Tannöd is a crime thriller

Crime fiction

Crime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalizes crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, and indeed are, blurred...

 by the German author Andrea Maria Schenkel

Andrea Maria Schenkel

Andrea Maria Schenkel is a German writer. She published her debut novel Tannöd in 2006.Based on the Hinterkaifeck murder in the 1920s, Schenkel’s fictional account takes place in the 1950s...

. The book was first published in January 2006.

Contents

The novel narrates the story of a multiple murder at an isolated Bavarian farm called Tannöd in the 1950s. The points-of-view of the victims, the witnesses and the perpetrator are intertwined in 39 short passages. Through these largely separate testimonies, the reader gradually builds a complete picture of the events that lead a rural family, headed by a tyrannical, abusive father to all be brutally murdered.

Background

The novel is based on the unsolved murder of an entire family in 1922 on the farmstead Hinterkaifeck

Hinterkaifeck

Hinterkaifeck, a small farmstead situated between the Bavarian towns of Ingolstadt and Schrobenhausen , was the scene of one of the most puzzling crimes in German history...

, Bavaria.

Adaptations

A film adaptation of the novel with the same title Tannöd was released in cinemas in Germany on 19 November 2009, directed by Bettina Oberli, (Wüste-Film West) and starring Julia Jentsch

Julia Jentsch

Julia Jentsch is a Silver Bear, two-time European Film Award, and Lola winning German actress. She is best known as the title character in Sophie Scholl – The Final Days, Jule in The Edukators and, Liza in I Served the King of England.-Career:Jentsch was born to a family of lawyers in Berlin and...

, Monica Bleibtreu

Monica Bleibtreu

Monica Bleibtreu was an Austrian actress and screenwriter, best-known in the German-speaking world for her German film, television and stage roles.-Life and career:...

 and Volker Bruch.

Awards

• 2007: Deutscher Krimi Preis, Friedrich Glauser Prize
• 2008: Swedish Crime Fiction Prize.
• Audiobook: CORINE-Weltbild-Leserpreis
  Corine Literature Prize
  The Corine – International Book Prize, as it is officially called, is a German literature prize created by theBavarian Landesverband of the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels first awarded in 2001...
  
  .

Publication history

By May 2009 one million copies had been sold of the novel Tannöd. The English translation of the novel was released by Quercus Publishing on 5 June 2008. The title is The Murder Farm. Quercus released a paperback edition of The Murder Farm on 26 December 2008.