Small World

SMALL WORLD is Martin Suter's first novel, an international best-seller just recently published in the U.S. With it and his succeeding novels not yet out in English, THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON, and A PERECT FRIEND, Suter has carved out almost a new genre--the psychological thriller--in which a net of corporate intrigue parallels the inner labyrinth of the central character's mind. In SMALL WORLD, the mind is that of a man whose deteroriation due to Alzheimer's brings him closer and closer to early memories that endanger a wealthy and powerful Swiss industrialist--a woman hiding her own past. In DARK SIDE OF THE MOON, the mind at risk is that of a propserous but angry middle-aged lawyer whose specialty is corporate mergers: his personal merger with some magic mushrooms ingested in a Swiss forest bring the anger to the fore and bring him into a deadly game of hunter and hunted in the forest. In A PERFECT FRIEND, the hero lost in a labyrinth is a journalist who wakes up amnesiac in a hospital bed after being hit over the head with a blunt object. He fears he's been assaulted because of a story he was covering--but what the story was and what he'd been doing in the days leading up to the attack, he can't remember. Picking up the lost theads of his life leads him closer and closer to ruthless attackers and truths about himself he won't want to face. Suter's psychological and social explorations are always convincing and precise; his books are page-turners, electric with tension from the first page, surprising to the last and yet always believable. There's no naiveté in his depiction of corporate scams and personal cupidity--yet in his novels even the good guys have faults, and even the bad guys have a certain malign beauty. There's mercy, sweetness and humor in Suter's treatment of his characters that's unique to his writing. He's a novelist to follow, and one hopes that all his novels out and those to come will be published in English.

This is a very fascinating, touchy, and partially also thrilling story about Konrad Lang, a man who develops Alzheimer's disease. The account tells stories that move from gradually increasing stages of the disease.I could imagine that it might be a bit hard to stand for someone being personally affected by Alzheimer's in the direct environment, but it might as well help to see Konrad and his environment struggling with the disease and its effects on everyone.It is a fascinating story until the very end that makes it difficult to interrupt reading once you started. The end comes as a surprise.