My name is Knisch, Sascha Knisch, and six days ago my life was in perfect order. So begins Aris Fioretos s elegant, hilarious novel, set in Berlin in the sweltering summer of 1928. Knisch, who works as a projectionist at the Apollo movie theatre, is a person with special sexual habits. One night, he sees the enigmatic Dora Wilms again. A week later, she is dead and Knisch is charged with murder. As he tries to clear his name, he discovers a scientific conspiracy and is drawn into the rich tangle of a story, in which nothing is as it seems. How can he prove what didn t happen? What goes on at the Foundation for Sexual Research? And why is it important to have testicles? A biological thriller set in the steamy underworlds of Weimar Berlin, The Truth about Sascha Knisch deals with the so-called sexual question , its lures and seductiveness, dangers and temptations, but also with the shrewd passion between two young people in a Germany at the brink of disaster. Above all, the novel is a declaration of love to imagination clever, droll and stylish, couched in the form of a riddle and written with effortless elan by one of Europe s most exciting and entertaining new writers.

Author Biography

Of Greek and Austrian descent, Aris Fioretos was born and raised in Sweden. He was educated at Stockholm and Yale Universities. The recipient of numerous prizes and fellowships, he has published several books in his native country, and also rendered the works of Vladimir Nabokov into Swedish. The Truth about Sascha Knisch is his first novel in English. Aris Fioretos lives with his wife and daughter in Berlin, where he is currently the counsellor for culture at the Swedish Embassy.