Fatal Tango [Paperback]

Wolfram Fleischhauer (Author)

Book Description

Release date: March 13, 2012

Giulietta Battin has devoted herself to ballet, earning a coveted spot as a dancer with the Staatsoper Berlin. But when she decides to explore a new style of music—the tango—life as she knows it changes forever. Soon after beginning her musical adventure, she meets Argentinean tango dancer Damián Alsina. They begin a torrid affair…which quickly turns into a nightmare. Damián suddenly sabotages his own performance with a bizarre, improvised choreography. His passionate creativity excites Giulietta, until Damián’s strange behavior culminates in a shocking act: he kidnaps and tortures her jealous father. Horrified, she demands answers, but Damián has fled to Buenos Aires and her father, his victim, is being suspiciously unforthcoming. So Giulietta follows her lover to South America, where her journey into the world of tango confronts her with the unspeakable horrors of the country’s brutal past. But denial will never silence art, and as Giulietta learns to decipher the true significance of Damián’s dance style, she finds the key to the mystery of her lover´s past and the terrifying truth that connects it with her own.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Exclusive: A Q&A with Wolfram Fleischhauer

Question: What inspired you to write this story?

Wolfram Fleischhauer: The first time I spent an evening in a Milonga (a tango club) I knew I would one day write a novel set in the tango universe. What immediately fascinated me were the codes. I was completely taken in not only by the sophistication of the music and the dance, but also by all the rituals that go along with it: the unspoken rules, the glances, the body language. I love codes. I think art is a way of expressing the unspeakable. So from the very beginning I had the idea of a tango dancer whose dance contains a secret.

Q: How did you become interested in tango and how did you decide to use it as the backdrop for this story?

WF: I discovered tango for two reasons: Astor Piazzolla and Feminism. Piazzolla’s album Tango Zero Hour just blew my mind. I must have listened to this record a thousand times. This was in the late 1980’s. I was living in Berlin, I had almost completed my MA in German and American Literature. I wanted to write novels but had no clear idea how and about what, and I was single again after a painful breakup. At that point in time, feminism had reached its peak, especially in Berlin. So when I visited some tango bars, I was very surprised to see that the place was teeming with women who I knew to be very outspoken about male chauvinism. The same women who considered it a provocation if you held the door for them were dancing tango in sleazy tango joints-- dressed to kill and expecting to be "led!" The Tango Renaissance in the 1980's was the first sign of a strange cultural reversal and as such it was an ideal starting point for the kind of novel I write: the cultural suspense novel.

Q: History is also an important part of this book. What research did you do in the process of writing this story?

WF: The first time I went to Buenos Aires I went mainly for the tango. I had no clear idea about my novel yet and I didn’t know all that much about the recent history of Argentina. What I saw, heard and read was so shocking, so abominable, that I actually cut my visit short by a week because I could not stand being there anymore. A year later I went back. This time, I was much better prepared. I had read a lot and I confronted the issues head-on. I interviewed many people, survivors, victims, parents and children of disappeared persons, scientists who work on mass graves, and so forth. It was a heartbreaking experience, and after some of these meetings I just went back to my hotel and cried. But now I had a means of coping with all this: my novel. I now knew what Damián had gone through and what he and Giulietta were up against. They had gotten under my skin and I was now determined to write that story. Of course, after this second visit, the plot changed significantly. I wrote a completely new draft and suddenly there was a power and urgency in the narrative that had not been there before. The novel had sprung to life.

Q: Have you always wanted to be an author? What other careers have you pursued?

WF: I always felt that I am a storyteller. But I don’t see myself as a writer or author. My ideal has always been the Renaissance man who participated in life on as many levels as possible: physical, emotional, intellectual, and artistic. Storytelling and writing the kind of books I write give me the possibility to live many lives, at least occasionally. I play the guitar pretty well and used to write folk songs and lyrical ballads. If ever I run out of material for novels, I will go back to singing my stories.

