Happy Birthday, Turk! (Novel)

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Happy Birthday, Turk! is a German crime novel by Jakob Arjouni . The first edition was published in 1985 by Buntbuch-Verlag in Hamburg, as well as in special editions, translations in several languages ​​and as an audio book. In 1992 the film adaptation of the novel was made under the title Happy Birthday, Turk! premiered by Doris Dörrie .

content

First day

Private detective Kemal Kayankaya is investigating a murder case. Kemal Kayankaya wakes up still drunk from the previous day and finds that it is his birthday. He buys two pieces of cake and goes to his office, where he soon receives a visit from a Turkish woman. She seems very reserved and starts speaking in Turkish. Kayankaya explains that he doesn't speak Turkish and prevents her from leaving. They eat cake together and she tells him about her murdered husband and that she doesn't trust the police. Ilter, the Turkish woman, asks him to solve the murder of her husband. When he holds a 1000-mark note in his hands, he decides to help her.

First he asks her family, Ergün, where he soon meets the selfish and cheeky brother Yilmaz. Melike Ergün, the mother of the client, who herself lost her husband Vasif Ergün in a car accident, believes that Ahmed Hamul committed suicide. He could not find out much about the murder from the family because they themselves were not sufficiently informed about it.

It is noticeable that the whole family does not know exactly what Ahmed Hamul has been up to in recent years. He goes to the police to speak to Inspector Futt. He needs information, so he's not afraid to tell lies to the inspector. There he actually finds out a lot and he comes one step closer to his goal. Later he receives a threatening letter, but this does not deter him.

He keeps researching and goes to Ahmed Hamul's old job to find out if he really worked there. After questioning, he finds out that a girl was interested in Ahmed. To find out whether Ahmed might have had a girlfriend, he continues on the subway and interviewed some people on the street. He learns from a homeless person whom he pays for information that Ahmed Hamul was in the drug business. He gets the tip to ask at Milly's sex bar. There he met Susanne Böhmisch, but did not learn anything more about Ahmed Hamul. Shortly afterwards he is kicked out of the club and beats up the bouncers. Later he receives a payment from a prostitute to look for clues in "Heinis Hühnerpfanne". There he met Hanna Hecht, whom Ahmed Hamul knew better. He cheats on her so that he can talk to her alone. When she learns that she has been lied to, she secretly calls her pimp, who is the waiter on Heini's chicken pan. He is thrown out of the apartment and almost run over on the way home.

Second day

Kemal Kayankaya visits Ms. Ergün, receives more information about the accidents of her late husband Vasif and notices that Ayse is a drug addict. Then he goes to the narcotics department and tries to find out more details about Ahmed Hamul. However, he was not given access to Ahmed Hamul's criminal files. That's why he calls Theobald Löff, a friend of his former detective inspector, and makes an appointment with him. When he arrives at the Löffs, he lets Löff in on the case and asks him for help, since he is authorized to inspect the files. Löff agrees and assures that he can get the information by 5 a.m. After visiting Löff, he goes back to Heini's chicken pan, meets Susanne Böhnisch and learns from her that Hanna Hecht was also involved in the drug business.

After Kayankaya left Susanne Böhnisch's apartment, he decided to visit Hanna Hecht again, armed. After a gun battle without injuries, he got Hanna Hecht to talk. She reveals to him some details about Ahmed Hamul that help Kayankaya in his investigation. He then takes the appointment with Löff in order to obtain information from the file inspection carried out by Löff. Löff contributes significantly to the clarification of the case by disclosing the relationship between the officers / police officers and Ahmed Hamul, as well as Vasif Ergün. Löff continues to accompany Kayankaya in his investigations and helps him snoop around the police station. Back in his office, he learns that Yilmaz has left the house in a hurry and that a bill for a house that Ilter does not know has arrived. Immediately afterwards, Kayankaya was attacked in his office. He came to in a doctor's office. A short time later he had an informative conversation with Mr. Schöller (who wrote the protocol of Vasif Ergün's fatal accident) and Mr. Schönbaum (person involved in Vasif Ergün's first accident), who each gave him more details about the accidents.

third day

Kemal Kayankaya travels to Kronberg, where Vasif Ergün had an accident three years ago. He rings the doorbell at a bungalow near the scene of the accident; an elderly woman opens the door. He asks her if she can remember the accident or if she saw anything. First she tells him that she hadn't seen anything, but then she remembers that Farmer Hornen's oldest daughter saw something and that she said it wasn't an accident, but that another car had pushed Mr. Ergün away. She tells him that the farmer's daughter was killed by a roof tile the next day. Kemal Kayankaya then goes to Farmer Hornen to question him.

