The hermit

Title:

The hermit

Author:

Rydahl, Thomas, 1974- author.

Summary:

A car is found on a deserted beach on the Spanish island of Fuerteventura. On the back seat lies a cardboard box containing the body of a small boy buried in newspaper cuttings. No one knows his name, and there is no trace of a driver. The last thing an ailing tourist resort needs is a murder, and the police are desperate to close the case. The island is rife with rumours about the reclusive Erhard. Two decades of self-imposed exile from his wife and children have left him alienated and alone, whiling away his days in a drunken haze, driving an old taxi to get by. This unlikeliest of detectives determines to solve the crime himself - and he has nothing to lose. But how can one old man, cut off from the modern world, solve a murder whose dangerous web of deceit stretches far beyond the small island? And what if the killer forces Erhard to confront his own long-buried past?

General Note:

"Originally published in Danish as Eremitten by Forlaget Bindslev, 2014"--Title page verso.

Physical Description:

471 pages ; 25 cm

Genre:

Detective and mystery fiction.

Thrillers (Fiction)

Subject Term:

Hermits -- Fiction.

Boys -- Death -- Fiction.

Murder -- Investigation -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

Fuerteventura (Canary Islands) -- Fiction.

Author(s):

Semmel, K. E.,

Publisher:

Oneworld,

Publication Date:

2016

2014

ISBN:

9781780748894

Publication Information:

London, England : Oneworld, 2016.

Award Note:

Glass Key Award, 2015

Call Number:

RYDAHL

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003182808	Adult Fiction	RYDAHL	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

* THE MULTI-AWARD WINNING BESTSELLER FOR FANS OF THE BRIDGE * Winner of the Glass Key Award for Best Nordic Crime Novel Winner of the Danish Debutant Award Winner of the Harald Mogensen Prize for the best Danish crime novel

The island is rife with rumours about the reclusive Erhard. Two decades of self-imposed exile from his wife and children have left him alienated and alone, whiling away his days in a drunken haze, driving an old taxi to get by. This unlikeliest of detectives determines to solve the crime himself - and he has nothing to lose. But how can one old man, cut off from the modern world, solve a murder whose dangerous web of deceit stretches far beyond the small island? And what if the killer forces Erhard to confront his own long-buried past?

Winner of the prestigious Glass Key Award and an instant bestseller in Denmark, The Hermit is taking the international publishing world by storm. Acutely observed and psychologically penetrating, this is existential noir at its finest.

Author Notes

THOMAS RYDAHL is a writer and translator. The Hermit is his debut novel and was awarded the Danish Debutant Award, the first time in the award's history that it has gone to a thriller. The Hermit has since gone on to win the prestigious Glass Key Award for the best Nordic crime novel and the Harald Mogensen Prize for the best Danish crime novel. Film rights to The Hermit have been optioned by Pretty Pictures, the company behind The Danish Girl. Thomas lives with his wife and daughter in Fredensborg, Denmark.

K. E. SEMMEL is a writer and translator whose work has appeared in Ontario Review, Washington Post, World Literature Today and elsewhere. He is a recipient of numerous grants from the Danish Arts Foundation and is a 2016 NEA Literary Translation Fellow. He lives in Milwaukee, America.

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Erhard, the 60ish hero of Rydahl's brilliant, scathing debut, which won the Glass Key Award in 2015 for best Nordic crime novel, is a down-at-heels expatriate Danish cabbie and sometime piano tuner. This "old man with tired eyes" has lived in a shack on Fuerteventura, one of the Canary Islands, with only two skittish goats for company for about 20 years. He sends much of his meager earnings to his ex-wife and daughters in Denmark, drinks too much, and occasionally scavenges dumpsters for food. When a three-month-old baby boy is found starved to death in a cardboard box in a car that washes up on the beach, Erhard is outraged. With virtually no resources, lacking a computer and the savvy to use one, but drawing on his own wits and calling in a multitude of favors, Erhard doggedly traces the dead baby's mother and uncovers a complex smuggling scheme. Stunningly conceived and expertly executed, this portrayal of one man's thirst for justice in the face of human corruption proves that not even a self-isolated hermit can be an island unto himself. Agent: Jacob Busch, Busch Agency (Denmark). (Nov.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Library Journal Review

[DEBUT] Erhard Jorgenson is a Danish expatriate working as a taxi driver and part-time piano tuner in the Canary Islands. His simple, solitary lifestyle has earned him the nickname of the Hermit, attracting both admiration and scorn from local residents. When a car is found crashed on a local beach, with the body of a small boy in the trunk, the police are under pressure to wrap up the case quickly and quietly so as not to upset the tourists. With no leads, they try to sweep it under the rug, but Erhard finds he cannot let the case go. Erhard is not the usual detective. Nearing 70, the Hermit has a checkered past and no knowledge of modern technology, and his questioning of witnesses is far from discreet. As he gets more involved, and becomes more unhinged, he is caught up in a sordid world of prostitution, organized crime, uncaring fathers, and rebellious sons. Verdict Danish short story author and translator Rydahl's debut novel, which won the Glass Key Award for the Best Nordic Crime Fiction 2015, does not progress at breakneck speed but moves along at Erhard's methodical and deliberate pace. Unfolding one unexpected clue at a time, it will keep readers guessing until the very end.-Portia Kapraun, Delphi P.L., IN © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.