As of: February 14, 2024, 9:17 a.m
The forensics expert is also very successful as a writer.
In his new bestseller, he and his wife Anja Tsokos tried a new genre.
It's about the GDR.
Berlin – The forensic doctor Michael Tsokos has not only been the best-selling author of numerous true crime thrillers for years, but also writes successful fictional crime novels.
At the Berlin Charité he was director of the Institute for Forensic Medicine until the end of last year, and he can also be seen on RTL+ with actor Jan Josef Liefers in the documentary series “Autopsy”.
Now he is taking a new path again.
“Heinz Labensky – and his view of things”: GDR novel by Anja and Michael Tsokos
Together with his wife Anja Tsokos he wrote a novel that uses a completely different genre.
One could perhaps describe the bestseller “Heinz Labensky – and his view of things” as a picaresque novel.
It tells the story of a man who was influenced by growing up in the GDR and goes on a journey.
The style of the novel is somewhat reminiscent of “The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared” by Jonas Jonasson.
The forensic doctor Michael Tsokos has already written numerous true crime thrillers and fictional crime novels.
© Annette Riedl/dpa
The focus is on Heinz Labensky, 79 years old, from the eastern zone and frugal home resident.
He no longer expects much from life and has settled into his small, inconspicuous existence with packet soup and wear and tear on his joints.
One day he receives a letter that shakes up his life completely.
The letter not only stirs up old feelings for his only great love, it could also solve the mystery of why his beloved Rita disappeared without a trace decades ago.
Travel through a strange world
For the first time in ages, Labensky leaves his Erfurt home and sets off on a long journey to the Baltic Sea.
Full of anxious anticipation, he travels in the bus through a world that is unfamiliar to him.
Because mentally “Heinzi” is still trapped in a past and a country that ceased to exist over 30 years ago.
Labensky's confrontation with reality is touching and curious.
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Equipped with limitless naivety and unworldliness, Labensky repeatedly finds himself in highly dramatic situations and experiences historical moments that he himself cannot properly assess because he lacks the education and intellect.
He walks through GDR history like a dream dancer.
Even in his childhood in a small town in Brandenburg, Labensky was an outsider.
His father was killed in Stalingrad, his mother drinks too much and has a disreputable reputation.
His bumpy school career ends abruptly when a doctor labels him as an “intelligence-impaired incapable of schooling and incapable of support.”
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His friendship with Rita, who, like him, is outside the community, helps him get through all of this.
Because the foreign-looking girl is considered a “Russian child”, a non-German “promenade mix”.
From then on, Heinz Labensky sees himself as Rita's protector, a role that he will never give up.
When the talented Rita moves to the capital to become an artist, their friendship seems to be over, but under miraculous circumstances they will meet again.
“Heinz Labensky – and his view of things”: Miraculous Life
There is much that is miraculous in Labensky's life, which he reveals to his fellow travelers on the long journey to the Baltic Sea.
There was the fire that he started, intentionally or unintentionally, in a secret Stasi training home, or the Kafkaesque taxi ride with three notorious RAF terrorists through East Berlin and finally the crazy search for the legendary Amber Room, in which he once again played a crucial role.
Why was he, the stupid “Heinzi”, so often at the center of events?
Was this all true or does he just have a vivid imagination?
The book's humor lies primarily in the grotesque misunderstandings that Labensky's obtuseness conjures up.
But sometimes a mischievous slyness shines through behind it.
Although the problematic sides of the GDR are certainly discussed, the book is permeated by a conscious nostalgia that one can find penetrating or homely, depending on one's point of view.
Here, people still wear Permaflot shirts and bison pants, let Ruhla mini alarm clocks ring, smell of Florena cream and enjoy Halloren chocolate.
And one far-off day, that much is certain, the hero will land dead in a piece of earthen furniture.
It sounds a lot more comfortable than a plain coffin.
dpa
Anja Tsokos and Prof. Dr.
Michael Tsokos: “Heinz Labensky – and his view of things”
2024 |
Droemer Knaur |
ISBN-13 978-3426284193
Price: Hardcover €22.00, e-book €18.99, 464 pages (different format)
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