Review by Booklist Review
Würger's international best-selling debut is a timely, beautifully paced novel about class and prestige in the #MeToo era. It follows Hans Stichler, who, after a fantastical childhood in the forests of northern Germany, is suddenly orphaned. His English aunt, Alex, offers to use her position as a professor of art history to get him a place as a student at Cambridge University, but with one condition: he must infiltrate the Pitt Club, a centuries-old campus men's society. He agrees, and one of Alex's graduate students, Charlotte, helps Hans wheedle his way into the society. He proves himself to the Pitt Club through his boxing skills brought to life through many cinematic scenes as well as outside of the ring. Hans finds the club promotes a troubling but enjoyable world of masculine prestige and entitlement. In a campus novel that echoes the detective structure of Donna Tartt's The Secret History (1992), Würger cycles between each character's voice to brilliantly evoke the medieval unreality of Cambridge and the almost comical wealth of the students. There is much to dissect in this concise and dramatic tale.--Alexander Moran Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
WA¼rger's chilling if obvious debut opens as Hans Stichler, an orphaned German 19-year-old, is contacted by his English aunt, Alexandra Birk. She teaches art history at Cambridge and says that she can get him accepted into St. John's College, but there's a catch: she wants him to infiltrate a Cambridge institution known as the Pitt Club, which is 200 years old and whose members past and present are generations of the English establishment. To help him, Aunt Alex introduces Hans to one of her PhD students, Charlotte, whose father, financier Sir Angus Farewell, is a former member of the club. Charlotte arranges a dinner with Hans and her father, so the latter can nominate the former to the club. Despite Charlotte's initial reservations about Hans, they are soon an item. A boxer for the school's highly competitive varsity team, Hans is asked to join the Butterflies, a secret subset of the Pitt Club. Delving into the real purpose of this club-within-a-club, Hans finds sinister links to Charlotte, Aunt Alex, and Angus on the way to a dramatic and inevitable ending. Though it moves at a good pace, the novel is contrived in its depiction of upper-class snobbism, hypocrisy, and corruption, resulting in a diverting if thin story. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A young man infiltrates a secret university club and discovers a dangerous secret.German journalist Wrger's debut novel begins with his protagonist, Hans, describing his idyllic childhood: "When I think back to the earliest years of my life it is always late summer." A soft and curious boy, Hans lives with his parents in their home in a foresta happy arrangement that ends quite suddenly. Years later, Hanswho is starved for friendship and familyreceives an invitation from his aunt to attend St. John's College, Cambridge. The offer comes with strings attached: Hans will have to investigate the Pitt Club, one of the oldest institutions on campus. The club is full of rich, privileged young men well-versed in secrets, debauchery, and something far more sinister. Aided by Charlotte, a fellow student, Hans is introduced into the world of the elite. Comprised of many different voices, the novel feels Greek chorus-esque. Some points of view only appear once (i.e., a shopkeeper's) but others run through the entirety of the novel (i.e, that of Josh, an angry, toxic Pitt Club member who adores Hans). Made up of mostly short, uncomplicated sentences, the writing is also overwhelmingly evocative at times: "I told them how oranges tasted of adventure, and how the soft hair at the nape of girls' necks sometimes looked like candyfloss." While the crime at the novel's center is not surprising, it serves as a catalyst for Wrger's interesting ruminations on class, violence, power, wealth, and masculinity. Many of these themes are also explored through boxing as Hans tries out for the university's team. Boxing runs through the novel like a heartbeatrevealing the dangers of violent masculine camaraderie with every scene. The novel's complicated ending touches on the problems of justice and redemption: who gets it, who deserves it, and its human cost.A sparse, cutting debut in which violence begets violence begets healing. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
