End of the World in Breslau - Softcover

Marek Krajewski is a lecturer in Classical Studies in the University of Wroclaw. His Eberhard Mock novels have enjoyed massive success in Europe and have been rewarded with Poland's premier literary and crime novel prizes. Danusia Stok is the author/editor of Kieslowski on Kieslowski, translator of modern Polish literature

*Starred Review* As winter 1927 sets in, Criminal Counsellor Eberhard Mock, Breslau’s most celebrated cop, is under great stress. His beautiful, willful, capricious 24-year-old wife, Sophie, is failing to conceive a child. Fully as willful and self-absorbed as Sophie, the middle-aged cop is drinking prodigiously, buying his wife expensive gifts he can’t afford, flying into violent rages, and having Sophie followed. Two bizarre and savage murders, connected only by calendar pages that note the day of each murder, and Sophie’s angry flight to Berlin threaten to send Mock off an emotional cliff. Death in Breslau (2012) showcased the city as a roiling kettle of wealth, privilege, poverty, crime, scholarship, and depravity. This time, Krajewski focuses brilliantly on Mock’s psychological dissolution, but he also continues to offer fascinating glimpses of the city during a brief period of relative economic stability and sociocultural foment. Eating vast quantities of heavy food preoccupies most of the characters. Spiritualism is represented by a self-described Russian nobleman who lectures on the end of the world and a new messiah, born to a “Babylonian whore.” Cocaine use is widespread. Fraternal organizations and lodges figure in the tale. Marlene Dietrich is the toast of Berlin, and Breslau has its own Josephine Baker imitator, who performs sans clothes, in black paint. Like Death in Breslau, this one is also bizarre and insightful. --Thomas Gaughan