Real life writes the most exciting stories.
Chris Power's "A Lonely Man" can hold a candle to many thrillers.
My book tip.
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The background story begins quite unspectacularly: Two Brits, about the same age, in their early 40s, meet by chance in Berlin.
One main character, Robert, has not made any progress with his second book project for a year and a half and is struggling with his role as a father.
Patrick is also on the road writing.
He has just arrived in Berlin and is grateful for all of Robert's tips.
When he tells him that he ghost-wrote for a Russian oligarch who is now dead, dark thoughts overtake Robert too.
Chris Power "A Lonely Man": About the Book
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Chris Power's debut novel A Lonely Man
© Ullstein
Are some stories too dangerous to tell?Robert, a British expat, is a writer living in Berlin with his wife and two daughters.
By chance, he makes the acquaintance of Patrick, also British, but by no means as firmly anchored in bourgeois life as Robert.
As the former ghostwriter of murdered Russian oligarch Sergei Vanyashin, an enemy of the Kremlin, Patrick feels persecuted and threatened.
Robert thinks Patrick is paranoid, but is nevertheless fascinated by his story and sees it as an opportunity to overcome his writer's block.
Then strange things happen.
But Robert clings to the belief that he can continue to live in the so-called normality.
Takes his belief for reason, Robert's story for the imagination of a confused mind.
The shadow world that Patrick describes
may exist, but he is not part of it.
Or is it?
Ullstein
Chris Power's debut is quite calm.
The plot develops subtly, and as a reader you glide through the events in Berlin's Kollwitzkiez or the Swedish summer house.
The stories Patrick tells interest Robert and distract him from his writing problems.
But they could also be a pipe dream, a pure fantasy story by the other author.
Patrick turns the supposed suicide of the oligarch into a murder.
He, too, is being pursued by the same pro-Putin powers that seek his life just as much as his former client.
As a reader, I followed Robert's train of thought.
I found him downright likeable.
But is he really who he says he is?
Maybe Robert can capitalize on Patrick's stories and finally get on with his own book project.
He starts asking Patrick out for drinks, listens to his stories and tries to manipulate him downright.
Chris Power "A Lonely Man": My conclusion
A Lonely Man is a cleverly thought out thriller disguised as a novel.
Scene changes are not as quick as in Vincent Kliesch's "In the Eye of the Zebra" or Max Seeck's "Devil's Net", but with a high narrative density that fascinated me.
Entertaining and exciting at the same time.
Chris Power "A Lonely Man"
Translated from the English by Claudia Voit
2022, Ullstein, ISBN-13 978-3-550-05056-5
Price: Hardcover €22.99, e-book €18.99, 320 pages – Order now (promotional link)
ChrisPower
A Lonely Man is his debut novel.
He lives and works as a writer in London.
List of rubrics: © Ullstein