Home
/
Fiction
/
Dark Matter
Dark Matter
Apr 21, 2025 5:42 PM

Author:Juli Zeh,Christine Lo

Dark Matter

Sebastian and Oskar have been friends since their days studying physics at university, when both were considered future Nobel Prize candidates. But after their graduation, their lives took very different paths; while Oskar holds a prestigious research post in Geneva, Sebastian worries that he hasn't lived up to his intellectual promise, having chosen marriage and fatherhood as an exit strategy.

A few days after a particularly heated argument between the two men, Sebastian leaves his son sleeping in the back seat while he goes into a service station. When he returns, the car has disappeared without trace. His phone rings and a voice informs him that in order to get his son back he must kill a man. As Sebastian's life unravels, the only person he can safely reach out to is Oskar...

Reviews

A compelling novel, thrilling yet profound...This book makes for a wonderful read, gripping until the last page. A masterpiece!

—— Financial Times Deutschland

A thrilling read as well as a terrific mental workout

—— Laura Wilson , Guardian

An intelligent an beautifully crafted existential thriller ... Zeh's lyricism and intellect lend the book a depth often lacking in mainstream thrillers

—— Big Issue

A clever and truly entertaining read

—— The Independent

Zeh constructs an impressive matrix of information for each of her key players and provides descriptions that are vivid and original ... Her often unexpected imagery is precise and pithy ... this philosophical thriller is well paced; one turns the pages impatient for the denouement

—— Times Literary Supplement

Dark Matter by Juli Zeh - a much-acclaimed German writer - is the kind of crime novel often described as philosophical, literary, psychological or even intellectual...That is no bad thing, but only if well executed, as Dark Matter undoubtedly is...Unusual and intriguing

—— Marcel Berlins , The Times

One might think that such perfection, such erudition must leave the reader untouched...but it does not. For that, Zeh's labyrinth is built too cleverly, its corridors are adorned with witty elements, her sentences are of extraordinary brilliance

—— Die Welt

A compulsive read ... ingenious and deftly-handled

—— New Humanist

It is certainly the best novel I've read so far this year, and should mark Zeh as one of Europe's brightest younger novelists

—— Crime Time

Interesting and original novel

—— Literary Review

Clever and gripping

—— Boyd Tonkin , Independent Summer Reads

Every chapter is taut, suspenseful, almost Hitchcock-esque. Zeh's style is fluent but also elegantly sparse... An absolute gem of a book.

—— The Bookbag

From every angle - character study, philosophical discussion or straightforward plot - it shines with crystalline intensity, and so far as one can tell, nothing is lost in the translation. Complex and supremely elegant, this is a book to relish

—— Joanna Hines , Guardian

This is a book and a half

—— Giles Broadbent , Wharf
Comments
Welcome to zzdbook comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.zzdbook.com All Rights Reserved