After his return from Kronberg, Kayankaya asks Löff to come to the Presidium for more information. By chance they learn of a warehouse where old police items are kept. Löff and Kayankaya question the officer who is on duty there and learn interesting things. They say thank you and say goodbye. Kemal looks for Futt's address and drives straight to his apartment. While Löff is waiting in the car, Kayankaya enters the apartment and is surprisingly greeted by Futts' naked wife. After much back and forth, Kayankaya can question her, but the result is not much. He searches the apartment and finds several packets of heroin in the inspector's closet. Without thinking, Kemal drives to Hannah Hecht's apartment.

Kemal Kayankaya poses as a company worker in order to get into Hannah Hecht's apartment. Harry Eiler opens the door and is beaten up by Kemal. He frees Hannah Hecht from her bonds and brutally forces Eiler to make a confession, which he records on tape. Eiler admits the blackmailing of Vasif Ergün, the murder of the farmer's daughter and the attack on Kemal Kayankaya. Kemal forces Eiler to call his accomplices to meet them at Futt.

After he has lured Eiler and Hosch into the trap, the public prosecutor arrives. Now everyone is just waiting for Mr. Futt, who, according to Kayankaya, was the mastermind behind the whole operation. Meanwhile Kayankaya tries to get the two gentlemen to confess and persuades Hosch to make a deal. When Paul Futt arrives and suddenly meets Kemal Kayankaya, the round is complete. Kayankaya finally uses evidence to get the prosecutor to have Futt and Eiler arrested by her own colleagues.

He then brings the news to the family of the murdered Ahmed Hamul that the crime has been solved. After reporting to Ilter about the arrest of Futt and Eiler, he asks for a short talk with her brother Yilmaz. He tells him without hesitation that he now knows who the real murderer is.

Reviews

“How few authors with his talent do we have! We need such an author. An author who has something to say about our present. Who knows them, who knows how people speak, what they experience. Who knows just as much about history as he does storytelling. One who knows the world and can write. Somebody like Jakob Arjouni. What a great world discoverer and world teller. "

- Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

“The author's ridicule and his lust for satire know no bounds. This Turk with the German passport turns out to all sides and greets his neighbors in the stairwell with a happy 'Heil Hitler'. He does it for all of us. Kemal Kayankaya really is the right man at the right time. Play it again, Jakob! "

- The time

“Jakob Arjouni is a discovery. There is not a drop of morality in his lyrics, he simply tells what happens, stories as life writes, and almost never with the usual happy ending. And he tells his stories so well, with extremely agile dialogues and skillfully held tension, that you can no longer put your books down. "

- El País

“Private detective Kemal Kayankaya is the German-Turkish doppelganger of Phil Marlowe, the big, sad colleague from the West Coast. Only less elegiac and at least so ingeniously painted that you can hardly stop reading until you finally know who stabbed whom and why and at all. The fact that ›Happy birthday, Turk!‹ Is still more than a remake, is not only due to the clearly Hessian urban environment, but also to the more colorful pictures, the very own flips of thought and the peculiarity of the story. If you just write down, you can't tell so exciting and full of stories. "

- Hamburger Rundschau

“A brilliant debut: Kayankaya, the social outsider, is the die-hard detective to perfection, and the plot has more flair than most of the local competition. Welcome to America, Turk. "

- Kirkus Reviews

“Kemal Kayankaya, the wrinkled, constantly hungover hero in Arjouni's detective novels is a worthy grandson of the all-powerful grandfathers Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade. Jakob Arjouni is vehemently striving for the German championship title in the crime heavyweight division, which has become vacant due to Jörg Fauser's death on the autobahn. "

- star

Expenses (selection)

Audio books

radio play

  • Happy Birthday, Turk! Südwestfunk 1989. Directed by Ulrich Heising

literature

  • Rainer-Ernst Wicke: Literature card index for the detective novel by Jakob Arjouni "Happy Birthday, Turk!" Verlag an der Ruhr, Mülheim an der Ruhr 2004, ISBN 3-86072-921-7 .

Web links