The golden glove

Because he can: A new, completely different novel by Heinz Strunk. This fantastically dark, strikingly funny, and infinitely sad novel is the author's first that does not contain autobiographical elements. Nevertheless, it is entirely a Strunk book. Its dreadful protagonist is named Fritz Honka - for Germans who grew up in the seventies, he represents the bogeyman of their childhood, a woman killer from the lowest social class who gained horrific fame in a sensational trial in 1976. Honka, a real loser, mentally and physically scarred by a cruel childhood full of abuse and violence, lured his victims from the Hamburg dive bar "Zum Goldenen Handschuh." Strunk's novel dives deep into the infernal night world of the neighborhood, the bar, and the rundown quarters, where the residents are threatened by a merciless life that robs them of all humanity.