Crime

November 15, 2010
In his fiction debut, a collection of 11 stories, German defense lawyer von Schirach displays a facility with contemporary noir in such tales as "Fähner," the depressing account of a troubled marriage that ends in violence, and "The Cello," which depicts the effect of a stifled upbringing on two siblings, but other selections will strike readers as sketchy or obscure. "Love," in which the defense attorney narrator represents a troubled student with a cannibalism fetish, reads more like a brief anecdote shared among professional colleagues than a story with a point. "The Thorn," in which a museum employee takes sadistic pleasure in planting thumbtacks to cause others pain, is equally enigmatic. Von Schirach's tendency to say less than is called for is also evident in his afterword, which confusingly delineates the differences between the American and German justice systems, then concludes that the differences don't matter.

November 15, 2010

An unusual, unsettling collection of short narratives, originally published in Germany in 2009, that blur the distinction between life and art.

Though this debut by German author von Schirach has been labeled "fiction," the short stories derive their authority from his reputation as one of Berlin's most prominent veteran defense attorneys. Each of these stories begins with a matter-of-fact, emotionless account of some situation leading to a crime, or at least the suspicion of one, with the unnamed narrator eventually entering to provide counsel for the accused. Are these straightforward accounts of actual cases—some never really resolved and some graphically gruesome? Do they use real-life incidents as inspiration for fictional recasting? Or are they (as at least a couple seem to be) parables or fables that illuminate the darker recesses of the human condition? While the author's experience sheds plenty of light on the legal system—at least the German legal system, with small but significant differences from its American counterpart—the narrative tone is closer to Kafka than to Grisham or Turow. Perhaps the strangest story here is "Self-Defense," in which a seemingly innocuous man viciously kills two thugs who have attempted to mug him. After arrest, he refuses to speak or to otherwise reveal anything about his identity or nationality. Even his clothes have been stripped of their labels. Was his lethal response permissible in self-defense? Was he also responsible for another killing, for which he was never charged? Who is he? Who arranged for his defense? The conventions of mystery fiction, which demand that plot strands must be tied together with a resolution, remain unsatisfied here and in many of the other stories. From the perspective of this particular defense attorney, matters such as "truth," "innocence" and "justifiable" are more complex than generally considered, perhaps even unknowable.

Thinly veiled memoir or literary gamesmanship? You be the judge.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

December 1, 2010

The pieces in prominent German defense attorney Schirach's first book are neither detective stories (for the most part) nor procedurals but rather more like fictionalized case studies. A defense attorney is the narrator and recurring character here, handling the defendants' cases. The criminals are generally not monsters or even particularly evil but rather victims of circumstance, whether physical--like the apologetic bank robber in "The Ethiopian," who steals to eat and then leads an exemplary life in Ethiopia before returning to Germany, where he's arrested--or mental, as with the wealthy young paranoid schizophrenic in "Green," whose killing of sheep leads to suspicion when a woman he loves suddenly disappears. VERDICT The German and American legal systems are different, but the differences are insignificant (and explained in an afterword); nothing here will baffle an American audience. Much more important is the character of the defendants. These are appealing and well-written, if somewhat low-key, ruminations on guilt filled with a deep compassion for the humanity of the accused.--Lawrence Rungren, Merrimack Valley Lib. Consortium, North Andover, MA

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2011
Von Schirach is a defense attorney currently practicing in Berlin. In this collection, he presents accounts of 11 of the cases he has defended. They read with all the character development and suspense you would expect in short fiction. But the spike is that all these heartbreaking cases happened. A young woman takes care of her brother after an accident; he declines unbearably, and she poisons him and rocks him to eternal sleep in the bathtub. An Eastern European woman is sold as a sex worker in Germany; a man dies while with her, and the gruesome dismemberment that her boyfriend embarks on can be seen as an act of love. A husband endures a loveless marriage until he can endure no more. Over and over, von Schirach lets readers know the context-rich backstories behind these human tragedies. He tells his tales with none of the charm, wit, and courtroom action with which defense barrister John Mortimer imbued his fictional Rumpole stories. These are unrelievedly grim but always compassionate and fascinating.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)