The first English translation of a widely respected crime novel
originally published as a serial in 1936. Swiss Detective Sergeant
Jakob Studer, a has-been in the Bern police establishment, receives
his latest assignment with mixed feelings. Though he's happy to be
doing anything of an investigative nature, he's not so happy that
he'll be doing it at Randlingen, an insane asylum. But he's
dispatched there by his chief in response to a request from acting
clinic director Dr. Ernst Laduner. Ulrich Borstli, Laduner's boss,
has suddenly disappeared, and an inmate is also missing. It doesn't
take long for the Randlingen community-pop. 800, including staff-to
turn Studer's preconceptions upside down. He finds sanity where he
least expected it and a lack of emotional stability where it's most
needed. Laduner himself turns out to be charismatic and
inscrutable, both a help and a hindrance to Studer's investigation.
Matto means crazy in Italian, Studer reflects, and as he tries to
solve the mystery of the Randlingen murders, he wonders how well he
knows himself. "We're all of us murderers," Dr. Luduner warns
darkly. Complex characters, a deft puzzle and an authoritative
sense of place compensate for a pace slower than most modern
readers are used to. It's worth noting that Glauser, a diagnosed
schizophrenic, wrote most of his novel while institutionalized.
(Kirkus Reviews)
Studer investigates when the director vanishes and a child murderer
escapes from an insane asylum in Bern, an environment Glauser knew
all too well from personal experience. Set in the 1920s, the novel
explores the no-man's-land between reason and madness where Matto,
the spirit of insanity, reigns. Dubions psychological theories and
therapies abound and the asylum darkly mirrors the world outside.
General
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