Kriminalroman (?) des Schweigens. Zu Friedrich Anis neuestem Werk "Süden" (2011)

Abstract

The present article contains the analysis of a rather non-typical detective novel by Friedrich Ani. Its title Süden is the name of a protagonist/detective who, in the framework of the genre, can be considered equally non-typical. While in a typical detective story the mystery of a crime, most often murder, forms the centre and thus the question „Who?“ is at the fore, the main concern of Ani’s narrator rests on the search for a missing person whose very existence becomes visible through his/her disappearance only. Just as unconventional is here the working of the investigator who, in contrast to his ideal type ‚colleagues‘, does not interrogate his counterparts, but provokes them to talk by his own silence, that is: waiting. Ani’s novel is a part of his cycle of novels centered around the ‚missing-searcher‘ Süden.