Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Mar 2009
304 pages
Genre: Thrillers
Publication Information
No witnesses, no evidence, no body: Star psychologist Viktor Larenz’s twelve-year-old daughter, Josy, who had suffered from an inexplicable illness, has vanished under mysterious circumstances during a visit to her doctor, and the investigation into her disappearance has brought no results.
Four years later, Viktor remains a man shattered by this tragedy. He has retreated to a remote vacation cottage on a North Sea island, where a beautiful stranger named Anna Glass pays him a visit. She claims to be a novelist who suffers from an unusual form of schizophrenia: all the characters she creates for her books become real. While writing her most recent novel, Anna has been tortured by visions of a little girl with an unknown illness who has vanished without a trace, and she asks Dr. Larenz to treat her.
Viktor reluctantly begins therapy sessions with the stranger, but very soon these sessions take a dramatic turn as the past is dragged back into the light. What really happened to Josy? Do Anna's delusions describe Josy’s last days? And is Larenz a danger to himself and others?
"Starred Review. Undertones of gothic suspense imbue an unpredictable plot that will remind many of Shutter Island and A Beautiful Mind." - Publishers Weekly.
"Starred Review. [A] fast-paced German crime novel rich with psychological suspense." - Booklist.
"By-the-numbers thriller...colorless and predictable work from Berlin-resident Fitzek." - Kirkus Reviews.
This information about Therapy was first featured
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Sebastian Fitzek is the head of entertainment at a popular Berlin radio station. Therapy is his first thriller. It was an overwhelming success in Germany and has been translated into twenty-two languages. Fitzek is also the author of Mindbreaker, Amok, and The Child. He lives in Berlin.
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