No Exit Press - Kismet by Jakob Arjouni

ABOUT THE BOOK

It all began with a favour. Kayankaya and Slibulsky had wanted to help out Romario, the owner of a small Brazilian restaurant, when he is threatened by extortionists. Then suddenly there were two bodies on the floor of Romario's restaurant, their faces caked in white powder. Kayankaya is troubled by these deaths and decides to find out who the men are, until he himself is pursued by a mafia organisation about whom nothing appears to be known.

Gradually it becomes clear to Kayankaya that he is facing the most brutal and dangerous group of gangsters to have run Frankfurt's station quarter. And then a new assignment comes in: he is to find a woman he has seen in a video film, and who he is convinced was looking at him from the screen.

Kismet is a brilliant novel about organised crime, the fallout from the Balkan wars, and the madness of nationalism from one of Europe's finest crime writers.

CRITICAL ACCLAIM

"...Arjouni's fourth Kayankaya novel and they deserve to be better known in the English-speaking world. One worth waiting for. ..." - Peter Millar, The Times [read the full review]

"...Arjouni forges both a gripping caper and a haunting indictment of the madness of nationalism, illuminated by brilliant use of language: magnificent...." - Cathi Unsworth, The Guardian [read the full review]

"...A worthy grandson of Marlowe and Spade...." - Stern

"...Jakob Arjouni writes the best urban thrillers since Raymond Chandler..." - Tempo

"...Arjouni's PI hero Kayankaya has to deal with racism as a Turk living in modern Frankfurt..." - Jake Kerridge, The Telegraph [read the full review]

"...There is hardly another German-speaking writer who is as sure of his milieu as Arjouni is. He draws incredibly vivid pictures of people and their fates in just a few words. He is a master of the sketch – and the caricature – who operates with the most economic of means...." - Die Welt, Berlin

"...Arjouni is a master of authentic background descriptions and an original story teller..." - Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung

"...Arjouni tells real-life stories, and they virtually never have a happy ending. He tells them so well, with such flexible dialogue and cleverly maintained tension, that it is impossible to put his books down..." - El País, Madrid

"...His virtuosity, humour and feeling for tension are a ray of hope in literature on the other side of the Rhine..." - Actuel, Paris

"...A genuine storyteller who beguiles his readers without the need of tricks..." - L'Unità, Milan