Review: Carl Tohrberg – three stories, one reading recommendation

A short book requires a brief review. A talented baker from Berlin falls in love with a Japanese violinist and bakes her the best cake ever. Judge Manfred Seybold leads a monotonous life and clings after his retirement to the existing professional life. Carl Tohrberg, who gave his name to the book, intended to become a painter, but is currently working for an insurance company. All three stories by Ferdinand von Schirach are heading for a surprising turn.

Ferdinand of Shirach

Born in Munich in 1964, von Schirach is a criminal lawyer. In 2009 he published short stories under the title “Verbrechen” for the first time. In doing so, he drew on real circumstances from his professional experience as a lawyer. His second book was the volume of stories “Schuld”. Both books became worldwide bestsellers. I would also like to mention the following novels “Der Fall Collini” and “Tabu”, which have received excellent reviews from almost all literary critics without exception. Later von Schirach wrote the play “Terror”, in which he deals with a quite realistic dilemma situation. The play has been performed in over fifty cities since 2015.

Combining the three stories

What all three events in this new book have in common is that the characters find themselves in extreme situations in the middle of apparently normal everyday life. At first it remains completely open where the façade of harmlessness crumbles. Ferdinand von Schirach tells the stories in an objective, yet sophisticated and masterly manner. The inclined reader is right in the middle of the action and takes part in the fates of the characters. That we are mistaken in the perception of people does not only happen in this book, but also in real life.

Carl Tohrberg – Narrative style invites you to read again

The brevity of the stories and the surprising moment, whose appearance connects the three events, ignite the decisive reading experience in the book. In addition, many readers will read the book a second time to fully enjoy the author’s refined narrative perspective. Which detail von Schirach has omitted is consequently not revealed in this review. See more.