gaza Strip with their orphaned granddaughter Yael . Benjamin Kahn is now an important head of the national religious settler movement of Israel.

In 2005, Sharon also had the Gaza Strip evacuated , leaving Jehuda and Phoebe homeless again. Although he promises a replacement, Yehuda dies of a heart attack before he can meet Sharon about it. At the end of 2005, Sharon suffers a stroke and is due to have an operation. Yael is now his doctor, and it turns out that she administered the deadly drugs to Sharon under promises and threats from a hitherto unknown person.

Shin Bet

It briefly tells how Perlman recruits his agent Cox for the Schin Bet.

Later she shadows the heroin addict Pini Silberman, who is in possession of secret Schin-Bet data. You cannot prevent the latter from submitting the data to Hagen. Pini drives himself to death in the subsequent pursuit, and Hagen is then monitored by the Schin Bet. When she overhears Hagen's story about the attack and it is attacked in Jerusalem, it becomes clear that there must be an insider at the Shin Bet.

Cox and Perlman pursue Hagen to Nablus , where the mole is exposed. She receives important information from Hagen about the planned attack on the Temple Mount and at the last second is able to clear the control container for the drone hidden in the forest of the Tel Tzafit National Park, where she is wounded.

characters

Fictitious

  • Tom Hagen, journalist and main character
  • Yael Kahn, doctor
  • Yehuda Kahn, secular Israeli
  • Benjamin Kahn, brother of the former and radical settler leader
  • Pini Silberman, junkie and owner of sensitive data CDs
  • Ric Perlman, head of department at Schin Bet
  • Shoshanna Cox, agent of the Shin Bet
  • Tal Adler, agent of the Shin Bet
  • Shimon Bug, client and contact person

Historical

reception

The 965-page novel received mixed feedback in the first few days before and after its publication:

  • In the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , Andreas Platthaus wrote: “In terms of narrative, the two parts initially differ significantly. ... In terms of composition it is very clever, but stylistically it pays quite dearly in view of the strong beginning with the second narrative strand. "
  • Sylvia Staude wrote a review for the Frankfurter Rundschau : “It is as if the bestselling author was trying to cross the line between a novel and Wikipedia entries (...) was already a limit , there is no talking around, a bad novel and breaking news it is. Meticulously researched, sloppily written. "
  • Gerhard Matzig from the Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote: “He has a refined, explosive story, one with verve and speed that one likes to follow. The book is a page turner. But why does Schätzing forego linguistic ambition? "
  • Reviewer Burkhard Müller spoke in the weekly newspaper Die Zeit of two formal problems with which Schätzing had to struggle, which resulted from the double genre of action thriller and a “saga for the representation of the history of Israel”, and summed up: “That's how it is the result is an easy-to-read, yes, a good book that doesn't shy away from being deeply questionable. "
  • In the Zürcher Tages-Anzeiger , Martin Ebel Schätzing accused “absurd revaluation” and “fictitious misrepresentation” of the historical person Ariel Sharon . He also attested flat hero figures (“The reporter, a great pike”), a stylistic rollercoaster ride (“Unfortunately, the author also lives constantly beyond his stylistic circumstances”) and a diffuse to dubious narrative attitude in which a Palestinian view of the Middle East conflict described is practically non-existent occurs: "Palestinians, even the nice ones, [remain] mere accessories."

literature

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ^ Website of the Kiepenheuer & Witsch publishing house on the book
  2. ↑ Breaking News - Neuer Schätzing , report from the Kiepenheuer & Witsch publishing house from March 6, 2014
  3. ^ Andreas Platthaus : Frank Schätzing's new novel: His leap into the Middle East conflict. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , March 2, 2014, accessed December 21, 2015 .
  4. ^ Sylvia Staude: Frank Schätzing “Breaking News”: Writing by numbers. In: Frankfurter Rundschau . March 17, 2014, accessed December 21, 2015 .
  5. ↑ Gerhard Matzig : "Breaking News" by Frank Schätzing: He can do better. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . March 6, 2014, accessed December 21, 2015 .
  6. ↑ Burkhard Müller : Everything stays in the family . In: The time . No. 11 , 2014.
  7. ↑ Martin Ebel: From the bulldozer to the angel of peace. In: Tages-Anzeiger . March 6, 2014, accessed December 21, 2015 .