Therapy (novel)
The therapy is a psychological thriller and the debut novel by the writer Sebastian Fitzek from 2006. The novel has already sold eight million copies. In addition, the novel, the number occupied for several weeks one on the bestseller list of the mirror .
action
Josy, the twelve-year-old daughter of the renowned psychiatrist Viktor Larenz, seems to have disappeared without a trace after one of her numerous doctor visits. At this point in time she had been suffering from an illness for months, the cause of which could not be determined by the treating doctor. Larenz notices Josy's disappearance and suffers a nervous breakdown in his rage. The investigations remain unsuccessful, Larenz and his wife Isabell live for years without a sign of life from their daughter.
Four years later, Larenz, who is no longer practicing, agrees to an interview in order to come to an end with the past and retires to the island of Parkum. There he is tracked down by a beautiful stranger who pretends to be Anna Spiegel and asks him to treat her. Reluctantly at first, Larenz begins therapy when Anna describes her illness to him: She is a writer and suffers from schizophrenia; all of her fictional characters manifest in her life. Recently there has also been a little girl named Charlotte, incurably ill like Josy, from an unfinished fairy tale manuscript.
Larenz senses a new lead, since Anna's stories coincide with events from the time around Josy's disappearance. He urges her to finish Charlotte's story: Anna makes it clear to him that Charlotte has been poisoned. During one of her schizophrenic phases, Charlotte appeared to her and begged her to flee with her from her mother Isabell. She had poisoned Charlotte to quench her maternal instinct and prevent her daughter from growing up. To hide her from her mother, Anna tried to stifle the girl's screams, but killed her in the process.
Larenz wakes up with the pointed end of the story, realizing that in truth he himself killed his own daughter. He has actually been seriously ill in a psychiatric clinic without interruption since his collapse and experiences this lucid moment in conversation with a doctor, which also serves as a murder confession.
Larenz suffers from Munchausen Deputy Syndrome and intentionally poisoned his daughter with medication for months. The numerous doctor visits he made with her are also pathological for this syndrome. In his madness, he held his wife Isabell responsible for Josy's illness and drowned Josy to hide her from Isabell. Larenz is also schizophrenic and after his collapse took refuge in illusory worlds. a. to the island of Parkum. Anna Spiegel is a pipe dream that he used to treat himself.
During a waking phase, Larenz can only explain the lack of Josy's corpse in such a way that Josy was never dead. The subsequent investigations reveal that Isabell hung her sick, wealthy husband out of greed for the murder of Josy, and later went into hiding with her daughter, who was believed to be dead.
characters
- Dr. Viktor Larenz: The main character of the story, a well-known psychiatrist with a strong media presence, who is severely traumatized by the loss of his daughter and who loses the line between reality and madness in the course of the story.
- Josephine "Josy" Larenz: daughter of Viktor Larenz. The girl mysteriously disappears.
- Anna Spiegel: Author of children's books. She is the enigmatic patient whom Dr. Larenz confronted with his own traumatic past.
linguistic style
“ The interior of the Volvo smelled of freshly greased leather that had been polished with beeswax. Viktor was so overwhelmed by the memories of his own car that for a moment he forgot the danger he was in. This car was exactly the model he had driven to the sea three weeks ago. It was equipped the same way. Everything was so familiar to him. And although it was practically impossible, Viktor could have sworn that someone had flown in his own car from Sylt to Parkum during this storm. "
Fitzek's writing style is simple, solid, and clear and easy to read.
Reviews
"With regard to its extremely sophisticated and sophisticated plot, 'The Therapy' is a small masterpiece." The psychological thriller is written at a high narrative pace. The 331-page book contains 60 chapters and each ends with a cliffhanger that keeps the tension constantly high. Kijanski describes the work as a “driving psychological thriller with numerous stylistic devices of the horror novel” and as a “first-class roller coaster ride”. “The Therapy” offers an atmospheric tension on a lonely island from which “ there is no escape due to a severe storm” . Dr. Larenz is a prisoner in his house and "is getting weaker and weaker for inexplicable reasons that he cannot explain". The author asks the reader the central question, what is fiction and what is reality ? Here stylistic elements of the horror novel are introduced. The cell phone rings in a place where there would normally be no reception and the lights in the house go on and off without human intervention. The ending offers a completely unexpected twist. For the BILD newspaper the “absolute surprise success”. The picture on Sunday describes "the therapy" with " no material for the faint of heart ". " The therapy is no ordinary thriller, but so exciting that even the pages tremble ." Fitzek's celebrated debut novel as a "summer hit" causes a sensation in the BZ .
Classification in the work of the author
According to his own statements, Fitzek got the idea for the plot of his novel while staying in the waiting room of a doctor's office. Even after half an hour his girlfriend did not appear from the treatment room and Fitzek asked himself what would happen if she did not show up and the doctor, as well as the office assistants, as well as the other patients would claim she wouldn't have been here at all. From this core question, after a brainstorming session that took a year, the synopsis for the story emerged. The characters of his stories have a defined psyche, origin and past from the start, but no finished biography that only emerges in the course of the story. The first draft was edited seven times before it was sent to the editing department .
Text output
- Sebastian Fitzek: The therapy . Knaur Taschenbuchverlag, Munich 2006, 331 pages, ISBN 3-426-63309-4 .
Web links
- Official homepage of Sebastian Fitzek (German)
- Sebastian Fitzek: The therapy on Sarah's world of books
Notes and individual references
- ^ Elmar Krekeler: Literary World. Psychological thriller. Dear Fitzek, don't you have it a size smaller? . In: The world . 20th December 2013.
- ↑ SPIEGEL bestseller hardcover . In: Der Spiegel . Culture.
- ↑ Sebastian Fitzek: The therapy . In: World of Words .
- ↑ Sebastian Fitzek: The therapy . In: Lesepanda Blogspot .
- ↑ a b c d e f "Perhaps the debut novel of 2006", The Therapy, Sebastian Fitzek, by Jörg Kijanski, Krimi-Couch, August 2006
- ↑ Sebastian Fitzek: The therapy on literature shock
- ↑ Berliner Thriller takes first place in the book lists ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: BILD newspaper . July 31, 2006.
- ↑ Alex Dengler: Category Already read? ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: Bild am Sonntag . August 6, 2006.
- ↑ Wiebke Hollersen: The summer hit ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: BZ - Berliner Zeitung . July 29, 2006 (PDF)
- ↑ About Sebastian Fitzek , website of the author .
