Zebra

Andrew Brown’s Sunday Times Fiction Prize winner, Coldsleep Lullaby, has been published in Germany by BTB, an imprint of Random House/Bertelsmann, as Schlaf ein, mein Kind. Mechthild Barth is the translator, and her version of Brown’s brilliant thriller has been killing ‘em in Deutschland.

The book made it on the KrimiWelt Bestenliste, a list for the best new crime novels (German and translated), released by ARTE TV (a nationwide newspaper and radio station), debuting at number 9:

Zwei Handlungsstränge, die Brown parallel laufen lässt, ohne auf eine der beliebten „Verknüpfungen“ von „damals“ und „heute“ zu setzen. Zwei Stränge, die erst ganz am Ende des Buches miteinander zu tun haben – aber das weiß nur der Erzähler und damit der Leser; die Figuren wissen es nicht. Daraus entsteht eine grausame Pointe. So etwas ist ungewöhnlich, weil explizit literarisch, nicht genre-üblich.

• Complete review

And the book was reviewed on national radio last week (a summary of the German follows):

Ein paar hundert Jahre früher, im späten 17. Jahrhundert zur Zeit des berühmten holländischen Gouverneurs Simon van der Stel, Namensgeber von Stellenbosch, “Mischling” und Initiator des Weinanbaus am Kap: Eine junge Sklavin wird von einem für die Kolonie unersetzbaren Weinanbauspezialisten vergewaltigt und gedemütigt. Sie wehrt sich.

Zwei Handlungsstränge, die Brown parallel laufen lässt, ohne auf eine der beliebten “Verknüpfungen” von “damals” und “heute” zu setzen. Zwei Stränge, die erst ganz am Ende des Buches zusammenkommen – aber das weiß nur der Erzähler und damit der Leser; die Figuren wissen es nicht. Daraus entsteht eine grausame Pointe. So etwas ist ungewöhnlich, weil explizit literarisch, nicht genreüblich.

• Complete review

Says one of Zebra Press’ sources, the “review is extremely positive: ‘teriffic’, ‘very literary, very well written, like the stroke of a brush’, stating that [Coldsleep Lullaby] cleverly uses patterns of the crime novel but is not a typical crime novel… it’s brilliant how [Brown] – throughout the plot – looks at the characters through different focal widths with his complex literary lens… the reviewer [Thomas Wörtche, a very renowned crime novel expert in Germany] says: the fiction… stands for itself, is unique. And if we were looking for an author to compare it to, it would maybe be Patricia Highsmith”.

Well done to Brown – here’s hoping Coldsleep Lullaby keeps the whole nation of Germany awake at night!

Book details

• Coldsleep Lullaby by Andrew Brown
  EAN: 9781770071056
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

As the countdown begins to the 2009 Sunday Times Literary Awards in Johannesburg on August 1, we look at two of the shortlisted writers.

Tymon Smith spoke to Andrew Brown, who wrote Street Blues to shatter popular misconceptions about the police.

This is your first work of non-fiction. Why did you decide to write about your experiences as a police reservist?
There were a number of motivations for writing the book. I had already started writing down some of my experiences — not to publish them, but to help me work through some of the traumas that I was exposed to while working with the police. After Coldsleep Lullaby did so well and won the Sunday Times Fiction Prize, I actually felt quite intimidated at the idea of writing again — I hadn’t until then thought of myself as a writer and so I wrote without any pressure, simply for the enjoyment of it. After the award, it suddenly felt that there were expectations of me and I thought that writing about my own experiences — where I didn’t need to make up the characters or the stories — would be an easy way to get over my anxiety. But a strong motivation was also to try and debunk some of the stereotypes about the police force (many of which I held myself before joining). My 10 years as a reservist have changed the way I see the police; I have enormous respect and fondness for them.

What inspired you to join the reservists?
I had been involved in the UDF in the ’80s and this had given me a real sense that I was contributing towards the community. After 1990, my involvement fell away as I am not a political animal and I couldn’t see myself working in the ANC. I then read an article about my local police station (Mowbray) and how it was battling with a lack of vehicles. I offered to assist, although joining the reservists was the last thing on my mind — my experiences in the ’80s had left me with a huge distrust of the police and I viewed them as dangerous, even in the ’90s. But then a particularly committed inspector, who was the head of the reservists, slowly cajoled me into accepting the idea.

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