She wanted to be beautiful, then she was dead

first set
I hate artificial nails in flamboyant colors, blond long hair, a raw silk blouse and brilliant earrings at four o'clock in the afternoon.

The book
holds Good crime fiction among us not only with a thrilling story, but also shows us how it to and fro in the world. An exemplary example of The beautician" the Colombian author Melba's "Escobar. In the Form of a Thriller, the journalist describes impressively how corruption, sexism, racism and a pervasive macho culture in their home country of the under layer, and still more the women, the life difficult for.

Claire, the psychiatrist who has returned after years in France, to Bogotá, to the big city Juggernaut on more than 2600 meters of altitude in the Andes, see "what is there to be broken and lazy in this country, in which the value of women is measured by the Size of the bum, the shape of your Breasts and wasp-waist". And she hates the "mafia-like universe, for over thirty years, the Aesthetics of this country, and the world view of criminals, politicians, businessmen, and all the shapes that have even the slightest contact with the Power". You hear yourself for a more better society in Bogotá, but would like to be different.

In the noble beauty salon "house of beauty" learns to you Karen know, the title character, who has left behind in the coastal city of Cartagena your child with your mother, in order to earn the capital money. At your place of work of the cosmetician is confronted daily with the Upperclass; you know, "who had problems with breast implants, who gets divorced, who has a Lover, whom horns are placed, who is flying to the bridge days to Miami". A female Teenager in her pubic hair depilation, and then by her boyfriend deflower, after the project had already failed twice, because it was not smooth enough. The other day, the girl is dead.

The state investigators are committed to the policy and not the victim.

Rather slowly, the story develops to a criminal to death. The parents of the girl did not let up, and soon it becomes clear that the perpetrator comes from a influential family. The thing escalates: the men that were involved in the cover up of the crime, will be shot on the street. And state investigators are committed to the policy and not the victim.

The fascinating Thriller combines an impressive demonstration of the harsh realities of life in Colombia with the criminal case that has its roots in the social culture of the country. And it is also a story about the difficult attempt of two women from different walks of life, build a relationship of trust.

scoring

author
Melba Escobar de Nogales, born in 1976 in Cali, Colombia, studied literature at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá. It is as a journalist and columnist, mainly for daily Newspapers, "El Espectador" in Bogotá, "El Pais" in Cali working. While she studied at the Autonomous University of Barcelona in Spain in scriptwriting for Film and television, she wrote her first, autobiographical-influenced novel "Duermevela" (2010). Previously, she had a book about the dreams of children, "Bogotá, sueña. La ciudad por los niños" (2007), released for which you conducted more than 300 Interviews. In 2014, she published her children's book "Johnny y el mar" (English: "happiness is a fish"; Baobab Books, Basel, 2018).

The Thriller "La casa de la Belleza" (2015; "The beautician") has been translated into a dozen languages, besides German also English, French, Italian, and Finnish. In that year, Melba Escobar the novel "La mujer que hablaba sola". She was awarded for her journalistic work and for her books with several awards, including a fellowship at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design in the United States. She has two children and lives in Bogotá.

Melba Escobar: "The beautician" (Original: "La Casa de la Belleza", Planeta/Emecé Colombia, Bogotá, 2015). From the Spanish by Sybille Martin. Heyne, Munich, 2019. 320 p., about 15 Fr.

All of the other meetings you will find in the Collection "crime of the week".

Created: 05.12.2019, 06:24 PM