Weekly Recommendation: The Brenner Krimis
Hey there!
Here’s your weekly German media recommendation from Monoglot Anxiety — and for the month of August, every recommendation comes with a special "Clemens Seal of Approval" from my partner. It's a bit like a newsletter takeover... except he's too lazy to write anything so it's still me writing this thing at the end of the day.
This week's Clemens Seal of Approval recommendation is for the Brenner Krimi series by Wolf Haas.
But first, a quick note from me:
Want to share your language journey on my blog? I'm looking for people at all stages of language learning to share their stories on my blog this summer and beyond. Specifically, I want to share your stories with the first foreign language(s) you learned because you wanted to, and not just for school.
If you're interested in writing a guest post, just shoot me an email!
The Brenner Krimis
The German-speaking world likes its crime novels, or "Krimis," and Austria is no exception. The last time I visited Austria, I went to three different bookstores asking for original German science fiction (rather than one of the abundant translations of English-language SF) before finally giving up and accepting a store clerk's recommendation to read a krimi instead. While I can't exactly recommend the book I ended up buying, I can (and Clemens can) warmly recommend another Austrian krimi series: the Brenner krimis by Wolf Haas.
Following the misadventures of the middle-aged ex-policeman Simon Brenner, the Brenner krimis pack a lot of wit, the driest of satire, and political commentary into its murder mysteries. I am not a fan of crime novels in general, and I loved these books. They're enjoyable, and, perhaps surprisingly given all the German awards they've won, they're very Austrian. I encountered the books in an e-book library inherited from one of Clemens' ex-girlfriends' moms (long story) and was hooked from the first page of the first in the series, Auferstehung der Toten. Haas' books were one of my first tastes of Austrian media and reading them did help me understand the country better — or at least, it helped me get more of the jokes.
You can find a list of all the books, in order, on the German-language Wikipedia page for author Wolf Haas.
Also in film
If you like the Brenner books (or if you'd rather watch them than read them), it might be worth hunting down the film adaptations. Starring the rather legendary Austrian cabaret artist (comedian) Joseph Hader, the adaptations of Silentium!, Komm, süßer Tod, der Knochenmann, and Das Ewige Leben defied Wolf Haas' thought that the books were "un-filmable" and are quite entertaining.
Get in touch!
You can find me on Twitter, or shoot an email over to hello@monoglotanxiety.com. You can also get in touch, support the blog, or send a one-time donation from the Buy Me A Coffee page.
That's all for this week,
Elise from Monoglot Anxiety