The Quiet Twin, Dan Vyleta
The Quiet Twin, Dan Vyleta
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The Quiet Twin

Author: Dan Vyleta

Narrator: Bronson Pinchot

Unabridged: 12 hr 4 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/15/2014


Synopsis

Vienna, 1939. Professor Specksteins dog has been brutally killed, and he wants to know why. But these are uncharitable times, and one must be careful where one probes. When an unexpected house call leads Dr. Beer to Specksteins apartment, he finds himself in the bedroom of Zuzka, the professors niece. Wide-eyed, flirtatious, and not detectably ill, Zuzka leads the young doctor to her window and opens up a view of their apartment block that Beer has never known. Across the shared courtyard there is nine-year-old Anneliese, the lonely daughter of an alcoholic. Five windows to the left lives a secretive mime who comes home late at night and keeps somethingor someoneprecious hidden from view. From the garret drifts the mournful sound of an Orientals trumpet, and a basement door swings closed behind the buildings inscrutable janitor. Does one of these enigmatic neighbors have blood on their hands? Dr. Beer, who has his own reasons for keeping his private life hidden from public scrutiny, reluctantly becomes embroiled in an enquiry that forces him to face the dark realities of Nazi rule.

About Dan Vyleta

Dan Vyleta is the son of Czech refugees who emigrated to Germany in the late 1960s. He holds a PhD in history from King’s College, Cambridge. Vyleta is the author of several novels, including Pavel & I; The Quiet Twin, which was shortlisted for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize; and The Crooked Maid, which was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and won the J. I. Segal Award. An inveterate migrant, Vyleta has lived in Germany, Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. He currently resides in Stratford-upon-Avon in England.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Krista

From the Author's Note at the end of The Quiet Twin, Dan Vyleta states: My primary interest in this book belonged with the army of opportunists whose crimes at times were as grave in their consequences as those perpetrated by the true believers. Sixty-five years after the Second World War it is ea......more

Goodreads review by Peter

Set in an apparently ordinary apartment complex in 1939 Vienna 'The Quiet Twin' gives an interesting insight in to the growing menace of National Socialism within the country at the time. The tenants a microcosm for the terrifying realities which are to come. The apartments are inhabited by an weird......more

Goodreads review by Liviu

As I will have a full FBC rv close to its publication next year (I read an earc of the US edition, though the UK edition is out) only some points: - a very dark novel written in a somewhat whimsical tone that most of the time tones down the horrors - excellent atmosphere and memorable characters mostl......more