Magic Hoffmann by
Jakob Arjouni, translated from the German by Geoffrey Mulligan

Nominated by:
Bibliotheque Municipale de Lyon, France.

Fred, Nickel and Annette share a dream, to escape to Canada, away from the crushing boredom of provincial Germany. Canada - where you can live free, rent a house on the lake, go fishing, become a famous photographer ... but such dreams cost money and that requires half an hour's work at the local bank. But the robbery goes badly wrong. Fred is arrested, but as in all good movies he doesn't grass up his friends. Four years later, Fred is out and heads for Berlin, a city in flux after the dismantling of the wall. He is pursuing his money, his friends and still, his Canadian dream. But for Annette and Nickel life has moved on ... Magic Hoffmann is a superb novel about one man's refusal to be brought down by his country and his "friends".
Jakob Arjouni was born in Frankfort, West Germany, in 1964. He is the author of novels, plays and radio plays. Arjouni was immediately recognised as Germany's outstanding crime writer with the publication of Happy Birthday, Turk! This and the other books in his Kayankaya series, More Beer and One Man, One Murder are all available from No Exit Press.

Here's what the members of the Reading Group based at our Raheny branch library think of Magic Hoffmann:

The best one can say of this little novel is that it is an amusing story which proves the old adage 'crime doesn't pay', at least not if you are Magic Hoffmann. Three teenage friends have a dream of leaving a divided Berlin to set up business in Canada producing apple cider. To finance the plan they rob a bank. Hoffmann is the only one caught and serves four years in prison for covering up for his friends. When he is finally released he expects his reward, but soon learns that he is the only one of the three still holding onto the dream. The Berlin Wall has come down and attitudes have changed. Arjouni is a good storyteller, but his characters are slightly exaggerated. It is hard to believe that Hoffmann having spent four years in prison could have emerged such an innocent. He is always in the wrong place at the wrong time and it becomes clear that he will always be one of life's losers. It is a light-hearted enjoyable read.
(Member of Raheny Library Reading Group)