What kind of person actually writes gripping thrillers that leave their readers chewing on objects?? A likeable person with rough entertainment value – at least in the case of sebastian fitzek. The bestselling author made a guest appearance in kulmbach on friday evening at the invitation of the rupprecht bookstore and presented his new novel “der insasse” in front of. Due to the ongoing construction work in the bookstore, managing director maria rupprecht switched to the new break hall at the MGF as the venue, where the 300 visitors were comfortably seated.
But back to the author: sebastian fitzek, a man without allures, it seems, and with a voice with which he could easily record his horbucher himself. The “gunther-jauch-verschnitt”, as he was once called, presented an evening of antitheses, making the audience laugh and shortly afterwards plunging them into oppressive silence with scenes from his new book.
Fitzek doesn’t look back on a typical career as an author, nor does he know of a recipe for success – except for one certain component: luck. He didn’t want to become a writer as a child, but preferred to be a tennis player or drummer, but then began to study veterinary medicine, which he gave up again after three months. Then he studied law for a while, which certainly benefits him today, but “I”m actually quite a failure, I haven”t achieved anything I set out to do. However, bucher had been with him since childhood.
The idea for his first successful novel, "the therapy he had when he accompanied his then girlfriend gerlinde to the doctor’s office. She didn’t come out of the treatment room for almost an hour, and that’s when he asked himself: "what if you never came out of here again?." He sent his manuscript to 15 publishers, 13 cancelled, two did not respond at all. His first reading in rostock was attended by five people, including the bookstore staff. It’s hard to imagine that today, when he published "the passenger" now his 16. Thriller.
In the new novel, the father of a young boy wants to be infiltrated into the high-security psychiatric ward, where the perpetrator responsible for the disappearance of his son a year ago is located. But the perpetrator remains silent, and the father simply must have certainty. "In my books, the victims play a central role", the father of three fitzek explained. "I’m interested in how ordinary people react to violence." He is convinced that there is a destructive streak in every human being, and that the true self is revealed in cases of violence.
Sebastian fitzek himself has a lot of fears "and i have a primal fear, i was traumatized as a child by the show ‘aktenzeichen XY." Only because he has such fears, he can also write about it."If I did not have negative feelings, I could not describe them." Of course there is an irrational fear when the light is off in the basement, the head cinema goes off with a sebastian fitzek. "I then deliberately get into such feelings in order to be able to reproduce them exactly."
The life of a thriller writer
However, he does not stage this world of thrills in private like a stephen king, for example, but lives in a completely normal end-of-row house." Overlooking a garden, he writes in his office, and when he needs to relax, he reads or drives a car. "But the best way for me to clear my head is to spend time with my children."
On friday evening, sebastian fitzek showed himself to be a bestselling author with a lot of track and patience for his fans. Until late at night he signed countless books, was available for photos and had a nice and personal word for everyone. A man of contrasts who doesn’t seem to fit into any box.