Kismet

Summary

Introducing Kemal Kayankaya, a wise-cracking private detective in Frankfurt—or, as Kayankaya calls it, “the ugliest town in Germany.” As a Turkish immigrant raised by Germans, he’s regularly subjected to racism in the gritty, working class town, and getting work isn’t easy. So when his immigrant friend Rosario asks Kayankaya to protect him against some thugs demanding protection money from his restaurant, the down-and-out Kayankaya takes the job—except these are no ordinary thugs. They turn out to be battle-hardened Croatian nationalists looking to take over the rackets in Frankfurt, and they do not take kindly to Kayankaya’s interference with their plans. What ensues is a brilliant novel about organized crime, immigration, the fallout from the Balkan wars, and the madness of nationalism from one of Europe’s finest crime writers.