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    In Free Fall: A Novel
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    In Free Fall: A Novel
    Unavailable
    In Free Fall: A Novel
    Audiobook10 hours

    In Free Fall: A Novel

    Written by Juli Zeh

    Narrated by Mark Bramhall

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    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.


    From the Hardcover edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateApr 13, 2010
    ISBN9780307736505
    Unavailable
    In Free Fall: A Novel
    Author

    Juli Zeh

    Juli Zeh (Bonn, 1974) ha obtenido los más importantes reconocimientos en Alemania y es en la actualidad una de las voces narrativas femeninas más reconocidas en Europa. En 2019, Vegueta publicó su novela Corazones vacíos.

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    Reviews for In Free Fall

    3.5/5

    101 ratings8 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Überraschende Wendungn und Gedankengänge, auf ihre Sprache und Schreibstil muss man sich einlassen - ich mag sie.
    • 3/5
      A great change of pace for me. Made me think, in a fun way; made me laugh, and I felt a bit of the madness and sadness of these interesting, well-described characters. This was a fun book to have waiting for me, between other books demanding more of me.

      Juli Zeh, whose writing in this book is wonderfully original and always smart, tells a philosophical crime story, a detective story, that, in my perception, manages to include all of us, with our short little lives, and our big huge brains. The lives we humans live and "believe in" are inevitably out of proportion.

      We spend so much of our lives playing tug of war with our realities: our misunderstandings, our miscalculations about truth and perspective. I related to this book because, in my own life, I am all too aware of "the observer." I could learn something here. I feel the immediate urge to ponder how many lives I am pretending to live at once. The concept is both thrilling and terrifying.

