In Free Fall: A Novel [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Juli Zeh (Author), Christine Lo (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 13, 2010

The gripping international bestseller that fuses an ingenious detective tale with stunning, cinematic storytelling—and a provocative riff on quantum physics—from Germany’s foremost young literary talent.

A child is kidnapped but does not know it. One man dies, two physicists fight, and a senior constable falls in love. In the end, everything is different . . . yet exactly the same.” —Prologue

A rising star who has garnered some of Europe’s most important literary prizes, Juli Zeh has established herself as the new master of the philosophical thriller. With In Free Fall, she now takes us on a fast-paced ride through deadly rivalry and love’s infinite configurations.

Against the backdrop of Germany and Switzerland, two physicists begin a dangerous dance of distrust. Friends since their university days, when they were aspiring Nobel Prize candidates, they now interact in an atmosphere of tension, stoked by Oskar’s belief that Sebastian fell into mediocrity by having a family. When Sebastian’s son, Liam, is apparently kidnapped, their fragile friendship is further tested. Entrusted with uncovering the truth, Detective Superintendent Schilf discerns a web of blackmail, while at the same time the reality of his personal life falls into doubt. Unfolding in a series of razor-sharp scenes, In Free Fall is a riveting novel of ideas from a major new literary voice. With the recent success of works in translation, such as Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played with Fire, Zeh is poised to take off.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The theoretical physics concept known as the Many-Worlds Interpretation, in which everything that is at all possible exists somewhere, forms the backdrop for Zeh's second novel (after Eagles and Angels), an engrossing if enigmatic story of a murder and its aftermath. German physicists Oskar and Sebastian are both friends and rivals, who have drifted apart after the latter's marriage. While Sebastian is driving his 10-year-old son to camp, the boy disappears during a stop at a gas station. When a woman phones Sebastian and tells him, Dabbelink must go, he interprets this to mean that to obtain his kidnapped son's freedom, he must get rid of Dabbelink, a bicycling companion of his wife linked to a medical scandal. Erudite digressions and vivid characters—such as a detective with a trusting nature who learns always to assume the opposite of what she was thinking—combine with a devastating 11th-hour reveal to make a memorable intellectual thriller. (Apr.)
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Review

"[A] masterfully constructed story of an intense friendship between two physicists, a marriage, a kidnapping, and a murder, In Free Fall plunges the reader into a hyperreality that is as seductive as it is disturbing."
—Boston Globe

"An elegant quasi-thriller about physics, murder, and the solving of murders . . . This is one of the best books of the year. Zeh has enough control to keep the murder from being lurid and the physics from being dull. Her prose is sharp and often witty, and the excellent translation means every moment shines brightly."
—New York Observer

"Engrossing . . . vivid characters combine with a devastating 11th-hour reveal to make a memorable intellectual thirller."
—Publishers Weekly

"A highly cinematic thriller . . . Zeh's smart novel will appeal to a wide range of readers."
—Library Journal

"Add a hospital scandal and two of the quirkiest detectives in fiction, mix with Juli Zeh's thrumming, moody prose, and you have one of the finest crime novels you'll read."
—Herald Sun

Praise from Germany:

“It is such a delight to watch Juli Zeh play her entire repertoire of literary skill . . . challenging the conventions of the classical detective story with subtle irony.”
—Die Zeit

“Juli Zeh uses the structure of the detective novel like a composer uses his music book. And into this book she writes, with remarkable consistency, her musical score . . . Here’s a piece of literature that takes the liberty to develop its very own rules, and to impose them upon an obsolete form, coming indeed very close to a musical work in its tenor and thematic variation . . . One might think that such perfection, such erudition must leave the reader untouched, bored even . . . but it does not. For that, Zeh’s labyrinth is built too cleverly; its corridors are adorned with witty elements; her sentences are of extraordinary brilliance.”
—Die Welt

“A novel from Juli Zeh’s pen is always an adventure, because each of them opens up an entirely new world . . . This is Juli Zeh’s unique talent: Her sharp intellect absorbs the most complex issues, including elementary particles; to then put them into words with such playful precision it makes you swoon . . . In Free Fall takes the bird’s-eye view, unorthodox, nerve-racking, simply unforgettable—like Hitchcock’s masterpiece.”
—Brigitte

“In Free Fall is the virtuosic presentation of an amazing narration. Juli Zeh steers through with confidence and ease.”
—Welt am Sonntag

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Nan A. Talese (April 13, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385526423
• ISBN-13: 978-0385526425
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 1.3 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,517,606 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant intellectual tour-de-force, July 15, 2010

By 

Alan A. Elsner "Alan Elsner, author" (Washington DC) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In Free Fall: A Novel (Hardcover)

This second novel by the richly-talented German wunderkind Juli Zeh, arrives to considerable fanfare and is being published simultaneously in 17 countries. One can see why. Like the characters it portrays, it is very clever (sometimes a tad too clever), mystifying and thought-provoking. The language and images it deploys are never mundane and often astounding.

