The Gift (novel)

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The present is a 2019 psychological thriller by the writer Sebastian Fitzek , in which the illiterate Milan Berg is on the trail of a kidnapping. During the chase, family abysses open up to him, which not only make him question his past, but also who he really is.

action

At the beginning of the book, the main character Milan Berg is in prison and tells individual members of the Tegel JVA under duress the story he had previously experienced. Before the kidnapping, Milan was active as a con artist and, among other things, called a diner disguised as a police officer. Andra Sturm was working there at the time of his call. After this has overwhelmed him, the tide turns. Milan also begins to work in the diner and Andra Sturm becomes his new partner.

Two years after the attack, Milan and Andra are in a therapy session, which Milan leaves dissolved after his Alexie was almost exposed. During a subsequent phone call with his father Kurt Berg, Milan's gaze falls on a stopping car in which a girl is holding a sign on the window. Because of Alexia, Milan cannot read the sign, but feels that danger is imminent. He follows the car on his bike, but initially believes there is a misunderstanding when he sees a family getting out of it and going into a villa. A little later he discovered by chance through his partner Andra Sturm that the message on the sign was a call for help and drove to the villa again in her presence. Arrived at this it turns out that it is an empty house. During the search of the villa, the phone rings, on which an unknown man answers and introduces himself as "Jakob". He demands a large sum of money in return for letting the girl live. Milan now believes the girl was actually kidnapped. In addition to the phone, Milan also finds a secret message from the girl. This is a photo of his former childhood sweetheart Yvonne, on which there is a message in a secret code. This code comes from the book "The Gift", which Milan and Yvonne loved when they were children. The kidnapped girl is called Zoe, like the main character of that novel.

From now on, a chase against time begins, in which Milan not only follows the kidnapper's trail, but also investigates the origin of his Alexia. In the course of the story, Milan learns, among other things, that he could still read and write in his childhood and that his illness was a deliberate result of an operation on his head. The truth about the death of his mother, who was killed in a fire in their family home, is also revealed to him. During the persecution, Milan also learns that the kidnapped girl could be his own daughter, as she calls him "Papa" several times.

Towards the end it turns out that the kidnapping was a deception. The allegedly kidnapped girl is Lynn, the daughter of Milan and Yvonne, who staged the kidnapping to find her father. Milan also learns that Lynn held her own mother and killed her shortly before. His father finally admits that Milan's Alexia was caused by a deliberately induced cerebral hemorrhage. Since he was naturally "bad", the handicap should prevent Milan from becoming a murderer later. Since Lynn has the genes of her father and is also naturally "bad", the latter sets a trap for her, so that she is seriously injured. The injury ultimately leads to Lynn going blind, so that from now on she too has to live with a handicap like her father.

At the end of the book, Milan throws away the paternity test that confirms that Lynn is his daughter, and from now on lives with his wife Andra and their daughter Louisa.

characters

  • Milan Berg: main character, illiterate and partner of Andra Sturm
  • Andra Sturm: Milan's partner, employee in the diner
  • Louisa Sturm: daughter of Andra
  • Kurt Berg: father of Milan
  • Jutta Berg: late mother of Milan
  • Harald Lampert: managing director / owner of the diner nicknamed "Hulk"
  • Yvonne: Milan's childhood sweetheart and Lynn's mother
  • Zoe: daughter of Milan and Yvonne
  • Jakob Ende: alleged kidnapper and henchman of Lynn, was in a relationship with Yvonne's mother
  • Solveig: Yvonne's mother and former partner of Jakob Ende
  • Prof. Patrick Karsov: former attending doctor from Milan
  • "Zeus": leader of the prisoners in the Tegel JVA
  • Frank-Eberhardt Ende: Father of Jakob Ende

backgrounds

Over 6.2 million people in the German population are functionally illiterate . Similar to Fitzek's chosen main character, reading and writing skills are not sufficient to participate in social and cultural life as we know it. The perfect Alexia , as Milan Berg has, is still an exception and only occurs in 4 percent of people. Inspired by a booth of the Alfa Self-Help Association at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2017, Sebastian Fitzek brought the illiterate Milan Berg to life as the main character of his new novel. The actions of Milan and the way in which he tries to cope with his everyday life despite the handicap are based on a fate report. Last but not least, Fitzek owes his background knowledge to the author and publisher Tim-Thilo Fellmer, who was himself once affected and who also drew attention to illiteracy in Germany at the book fair . Fitzek himself is now the patron and therefore a great supporter of the Alfa self-help association.

reception

With his psychological thriller "The Gift", Fitzek wrote the Spiegel bestseller of the year for the second time: the thriller novel was the best-selling hardcover novel of 2019.

Sabine Bongenberg writes on Krimi-Couch.de that the reader would be drawn into the story at lightning speed by Fitzek's usual rapid spelling. Fitzek would thus build up an immense tension at the same time, which is able to push any questions about logic and probability into the background.

Charlotte Jaunus writes on T-Online.de that Sebastian Fitzek takes up a socially highly relevant and yet often overlooked topic in his novel with illiteracy. This relationship is what makes the story so special and sets it apart from the other books by the star author.

Text output

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "The Gift" from Sebastian Fitzek is SPIEGEL's 2019 bestseller . December 30, 2019, accessed on April 9, 2020 .
  2. ↑ A never-ending nightmare. December 2019, accessed April 9, 2020 .
  3. ↑ What is “The Gift” about? October 23, 2019, accessed April 9, 2020 .