      "Dabblelink" indeed.
    • 4/5
      Anfangs fand ich das Buch richtig gut. Zwar etwas überzeichnet, aber dadurch auch überzeugend, werden zwei Physiker dargestellt, die seit ihrem Studium befreundet sind, aber auch in einer ständigen Konkurrenzsituation stehen. Dabei ist Oskar erfolgreicher, während Sebastian mit seiner Zeit-Theorie wissenschaftlich etwas im Abseits steht. Privat aber hat Sebastian mehr Glück, da er verheiratet und liebevoller Vater ist. Allerdings wird zu Beginn des Buches sein Sohn entführt und er zu einem Mord aufgefordert.Im folgenden dreht sich dann vieles um Zeittheorien, der Roman spielt mit dem Thema der Realität, die durch Beobachtung erzeugt wird (etwa wie Schrödingers Katze). Die Lösung des Krimis ist in gewisser Weise naheliegend.Den Kommissaren konnte ich weniger abgewinnen. Sie waren als Kontrapunkte zu den Physikern zwar gut gesetzt, der todkranke Schilf bei seinem letzten Fall und die ungewöhnliche Rita Skura, aber eigentlich zu abstrus. Dieser Typ Ermittler geht bei Friedrich Ani, hier war er zu viel des Guten.Ab Aufnahme der Ermittlungen gefiel mir daher auch das Buch nicht mehr so, da waren es zu viele deutliche Charaktere, die das Zeitthema aufmischen. Außerdem konnte mich gerade Schilf am wenigsten überzeugen.Dennoch gefiel mir das Buch. Juli Zeh beobachtet gut und beschreibt präzise. Die Milieus der beiden Physiker, ihre Freundschaft (eine tolle Szene: die Herleitung einer Formel im "Rotkäppchens" Vorlesung) - das fand ich sehr gut dargestellt und vorstellbar. Und auch der physikalische Hintergrund war nachdenkenswert.
    • 3/5
      Ob hochwissenschaftlich, philosophisch oder theoretisch verklärt, letztendlich geht es bei vielen Kriminalfällen doch immer wieder um allzu Zwischenmenschliches.Die ganze Geschichte dreht sich einerseits um zwei Physiker, die voneinander nicht lassen können und in ihrer mehr oder weniger verklemmten Homosexualität gefangen sind, während sie ihre emotionale Auseinandersetzung über das Thema der Physik austragen, und andererseits um den Ermittler Schilf, der seinem Tode zutreibt, vorher aber noch dem Physiker Sebastian aus dem Schlamassel helfen will. Dessen Sohn wurde nämlich entführt und für dessen Freilassung soll er den (vermeintlichen) Liebhaber seiner Frau ermorden. Da der Einleitung mit den beiden Studienfreunden Sebastian und Oskar eine derartig umfassende Aufmerksamkeit gewidmet wurde, ist schnell deutlich, wer sich hinter dem Auftrag verbirgt. Interessant bleibt der Weg zur Auflösung, der allerdings durch umfassende theoretisierende Schleichwege ziemlich undurchsichtig wird.Ein literarischer Thriller ist ja schön und gut, aber man kann sich da auch etwas übernehmen. Schade eigentlich, denn einige der Charaktere sind wunderbar ausgedacht, und die Bildsprache von Zeh zeichnet sich zumeist durch Prägnanz und treffende Bildsprache aus; aber halt auch hier ist es des Guten wohl etwas zu viel.
    • 3/5
      DARK MATTER is one of those books that I picked up with considerable happy anticipation, so was more than a little startled to find myself really struggling to get into the start of it. Until a point at which I found I wasn't struggling and was completely absorbed.And I suspect that's very much what the book is set out to do. Set in Freiburg near the Black Forest, the book starts out with two men and their obsessions. Their friendship begins at University, studying physics - Sebastian, retains his love of physics opting for academia, sharing his love of physics with his love for his wife Maike and young son Liam. Oskar is less traditional, hanging onto many of the eccentricities of their university days - he goes onto research, pure physics. Despite a falling out between the two, they continue to meet on the first Friday of every month and debate - argue - discuss late into the night. Then Liam is kidnapped and Sebastian is told that he must kill a man to regain his son. Understandably his life shatters, he feels set adrift from everybody and everything and he makes some choices which seem to the reader, the outsider, inexplicable.It's through the early phase of the book that I really found myself struggling - firstly with the relationship between Sebastian and Oskar which, whilst interesting, didn't seem to be telling me anything in particular, and secondly with how Sebastian, a supposedly intelligent man, managed to let himself be manipulated to that point (despite father love and the desire to do anything to protect your child, without giving the plot away, there are factors which seem inexplicable). But enter the police Detective Schilf and things get really interesting - the book shifts focus from an almost mocking, frivolous tone into a profoundly emotional character study. Not just a character study, this book quickly evolves into one in which the reader is forced to consider some hairy questions - what would you do if you had weeks or hours to live, one final case, and a guilty man in extenuating circumstances?It's also at this point that the structure of the book begins to makes sense - and those chapter introductions stop being slightly quirky (Chapter one in seven parts. Sebastian cuts curves. Maike cooks. Oskar comes to visit. Physics is for lovers. / Chapter four in seven parts. Rita Skura has a cat. The human being is a hole in nothingness. After a delay the detective chief superintendent enters the scene) and start to have a point - sometimes they ask a question / sometimes they state a thought to be explored / sometimes they just intrigue. All in all it's at this point that DARK MATTER stops being a slightly darker version of TV's The Big Bang Theory and starts to become a character study of depth, layers and great emotional impact.All in all I'd have to say, stick with the early part of DARK MATTER. It's not crime fiction just for entertainment, and it's often confusing and slightly odd and there are parts of the book that will make you stop and think, and maybe back-track a bit. But this is crime fiction for thought provocation and boy does it manage to do exactly that.
    • 3/5
      I wanted to like this but it just seemed to get bogged down in details. It is the story of science and theory of more than one world. I think it was just not my style of book.
    • 4/5
      Would you commit murder as the ransom for your kidnapped child? Was physicist Sebastian's son, Liam, really kidnapped or is Liam's kidnapping a story his father invented? Is there a parallel universe where other versions of our lives play out? These questions all form part of the strange plot of Juli Zeh's intriguing police procedural In Free Fall whose quirky cast of characters include two physicists, a socially awkward female detective, and a senior detective with a terminal brain tumor.While driving Liam to camp, Sebastion stops at a convenience store, leaving his son sleeping in the back seat. When he comes out of the store his car and Liam are gone. He then receives a call on his cell phone with instructions that include the statements, "Dabbelink must go." and "Then everything will be all right." Dabbelink is an anesthesiologist involved in a hospital scandal in which heart patients died when given unauthorized drugs. Sebastion knows there are also rumors that Dabbelink and Sebastion's wife, Maike, are having an affair. When he receives the phone call after his son's disappearance, Sebastion never really questions what he will do, only how he will do it. Thus begins a very unusual police procedural where observations about the nature of time, reality, and parallel lives are a natural part of the backdrop to solving the murder of Dabbelink. Fans of China Mieville's The City and the City should love this new offering from award-winning author Linda Zeh.
    • 1/5
      I guess this is supposed to be "literary" crime fiction - to me, it was just boring crime fiction. Maybe, the problem is me, maybe I didn't get it - but it was still boring. I imagine there are people out there who will truly enjoy this book, I think there are many others who will SAY they truly enjoyed it but.....". I don't know the author, but she feels like a life-long academic, whose whole world is other life long academics - which is fine, until you write about other character types. I find it difficult to believe that a cop, upon first encountering the prime suspect, begins his interrogation by expressing a desire to discuss the matter of time, parallel universes, etc. Maybe this happens all the time in Germany, and I just don't appreciate their evolved culture. Or maybe it was my frustration over reading crime fiction (maybe it wasn't crime fiction, and that's what I don't get) that includes the following sentence: "Cumulative chaos is a way of measuring the passage of time".