The Hungry and the Fat
Page 44
The minister holds out the hand that he can still use to the girl. She hesitates, but then places her small hand in his. The minister holds it tightly and turns around. Then he heads for the border with the two of them.
Speculation over
Tauern disaster
At least 300,000 feared dead – the search for those responsible continues
Berlin – Ten days after the appalling attack on hundreds of thousands of refugees at the German–Austrian border, the federal government has once again strongly condemned the action and demanded swift results in the search for those responsible. “The deliberate and ruthless killing of more than 300,000 people is nothing less than the greatest mass murder since the Second World War,” the chancellor said to relatives at a funeral ceremony for those police officers, firefighters and paramedics who died in the attack. “In the name of civilisation and humanity it is our duty to bring these killers to justice.”
While the authorities in Germany remain tight-lipped, investigators continue to hunt for clues. “The logistics necessary for such an operation reduce the number of possible suspects,” one high-level Russian government official told this newspaper. “A coordinated military attack using stealth drones capable of hitting several hundred targets at the same time requires both substantial military capability as well as the appropriate technology. It is no secret that at present there are only two states in the world which have both. And Russia isn’t one of them.”
Experts and military specialists interpret this as a pointer towards the U.S.A. and Israel, although they describe both possibilities as “hard to imagine”. Indeed, both the United States and Israel have unequivocally and unconditionally condemned the attack in the U.N. Security Council and the General Assembly. International scepticism is growing, however. Under-secretary Volker Lohm, said, “When there’s a dead deer lying in the forest, it’s difficult not to point the finger at the only person in the village with a rifle. Especially if it’s the hunter.”
With this analogy Lohm is picking up on theories doing the rounds, suggesting that Israel has the greatest interest in preventing Germany from sliding into right-wing extremism. The possible objective is to retain Germany as a reliable partner. Experts emphasise, however, that such an undertaking would require the tacit approval of all the states through whose airspace the drones flew. Groups critical of the E.U. have advanced the explanation that the aim of this action was to preserve Germany as a financially strong member of the E.U. Lohm believes this, too, is highly implausible: “That’s very far-fetched. And before we leap at the wildest conspiracy theories it would be wise, at least where some of these theories are concerned, to offer up some proof. If no bullet was shot from the hunter’s rifle, then no clues will be of any help.”
The logistics necessary for such an operation reduce the number of possible suspects
Meanwhile, it continues to prove difficult to establish the precise number of fatalities, although sources are now ruling out any figure below 300,000. The injured and the dead are still being recovered, as well as those who have been severely traumatised by the catastrophe. Official organisations involved suggest that the chief obstacle to determining a more accurate figure is the greatly increased willingness of the population to take in refugees and hide them from the authorities. (a.p./d.p.a./Reuters)
TIMUR VERMES was born in Nuremberg in 1967, the son of a German mother and a Hungarian father who fled the country in 1956. He has been a journalist and ghostwriter before his first novel, Look Who's Back, appeared in 2012. Published in more than forty languages, it was one of the most successful debuts of the decade, and in 2015 was made into a film directed by David Wnendt.
JAMIE BULLOCH is the translator of novels by Timur Vermes, Steven Uhly, F. C. Delius, Daniela Krien, Jörg Fauser, Martin Suter, Roland Schimmelpfennig and Oliver Bottini. For his translation of Birgit Vanderbeke's The Mussel Feast he was the winner of the Schlegel-Tieck Prize.
LOOK WHO’S BACK
“A brilliant book” RUSSELL KANE
“Both funny and frightening . . . A powerful and important book” SUE GAISFORD, Independent on Sunday
“Can we laugh about Hitler? Of course, why ever not? . . . A better question is, is Look Who’s Back funny? The answer is yes” ROBBIE MILLEN, The Times
“Laugh-out-loud funny . . . An uproarious, disturbing book that will resonate long after you turn the final page” CAROLINE JOWETT, Daily Express
“Not so much a satire on Third Reich revisionism and nostalgia as on the blank ironies of amoral and fad-crazy multi-platform media. Think Sacha Baron-Cohen and Chris Morris – but Vermes does know where he’s going” BOYD TONKIN, Independent
“Packed with wry, close-to-the-knuckle hilarity, and builds to a gloriously ironic conclusion” Mail on Sunday (Ireland)
“Worryingly believable (time travelling despots aside) and unsettling. But also very funny” NATHAN FILER
“There’s no question that the novel has hit upon the key paradox of our modern obsession with Hitler” PHILIP OLTERMANN, Observer
“Be warned. This book is funny, very funny” REBECCA K MORRISON, Independent
“The Hitler of Look Who’s Back has aged not a whit: his fascist views are intact, and he is as foul-tempered and misanthropic as ever” CHRISTOPHER GOODWIN, The Sunday Times
“Wonderfully inventive, very funny and superbly written” We Love This Book
“This uproariously funny satire will have you in stitches” Shortlist
“Peculiar, provocative and very funny . . . It makes you laugh and forces you to think.” DARRAGH McMANUS, Irish Independent
“A satire on the cult of personality . . . nicely played” Monocle
“Vermes takes a preposterous premise and runs with it . . . As well written as it is wonderfully silly” International Express
“The jokes are very funny . . . rollicking, enjoyable” SAM LEITH, Financial Times