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"Sorry: A Novel"

By Rich Fisher

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kwgs/local-kwgs-999032.mp3

Tulsa, OK – Today on ST, we hear from the German writer Zoran Drvenkar, who talks about his recent book, "Sorry: A Novel." It's been getting some rave reviews here in the States, ever since the American edition first appeared a few months ago; this quip from the pages of Booklist is typical: "Dark, demented, radical, and grotesquely humorous, 'Sorry' upends every convention of modern fiction craft, and brilliantly. . . . [It] might well be the mystery of the year." In this novel, four young friends decide to form a company that --- for a price, mind you --- conveys official apologies for big shots who're too busy to say "I'm sorry" in person, business execs who've fired someone and thus wish to express remorse, regretful romantics who've jilted or dropped a lover and are now feeling bad about it, et al. However, things get quite complicated when the four friends learn that they've been hired to render services for a killer. As a critic of this novel has noted in The New York Times Book Review: "Stunning. . . . 'Sorry' is the kind of thriller, the kind of novel, that doesn't come along every day. . . . [It] thrills, and it thrills immaculately. It's that oft-cited but very rare species of novel we call a page-turner, and it brilliantly achieves this because Drvenkar knows how to use all the tools at his disposal, to excellent effect. . . . A thriller that should --- despite occasional grisly moments --- be savored." Also on today's show, our commentator Jeff Martin has a few thoughts about what we can all look forward to in the year 2012 (including the Mayan apocalypse).