It's hard to summarize the plot of a book that is ultimately about the unreality of reality and the possibility of separate realities. On the surface, it has all the bells and whistles of a traditional mystery novel. Below the surface, nothing is as it appears.

Oskar and Sebastian are two brilliant physicists who meet and fall in love as students. Whether their love is purely intellectual or also physical is left unstated. They dress alike like dandified Victorians and dazzle classmates with their brilliance. On one fatal day, they are called on by a professor to offer a particularly complex mathematical proof. They approach the blackboard simultaneously, Sebastian writing down equations from left to right, while Oskar does the same from right to left. As they meet triumphantly in the middle, Sebastian realizes he could never have accomplished what Oskar just did, writing the proofs out backward. He is the inferior scientist.

Flash forward: Sebastian has married the beautiful Maike and has a 10-year-old son, Liam. He has abandoned cutting-edge physics and relegated Oskar to a monthly dinner with his family.

To Oskar's disgust, Sebastian has begun toying with weird theories of alternative realities. Oskar challenges Sebastian to a TV debate, which overflows into a shouting match during which a crucial word is uttered - and utterly misunderstood. Sebastian's theory that our reality is shaped by mere coincidence is about to be tested.

The book proceeds to play with the idea and implications of alternative realities. Liam is kidnapped - or perhaps he isn't. The kidnappers demand that Sebastian murder one of Maike's colleagues - or perhaps they don't. Enter Detective Superintendant Schilf, recently diagnosed with a fatal brain tumor, who wants in this last case, to mend at least one small part of a broken world.

In Zeh's view, the idea of alternative realities, attractive though it may seem, opens the way to a world without morals - a world in which nobody is held accountable for their actions. Schilf wants to hold one of the protagonists accountable for his actions - but the only way to do so is to let the other one off the hook.

Reading this book is a bit like studying an Escher print. It can be beautiful but a little mind-boggling. Zeh is obviously brilliant - and like Oskar she can't resist showing off. Like a piece of deconstructivist criticism, the book deconstructs itself. There are some loose ends and some characters who don't come to life and don't seem to know their place in the book - but overall this is a wonderful exhibition of bravura novel-writing.

3.0 out of 5 stars A strangely symbiotic friendship results in murder, March 15, 2011

By 

Julie A. Smith "Julie @ Knitting and Sundries" (Cleveland, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In Free Fall: A Novel (Hardcover)

A strange, symbiotic friendship between Sebastian and Oskar . . . visits with each other that feel like confrontations . . . a doctor's patients that seem to have died from drug experimentation . . . a murder based on a misunderstanding . . . and conflict over the "Many Worlds" theory, which basically means that everything that can happen HAS happened on a parallel timeline . . .

These are some of the happenings in this unusual, sometimes confusing, tension-filled story. This one is not for the casual reader, as I found myself at times backtracking to figure out what just happened. Although I was interested in what was happening, it was not a quick and easy read. As the stories behind the kidnapping of Sebastian's son and the murder of a man with ties to a suspect doctor came out, however, I was stunned at the duplicity and conceit that caused them, even as I found myself confused by the motivation.

QUOTES

For Oskar, Sebastian is not just the only person whose presence brings him pleasure. Sebastian is also the person whose slightest movement can turn him white-hot with rage.

It is always three-word sentences that change the life of a human being in a decisive manner. I love you. I hate you. Father is dead. I am pregnant. Liam has disappeared. Dabbelink must go. After a three-word sentence, one is totally alone.

Ever since his conversation with Sebastian, the detective has been working on a formulation that he himself does not fully understand: The world is the way it is because there are observers to watch it existing.

Writing: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Plot: 3 out of 5 stars
Characters: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Reading Immersion: 3 out 5 stars

BOOK RATING: 3.25 out of 5 stars

3.0 out of 5 stars Reading At The Beach: Reviews, June 24, 2010

By 

Vicki (Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In Free Fall: A Novel (Hardcover)

This was a strange book to read, hard at times to "get" the wordings of the author and all the referals to physics, which I don't remember much of from school. Other than that, it moved quickly, was extremely intense and had many surprising twists that kept me guessing how it was going to unfold.

Not one of the best books I've read this year, but good enough that I'd recommend it to suspense lovers.