Oliver Bottini

Oliver Bottini (2017) - Photo: Hans Scherhaufer

Oliver Bottini (born April 21, 1965 in Nuremberg ) is a German writer who has made a name for himself with his detective novels and who has also been a screenwriter since 2017.

Life

Growing up in Munich, he did community service there after high school. He then spent half a year in New Zealand and Australia . From 1992 he studied German , Italian and market and advertising psychology at the LMU Munich and graduated with a master's degree . From 2008 to 2018 Bottini lived in Berlin, meanwhile he lives in Frankfurt am Main.

He has been earning his living as a freelance editor and author since 1995. Until 2010 he practiced Kung Fu and Qi Gong , later Ashtanga Yoga, for sporting and spiritual "balance" .

The first literature grants came in 1999 from the City of Munich and in 2001 from the Bertelsmann Foundation. From 2001 onwards, Bottini completed a two-year training course in family and business mediation . Since the placement of his first crime novel Murder in the Sign of Zen at the German Crime Prize 2005 (3rd place), he has been one of the most respected crime novelists in Germany in literary criticism and increasingly also among readers. His second crime novel, Im Sommer der Mörder , published in 2006, was twice number one on the KrimiWelt best list and in 2007 also received the German Krimi Preis (3rd place). In the spring of 2007, Bottini said he spent three months in Osijek , Croatia, doing research for the novel On behalf of the fathers and finishing the book there.

In 2018, he received the German Crime Prize (1st place) and the Heinrich Böll Foundation's prize for the best political crime novel of the year for his work Death in the Quiet Corner of Life .

Bottini is also represented in anthologies with short stories. As a non-fiction author, he has so far mainly dealt with topics of the Asian art of living: meditation , Buddhism , Zen , Qi Gong . A critic from Deutschlandradio Kultur said of him: "In fact, Oliver Bottini's books are free from esoteric ramblings."

In 2017 Oliver Bottini took part in a project by conceptual artist Karin Sander (artist) for the Kunst Museum Winterthur with the story "Winter Death" . "Wintertod" was published in September 2017 by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König .

Two of Bottini's detective novels with the dry-alcohol inspector "Louise Boni" were filmed for German television. On February 18, 2016, ARD showed the second episode, Louise Bonì: Hunters in the Night , for the first time in the main evening program. The year before, Louise Bonì: Murder under the sign of Zen had already been broadcast, "highly praised by the critics". The "Welt" column head Elmar Krekeler even said that Louise Boní was "the most complex female figure on German series television". That was already laid out in the literary model, the book by Oliver Bottini. Since February 2020 Bottini's novel "A few days of light" (2014) has been filmed as a miniseries under the direction of Frédéric Jardin in a German-French co-production (EIKON Media Cologne / Watch Next Media Paris, ARTE / ZDF). The screenplay was written by Abdel Raouf Dafri, and Bottini co-wrote.

Works

Crime fiction

Louise Bonì series

• Vol. 1: Murder under the sign of Zen. Scherz Vlg., Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 3-502-61117-3 . (3rd place in the German Crime Prize 2005 )
• Vol. 2: The murderer in the summer. Scherz, Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 3-502-11000-X
• Vol. 3: On behalf of the fathers. Scherz, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-502-11009-5
• Vol. 4: Hunters in the Night. Scherz, Frankfurt am Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-502-11018-7
• Vol. 5: The hidden web. Scherz, Frankfurt am Main 2010, ISBN 978-3-502-11055-2
• Vol. 6: In the white circle. DuMont, Cologne 2015, ISBN 978-3-8321-9699-8

Others

• The cold dream. DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne 2012, ISBN 978-3-8321-9659-2
• A couple of days of light. DuMont, Cologne 2014, ISBN 978-3-8321-9660-8
• Death in the quiet corners of life. DuMont, Cologne 2017, ISBN 978-3-8321-9776-6

Short stories

• Next year. In: Forbidden Kisses. Affair and other sensual fantasies. Anthology. Knaur Verlag Munich, April 2005.
• The only true story. In: Blutgrätsche. World champion crime novels. Anthology. Grafit Verlag, Dortmund, February 2006.
• Live and die in Fröndenberg. In: Mord am Hellweg III. Crime stories. Anthology. Grafit Verlag, Dortmund, September 2006.

Non-fiction

• The great OW Barth book of Zen. OW Barth Verlag, 2002, ISBN 3-502-61104-1 .
• The great OW Barth book of Buddhism. OW Barth Verlag, 2004, ISBN 3-502-61126-2 .
• With Lao Vongvilay: The Power of the Tiger. Qi Gong for every day. OW Barth Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-502-61134-3 .

Awards

• 2005: German Crime Prize (3rd place national) for murder under the sign of Zen
• 2007: German Crime Prize (3rd place nationally) for In the summer of the murderer
• 2007: Radio Bremen detective award
• 2013: German Crime Prize (3rd place nationally) for The Cold Dream
• 2013: Berlin Crime Prize "Krimifuchs"
• 2015: German Crime Prize (2nd place national) for a few days of light
• 2018: German Crime Prize (1st place national) for Death in the quiet corners of life
• 2018: Prize of the Heinrich Böll Foundation for the best political detective novel of the year

Web links

• Literature by and about Oliver Bottini in the catalog of the German National Library
• Short biography and information on the work of Oliver Bottini at Literaturport
• Oliver Bottini in the Bavarian literature portal (project of the Bavarian State Library )
• Short biography and reviews of works by Oliver Bottini at perlentaucher.de
• Oliver Bottini homepage
• Kim Kindermann Review: "Criminal and spiritual: Oliver Bottini mixes crime fiction with Asian lifestyles" (DRadio April 24, 2006)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Louise Bonì: “Hunters in the Night”: When the shadows appear , Frankfurter Rundschau from February 18, 2016
2. ↑ Commissioner Louise Bonì - Hunters in the Night ( Memento of the original from May 19, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , daserste.de, accessed February 20, 2016 
3. ↑ TV Thriller: When Men Want To Feel They Kill Women , Die Welt, February 18, 2016
4. ↑ The German Crime Award 2018 goes to Oliver Bottini , Deutschlandfunk Kultur on January 17, 2018, accessed January 26, 2018