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by Sebastian Fitzek
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
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
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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