From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. The slow burn of office politics can be just as riveting as international intrigue, as shown in Jungersen's second novel, his first to be translated into English. Iben, Malene and Camilla work in Copenhagen for the Danish Center for Information on Genocide. Even before Iben and Malene receive death threats with Nazi overtones, the three friends had been ostracizing the new librarian, Anne-Lise. Though evidence suggests Serbian war criminal Mirko Zigic has been sending the death threats, the paranoia and fear of the three friends converge to make Anne-Lise the target of rising suspicion. Victimizing is part of human nature, Anne-Lise's doctor tells her when she seeks advice, and the novel hauntingly pursues this idea to its deepest implications. Can people fighting genocide display the same traits as war criminals? What does it mean to be evil? Jungersen (Thickets) explores these questions and others on a very personal level. A complex understanding of people turns what could have been pace-slowing conversations and reproductions of essays on genocide into fuel for a sometimes cruel but always intense page-turner. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition Relié .
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition Relié .
Booklist
Four women--researchers Iben and Malene, librarian Anne-Lise, and secretary Camilla--work in a small office at the Danish Centre for Genocide Information. When Iben and Malene begin receiving threatening e-mails, they immediately suspect that the death messages are the work of Mirko Zigic, a Serbian war criminal whom they've both written about. But they gradually come to believe that one of their coworkers is responsible, prompting them to begin a campaign of harassment and bullying that turns their office into a mirror image of the appalling behavior they analyze on a daily basis. As the backstabbing escalates and alliances shift, the four women show far different reactions to pressure, variously exhibiting bravery, bravado, and submissiveness. Interspersing the narrative with factual reports on the psychology of evil that spawned concentration camps in Germany and genocide in Bosnia, and shifting the point of view among the four women (one of whom may be an unreliable narrator), Jungersen steadily builds up both tension and paranoia. A best-seller in Europe, this thought-provoking page-turner offers a unique spin on office politics. Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition Relié .
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition Relié .