Review

"Fatal Tango" is a fast-paced, nail-biting detective novel, a political thriller and a love story. Beneath the surface, though, it is an extraordinarily profound meditation on the nature of dance - what it is, what it means, what it can do.  Contemplate it long and hard enough, and you will understand more about the world you live in;  examine it even harder, and it might change your life.

Jonathan Still, "The Dance Gazette"

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Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: AmazonCrossing (March 13, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1611091470
• ISBN-13: 978-1611091472
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (73 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #848,463 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Wolfram Fleischhauer, born in 1961, grew up in Southern Germany. At the age of 17, he spent a year in Warren, Ohio, as an exchange student. He studied languages and literature in Germany, France and Spain and did graduate studies in literary theory at UC-Irvine. After obtaining his M.A. degree with a thesis on Don DeLillo, he turned away from academia in favor of writing novels. Fluent in German, English, French and Spanish, he trained as a conference interpreter and has been working for the European Commission since 1992. To date, Wolfram Fleischhauer has published 8 novels, all of which have been translated into several languages. Since his debut with "The Purple Line" in 1996, he has written historical novels as well as contemporary fiction. Most of his novels have become bestsellers, attesting to his ever growing readership. He lives in Berlin and Brussels, is married and has two children.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 34 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A great romantic thriller that teaches you a lot about tango and Argentine history along the way March 15, 2012

By Michelle Freno

Format:Paperback

I read the German original of this book last year, and found it to be an excellent story that I couldn't put down. Through Giulietta's search for Damian after his sudden and inexplicable flight from Berlin to Buenes Aires, Fleischhauer tells you a lot about the history of the tango and Agentina's recent, bloody history. I always love books where I learn something while reading a well-developed story. The only thing I would complain about is the English translation of the title, as it sounds like a bad, made-for-tv movie. The German title, which is from a tango combination and translates as "three minutes with reality" is far more intriguing, but maybe it's just me! That shouldn't stop anyone from reading this book, however.

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A great read April 5, 2012

By arkgirllawyer

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

There are so many "genre" books out there these days, it was a pleasure to read just a really good novel. And what a novel! Doomed love, tragic family secrets, quirky but mysterious characters, plus a lot of neat stuff about the tango. It makes me want to see some real tango (although not to go to Argentina to see it) instead of the touristy dancing we are accustomed to. I could hardly put it down.

32 of 42 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars COULDN'T GET INTERESTED February 27, 2012

By Schuyler T. Wallace VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

In his novel FATAL TANGO, Wolfram Fleischhauer has written a heavy and twisting drama. A promising nineteen-year old ballerina, Giulietta, is about to realize her dream of being a dancer in a noted ballet group. She becomes infatuated with a worldly tango dancer and, when things don't work out with their steamy affair, she pursues him to Buena Aires to get some answers about the failure. There, as she searches for him, she becomes involved in weird tango dance culture and political turmoil. She ultimately uncovers dark secrets about her past.

It's not a theme that ordinarily would interest me. But I started reading and became involved in Fleishhauer's telling of the complicated story and stumbled my way to the finish. I'm not sure why.

Some things seemed contrived. I didn't understand how a young girl could be worldly enough to survive in the environment in which the author placed her. She was able to travel to South America, stay in hotels, ride in taxicabs, and visit dance clubs and restaurants while she negotiated a dark and secretive world in a city of nearly 3 million people without apparent resources or travel documents. I can understand a young innocent getting unreasonably infatuated with an older man of captivating skills and an aura of mystery. I've had to suffer many times through that entanglement myself. But it seemed overly dramatized to fit in with the idea that Fleischhauer was presenting. Just kidding about my real life experiences in that regard, by the way.

No doubt the author is well versed in the history of both the dance and the countries he writes about. And he is a skilled writer although somewhat wordy. I simply could not get interested in his story and found it difficult to grasp some of the narrative. If you get the book, be ready for some intense and bewildering reading.

Schuyler T Wallace
Author of TIN LIZARD TALES