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(More customer reviews)Martin Suter is my favorite writer of thrillers in the German language. He is a Swiss living abroad (why is it that so many of my favorite writers are expatriates like myself? Nabokov, Sebald, Doeblin, O'Brian, and quite a few more... ). He has a sideline in his publishing career: he writes splendid little satires on business life and the subculture of the 'Schickeria', as we call the yuppies and nouveaux riches in German. His main location is Zurich, which has its fair share of bankers, art dealers, other dealers, confidence men, etc. Actually his best novel is his latest, set in the art market scene in Zurich, but that one is not out in English yet.
The Deal with the Devil is a little burdened by the fact that some of its narrative elements are a little unconventional. Actually I think these parts are very good, but they challenge belief and are not straightforward prose.
The story is about a Zurich divorcee, a young woman struggling to get a foothold. Her husband had tried to kill her and is now in an asylum. She is into the wild life and we get to know her on a bad drug ride. We learn that she has more than a drug problem: she suffers from a peculiar disorder of her senses which makes her confuse smells, sounds and colors. That is a rare problem to have and it takes her and us some getting used to. (It is called synesthesia. Nabokov had it on a smaller scale; you find his comments on it in his autobiography: Speak, Memory.)
She tries to get away from this life and takes a job in a mountain resort hotel in a village. Simple life, right. She finds herself in a difficult web of social relations at her workplace and in the village. Not exactly a haven for troubled souls. Don't think for a moment that you are being led into esoteric experiences, or that this is the umpteenth version of Dr.Faust. This is in the end just plain neurology and criminology.
If you want to keep your ideas of Switzerland intact, as a clean and safe place with nice mountains and clean, reliable people, don't read this.
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Sonia Frey fears for her sanity. Her marriage ended in divorce after her husband tried to kill her. On top of this, an acid trip has disordered her senses - she can now 'feel' smells, 'see' sounds.
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