Rico, Oskar and the Heartbreak (novel)

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Rico, Oskar und das Herzgebreche is a novel by Andreas Steinhöfel from 2009. It is the second volume in the book series about the “gifted” Rico and his highly gifted friend Oskar. The award-winning first volume entitled Rico, Oskar and the Deep Shadow was published a year earlier, the sequel Rico, Oskar and the Diebstahlstein was published in 2011. The series was published by Carlsen Verlag and is recommended for ages 10 and up. A film of the same name was released in 2015 .

Plot and narrative

The book ties in directly with Rico, Oskar and the Tieferschatten . The action begins two weeks after Rico and Oskar's last adventure. Oskar, who stayed with Rico, moved in with Rico and his mother on Dieffenbachstrasse because his father left him there . Soon the two boys are involved in a new criminal case. They discover that Rico's mother is selling stolen handbags because she is being blackmailed. Rico and Oskar start investigations with the help of Mr. von Scherten, whom Rico and his mother know from bingo, and a neighbor with whom Rico is friends. They convict the blackmailer who turns out to be the owner of the club where Rico's mother works. Rico learns that his father did not die - as he always believed - but that his mother fled from him because he was violent. She now has to keep her and Rico's place of residence a secret from him. Her boss blackmailed Ricos mother with the threat of telling Ricos father where Rico and his mother live. The book ends hopefully: Rico’s mother and neighbor Simon Westbühl (whom Rico only calls “Bühl” because he cannot remember directions) become a couple, Rico and Oskar’s friendship is strengthened, and Rico gets the dog that he is has long wanted.

Narrative

As in the first book, Rico is the first-person narrator of the novel. He continues to write his vacation diary, which he started as homework, voluntarily and thus organizes his thoughts. The second volume is also shaped by Rico's idiosyncratic language full of word creations and his characteristic way of learning new words and weaving them into the rest of the story.

Reception and awards

Rico, Oskar und das Herzgebreche received good reviews. The reviewer Eva-Maria Magel compared Steinhöfel's talent for empathizing with children with Erich Kästner . In contrast to Kästner, however, he tends to make flowery excursions and box sentences. This makes the ten-year-old narrator less credible. The reading is nevertheless enjoyable. The reviewer Marion Gerhard described the book as a "literary treasure". In this book, too, the focus is not on the crime story, but on the emotional world of the main characters.

Klaus Maiwald judged the sequels that the repetition of similar types of plot and jokes wears off the attraction of the books for adults a little, but this meets the reading needs of children.

Rico, Oskar und das Herzgebreche was selected for the Toad of the Month literary award in May 2009 .

expenditure

Both the hardback ( ISBN 978-3-551-55459-8 ) and the paperback ( ISBN 978-3-5513-1233-4 ) were published by Carlsen Verlag with illustrations by Peter Schössow .

In 2011 an audio book , read by the author, was published by Silberfisch Verlag ( ISBN 978-3-8674-2069-3 ).

Adaptations

radio play

A radio play adaptation directed by Judith Lorentz was published in 2010 ( ISBN 978-3-8674-2679-4 ).

filming

The film Rico, Oskar und das Herzgebreche by Wolfgang Groos was released in 2015.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eva-Maria Magel: It's just difficult to be alone on the plush sofa. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . April 30, 2009, accessed August 5, 2016 .
  2. ↑ review note on pearl .com
  3. ^ Klaus Maiwald: Competitions and correspondence. Films / adaptations for children and young people - using the example of Rico, Oskar and the Tieferschatten (2014). In: Bettina Bannasch , Eva Matthes (eds.): Children's and youth literature: historical, narrative and media-theoretical, educational and therapeutic perspectives. Waxmann, Münster / New York 2018, ISBN 978-3-8309-3822-4 , pp. 153–154.