Splinter by Sebastian Fitzek

Author : Sebastian Fitzek
Title : Splinter
Published : 2008
Publisher : Corvus
Pages : 299
Genre : Mystery / Thriller

     Have you ever done something you wish you could forget? Wracked with grief after an accident killed his wife and unborn child, all Marc Lucas wants is to wipe his memory. Until he returns home one night to find that his key doesn't fit in the lock and his wife is alive, well and pregnant - but claims not to recognize him. Marc is drawn into a nightmare world, one where it's impossible to separate reality from fiction. Is he going mad? Or is there a conspiracy at work - one that could cost him his memory, his sanity...even his life.

     I have once again returned to the world of Sebastian Fitzek. He is one of those authors who I never quite know what I'm going to get. I can safely say that I do not trust him without hesitation. Some of his books I have read and truly loved, they have challenged me to look at not only the way a story is delivered to me but also the world I live in.  They push you and confuse you but at the end of the day you are left with some answers and you have been on a great ride to get there. The problem is that the other side of this is the books that didn't work for me. I would be left feeling infuriated and let down not knowing if it was my inability to get to grips with the story or if he has gone off the deep end this time and simply made a complete mess of a book. 

     I think what really drew me into Splinter is the notion of being able to forget. If something truly horrific happened to you and you were given a chance to have it wiped from your mind would you in fact go for it. It is a notion that has been brought up in films and books more than once. And I don't think it is a question that will ever have a truly satisfying answer. But therein lies the point circumstances makes up for a great deal of those answers. If I where Marc would I want to forget my wife and child? What I will say is the Fitzek shows Marc's grief to be a very real and tangible thing. It cuts down into the very deepest places in his soul and drives his every action. 

     As is more often the case Fitzek asks a great deal of his readers not only with keeping up with the multiple threads that make up any one of his stories but also or us morally. How far are we willing to push our selves. Are there in fact line that we are not prepared to go to make things right or fight for those we care for?  Do we push aside our own moral qualms when in effects us directly? I think it is very easy to judge others for there actions but something of a different beast when we are in the center of it all. 

     This is possibly one of his more complicated novels. There was so much going on that trying to keep it straight in my head was definitely a feat in its self. For me, I feel that if I had not been so invested in Marc and his plight I would have probably given up. But this is in part what I get for picking this author up. I already know it's going to tax my mind and force me to devote all my attention to the story he is telling me.

     This is a book that most defiantly will not appeal to everyone. It's confusing and at times forces you to stop and take stock of all that has happened and just exactly who is guilty of what. I think for me I was in the right mood for such a narrative. And as I said I enjoy that he asks difficult questions of us. It is our memories both good and bad that go along way into making us who we are. Do we have to right to pick and chose or are some traumas better of removed?