Punishment: The gripping international bestseller

(Hardback)

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'The stories are cool, meticulously crafted, pithy and mordantly amusing . . . [an] extremely powerful book. Highly recommended' Irish Times

'Psychologically raw . . . [von Schirach's] unfussy prose is icily effective' Financial Times

'One of the most distinctive voices in European literature' Daily Telegraph

A young lawyer puts aside her sense of justice to succeed at her new firm.

A man who values silence is driven to murder by his noisy neighbours.

A cheated wife seeks revenge.

How do you decide what punishment fits the crime

Our narrator is a man you'd never want to meet unless you really needed him. A nameless criminal defence lawyer, he coolly narrates the fate of twelve characters who cross his path. In spare, gripping prose, he tells their stories, uncovering the loneliness and alienation, desire and desperation which drive their choices and shape the consequences they face.

Drawn from Ferdinand von Schirach's eminent career as a criminal defence lawyer, Punishment masterfully treads the line between fiction and truth, each meticulously crafted story crackling with white-knuckle suspense and vivid characters who stay with you long after the final page.

Translated from the German by Katharina Hall

Reviews

The stories are cool, meticulously crafted, pithy and mordantly amusing . . . this is an unsettling, affecting, extremely powerful book. Highly recommended -- Declan Hughes * Irish Times *
Translated with economical elegance by Hall . . . and informed by insider knowledge . . . it's a chilling insight into a flawed justice system, the people who work in it and the guilty and guileless who find themselves judged * Daily Mail *
Psychologically raw . . . delivered in a crisp translation by Katharina Hall, his unfussy prose is icily effective . . . it suggests that all justice systems are flawed, that they are all just processes. And, with immense empathy, von Schirach's stories show what happens to people when they are processed. -- Christian House * Financial Times *
An impressive page-turner with substance and bite * Bookmunch *
Thrilling and edgy, often carrying a twist in the tale * To the Ends of the Word blog *

Author Bio

Ferdinand von Schirach was born in Munich in 1964, and has worked as a defence lawyer for twenty years. He published his first book at the age of 45 and has since published various short stories, novels, essays and plays. Ferdinand von Schirach's books have been translated into more than 40 languages, and have sold millions of copies worldwide. He lives in Berlin.