Customer Reviews

Therapy

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Suffering from several unexplained illnesses, twelve year old Josy Larenz vanishes while visiting her twenty-second medical expert Dr. Grohlke. No one saw her disappear and no evidence as to what happened surfaces. As the case turns cold, Josy's father psychologist Viktor Larenz searches the most minute clue that could lead him to the whereabouts of his daughter as he remains hopeful, but would even settle on the closure of her corpse. His obsession destroys his marriage to Isabel whom he admires for her inner fortitude that he now knows he lacks and costs him his TV show. For all his efforts, he fails to find one iota of a trace of Josy.

Four years later, Viktor intellectually knows he remains in the denial stage of grief, but cannot move on as psychologically he is still devastated. He has fled society choosing to live as a hermit on an isolated North Sea island. Anna Glass arrives to talk to him. She claims to be a writer of nonfiction whose characters come alive; though no longer practicing psychology, Viktor believes the beautiful stranger suffers from schizophrenia. However he becomes intrigued when Anna discusses her characterization of a preadolescent girl suffering from an unidentified illness before vanishing. She knows she needs help and Viktor grudgingly agrees to provide therapy even as he wonders who Anna Glass truly is and is she the first clue to finding Josy.

This is a deep psychological thriller as the two prime characters are emotionally unbalanced and the third key player is the missing girl. Readers will sympathize with Viktor and empathize with his ex wife though she has limited appearances. Anna is an enigma as the audience wonders whether she is a crazy person, a con artist, or a killer. Fans will be hooked by the translation of Sebastian Fitzek's powerful character driven tale with a fabulous climax.

Harriet Klausner

In Sebastian Fitzek's "Therapy," forty-seven year old Dr. Viktor Larenz is "an eminent psychiatrist with a successful clinic in central Berlin" who "is the author of numerous books and was once a regular guest on radio and TV." He has a wife, Isabell, and an eleven-year old daughter, Josy, whom he adores. Sadly, Larenz experiences a mental breakdown and is admitted to a facility for treatment. What precipitated his emotional collapse? It seems that his little girl had been ill for almost a year, with symptoms that her doctors could not trace to any obvious cause. Josy starts out with vomiting and diarrhea and later suffers from seizures, infections, and nosebleeds. Then, something even more dreadful occurs. Josy vanishes, and her father is beside himself with grief.

"Therapy" veers from the present to the past and then back to the present, as Larenz's therapist, Dr. Roth, attempts to unlock the secrets of his patient's disordered psyche. Viktor recounts his stay in his family's island cottage four years after his child's disappearance. One day, an intruder enters his house. She is a mysterious woman named Anna Glass, who may have important information about Josy's fate. Although he no longer practices medicine, Larenz agrees to treat Anna, hoping that they can bring one another the closure that they desperately seek.

Sally-Ann Spencer skillfully translates this tale of obsession and self-delusion from the original German. Fitzek plays with us, allowing us glimpses of the truth and then throwing us off the scent. The canny reader will probably guess what is going on long before the book's denouement, but there are some surprising developments that few will foresee. Larenz is a tragic yet sympathetic hero. We identify with his pain and torment, even as we dread finding out the reason for his bizarre behavior. When Viktor decides to face reality, he suspects that doing so will cost him the little sanity that he still possesses. "Therapy" is a bit too gimmicky to work as a literary thriller, but it is a mesmerizing and fast-paced novel that effectively explores the most twisted recesses of the human mind.

An eminent psychologist suffers a breakdown after the disappearance of his 12-year-old daughter goes missing during an doctor's appointment he had taken her to in an effort to find out what was causing the mysterious illness she'd been suffering from for about a year.

I have mixed feelings about this book -- on one hand it definitely kept me turning the pages but on the other hand I spent the whole book trying to figure out what was really happening--what was true and what was a delusion (which was great)--but at the end, everything is explained by these psychologists and really there was no way the reader could have figured most of that stuff out from the story. I felt a little cheated. Also -- don't know if it's because of the translation but in places the writing seemed really amateurish . . .

Viktor Lorenz is a man on a mission. That mission is to find out what happened to his daughter who disappeared over four years ago. Josephine, the daughter of this eminent psychologist was a sickly girl for quite sometime and on a visit to yet another doctor to discover the cause of her illness she just disappears. What results is the ruination of Viktor's marriage, his lucrative practice, his very mental health. You see, the good doctor lands in a psychiatric hospital because not knowing what happened to his daughter broke his mind. At the hospital he meets his attending psychiatrist Doctor Roth and it's Dr. Roth who hears what exactly transpired in the four years since Josy went missing and Viktor lost his mind.

After the disappearance Viktor goes to a family vacation house on a remote island in the North Sea to 'get away from it all'. His wife thinks he needs to let it go, that Josy is dead but Viktor just can't let it go. It's on the island that he meets Anna Glass, a strange woman who Viktor swears seems familiar. Anna is a writer of children's stories. She's also schizophrenic. She's desperately seeking his help and when she starts telling him stories that are eerily similar to the circumstances that surrounded Josy's life and disappearance he just can't seem to stop seeing her. What results is seeing the progression of a man who's world is turned on its end.

This book reads like a freight train with no brakes. It's not that it's action packed, it's just told in such a fluid and gripping style that it's nearly impossible to turn down. The chapters are short and the pages fly by, each one ending in a way that has you aching to see what happens next. Is Josy alive? Is she dead? What did Viktor do to end up in a psychiactric ward? Is Anna Glass who she says she is?

A fantastic book from start to finish with some very good twists.

Therapy started out strong but I felt like it got derailed halfway through and that the ending was a bit lazy. Without spoiling it, the loose ends were not entirely tied up and the tone of the book changed too much. Interesting idea, maybe not the best follow-through.

I read lots of mystery books, and lately I find them to be interesting, but quite similar.
The book Therapy written by German writer Sebastian Fitzek is so different that I was immediately caught up in his story and his characters.
Just when you think that you have the story figured out, he throws you a curve, you can't possibly put this book down.
I will look for more books written by him.

Wow, how crazy! That's all I could say when I finished reading "Therapy" by Sebastian Fitzek. It is such a wild story that held my attention all the way through to the end. It is a psychological thriller mystery that is baffling and kept me guessing. It's the story about a 12-yr-old girl who is missing and her father's quest to find out what happened to her. I don't want to say any more about it and ruin it for you. I thought the ending was a bit disappointing--it seemed like it was just tacked on. This is one you'll have to read for yourself! It's a quick read because it's so hard to put down!

Plot twists aplenty! If you like plot mind f's like Shutter Island, Inception, etc. you will love this book. I read this book 3 months ago and have been searching for it's equal ever since. I can't stop thinking about it. I wish more of his books were translated into English. I wonder if this is the norm for this author. NAIL ON THE HEAD!

This is definitely one of my favorite books. I couldn't stop reading and I was amazed by the ending...
I can only suggest it to anyone who loves thrilling and catching books...

I read this book based on a recomendation from a friend. All I can say is I couldn't put this book down. The story sucks you in from the beggining and doesn't let you go. I was guessing the whole time while reading, and there were many twists in the story. I would recomend this book to friends, especially if you like psychological thrillers. The book was a very quick read, it has short chapters, so you make quick progress. Definitely worth the money, such an amazing deal for such a great book. Hopefully some more of Sebastian Fitzek's books will be translated from German to English, such a great writer!