Jakob Arjouni Dies

Book2Book Thursday 17 Jan 2013

The German writer, crime novelist and playwright Jakob Arjouni, has died from pancreatic cancer at the age of 48 years. He was at home in Berlin with his family.
Arjouni was 21 years old when his Frankfurt private detective first conducted an investigation in Happy Birthday Turk!, his highly-praised debut, which appeared as a film directed by Doris Dörrie in 1991. There followed three cases for Kayankaya, the third of which One Man, One Murder received the Deutscher Krimipreis in 1992 for the best German crime novel. Brother Kemal, the fifth volume in the series featuring the German-Turkish investigator, who has long belonged among the classics of crime literature, was published in the autumn of 2012.

In addition to his plays, his work includes the Berlin novels, Magic Hoffmann (1996) and Holy Eddy (2009) as well as Idiots. Five Fairy Tales was published in 2003. His novels Homework, Chez Max and above all his novel about an East German Nazi sympathiser Cherryman Hunts Mr White have become set texts in schools. The theme that recurs throughout Arjouni's work is an analysis of violence in all its forms.

The obituary by his Swiss publishers Diogenes says: "His readers loved him for his thrilling, sharp-tongued, verbally unpretentious, witty and intelligent books. His work has appeared in 23 languages".

His work has been published in 23 languages, including by No Exit Press in the UK, who have Brother Kemal scheduled for publication this summer along with a complete revamp of the 4 other Kayankaya novels

Arjouni lived with his wife and children in Berlin and the South of France.


Full list of Jakob Arjouni novels published by Diogenes
No Exit Press
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