Dzieci gniewu to kolejny retro-kryminał wydany nakładem SQN. Tym razem czytelnik zostanie przeniesiony do Berlina lat 30. ubiegłego wieku, a więc w czasy, gdy państwo niemieckie stało u progu wielkich przemian politycznych, a także kulturowych i społecznych. Paul Grossman znakomicie oddaje realia panujące w tamtej epoce, celnie punktuje również problemy ówczesnych Żydów. Premiera powieści jest zaplanowana na 15 lipca 2015 roku.

 

 

 

 

Którzyście byli umarli w upadkach i w grzechach (…)

z przyrodzenia dziećmi gniewu.

List do Efezjan 2,1.3

 

W Stanach Zjednoczonych wybucha wielki kryzys, a Berlin musi radzić sobie z własnymi problemami. Oto bowiem w mieście wybucha epidemia zachorowań.

 

W tym samym czasie młody detektyw żydowskiego pochodzenia – Willi Kraus – dokonuje szokującego odkrycia. W jednym z miejskich kanałów spoczywa worek zawierający wygotowane dziecięce kości oraz Biblię z zakreślonymi cytatami. Berlińskie media natychmiast podchwytują temat tajemniczego Dzieciożercy. Obywatele żądają ujęcia zbrodniarza, ktoś musi ponieść karę…

 

Podczas gdy policja zdaje się szukać zaledwie kozła ofiarnego, sprawę na własną rękę bada odsunięty od śledztwa Willi Kraus. Jest gotowy kosztem własnej kariery dopaść okrutnego mordercę. Jednocześnie musi radzić sobie z prześladowaniami wynikającymi z rodzącej się w Niemczech ideologii nazistowskiej.

 

Znakomity kryminał historyczny, którego siłą są brawurowo skonstruowana intryga, pełnowymiarowi bohaterowie, przerażająco prawdziwy czarny charakter oraz wiarygodnie oddana niemiecka rzeczywistość. Grossman rysuje przed czytelnikiem przekonujący obraz Berlina przełomu lat 20. i 30. – schyłek kosmopolitycznego miasta będącego na krawędzi ekonomicznej zagłady i politycznego terroru.

 

 

Dzieci gniewu

Children of Wrath

 

Autor:  Paul Grossman

Tłumaczenie: Agnieszka Brodzik

Liczba stron: 320

Data wydania: 17 lipca 2015

ISBN: 978-83-7924-326-6

Cena: 34,90 zł (z VAT)

Entrancing, delightful, and riveting. These are just a few words that describe this historical novel. Normally, I am not a fan of historical novels because there are just too many ways for them to go completely wrong and be unbelievable. This was entirely believable. The fact and the fiction were so well blended that it was difficult to tell which was which. The main character was someone you could root for, someone you wanted to succeed. And he had a story that occasionally twisted your heart into knots and made you want to make it better for him. I truly enjoyed this book and will be looking for Paul Grossman's next novel.Note: I received this book through the Goodreads First Reads giveaway program.

I found this story to be well written and interesting. The storyline was, in fact, historical albeit about 10 years prior to the actual events. I think the story actually makes better history that the real timeline we all know from history.

The author chose to write a story with an implausible plot - the stopping of the Nazi Party prior to them even coming into power. We all know that, unfortunately, the Nazi Party did come into power. That reality kept me from getting "into" the story. Perhaps a storyline in which the Nazi's lose BUT the communists take over and then a fictional ending to the novel of what might have happened if the reds had become the governing party in the 1930's Germany.

One reviewer mentioned that the reader should play the soundtrack to Cabaret in the background. I wish I had thought of that as it would have been a great way to read this book.

I look forward to another novel by Paul Grossman.

Soon I Will Be Invincible - Austin Gross... Note: This review contains comments on the Audiobook narrated by Coleen Marlo and Paul Boehmer.

Soon I Will Be Invincible was mildly cliche, but humorous and definitely enjoyable.

The novel focuses on the villain Doctor Impossible and the Champions, a previously disbanded group of superheroes who reconvene with some new members to find out what happened to a member of their team who has disappeared and take down Doctor Impossible.

The team is pretty cliche in terms of superheroes - an invincible woman, a gadget guy, an energetic child hero, a mythic fairy, a cyborg, a half-human half-cat mutant, a magician and an invisible girl. But Grossman does a good job of giving them all personalities with faults included.

Doctor Impossible was a great villain, not the villain that you love to hate, but the villain you can connect with and, to an extent, feel sorry for.

The story jumps back and forth from one narrator to the next as the point of view shifts from Doctor Impossible to Fatale (one of the new Champions recruits). When I first began listening to the audiobook I wasn't completely sold on Marlo's Fatale, but it definitely grew on me. Boehmer's Doctor Impossible was fantastic from the get go - an evil twinge, but with the sad (pathetic?) undertones that mirror his life story.

My only complaint is in the pacing of the story. It took me quite a bit of time to get to the "don't-want-to-put-it-down moment. There was a lot of build-up to the end that could have been evened out a bit more.