A masterpiece of psychological suspense for fans of The Dinner and We Need to Talk About Kevin.

Randolph Tiefenthaler insists he had a normal childhood, though he grew up with a father who kept thirty loaded guns in the house. A modestly successful architect with an attractive, intelligent wife, Rebecca, and two children, Randolph finds his life turned upside down when his father, a man he loves yet has always feared, is imprisoned for murder.…

Fear is the story of the twisted events leading up to his father’s incarceration. It begins when Randolph and his family move into a new building and meet their neighbour, Dieter Tiberius, the peculiar yet seemingly friendly man living in the basement apartment. As the Tiefenthalers settle into their home, they become increasingly disturbed as Dieter’s strange behaviour turns malevolent — sending erotic letters to Rebecca, spying, making accusations of child abuse, and filing police reports he against the Tiefenthalers. Finally, Randolph confesses his own feelings of desperation and helplessness, which ultimately lead to his father’s intervention.

DIRK KURBJUWEIT is deputy editor-in-chief at Der Spiegel, where he has worked since 1999. He has received numerous awards for his writing, including the Egon Erwin Kisch Prize for journalism, and is the author of seven critically acclaimed novels, many of which, including Fear, have been adapted for film, television, and radio in Germany. Fear is the first of his works to be translated into English. He divides his time between Berlin and Hamburg.

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IMOGEN TAYLOR is a freelance literary translator based in Berlin. She is the translator of both The Trap and The Stranger Upstairs, as well as Truth and Other Lies by Sascha Arango and Fear by Dirk Kurbjuweit.

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Kurbjuweit generates suspense . . . we care enough about these flawed people to keep turning the pages.

Publisher's Weekly

[Fear] is at once a domestic thriller and a reflection on masculinity, morality and responsibility.

Toronto Star

Fear is a smart, psychologically complex and morally acute fable of modern German society decked out in the garb of an intricate thriller. . . . This is a wry, complex, at times disturbing survey of middle-class German life in the decades since the end of World War II.

Sydney Morning Herald

Extremely creepy . . . [a] terrific novel.

Globe and Mail