The Alphabet House

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The Alphabet House is a fictitious novel written by Jussi Alder-Olsen. The author was the son of a psychiatrist and grew up in the surroundings of “insane asylums.” Getting to know a few of the patients, the author became associated with one chronically mentally ill patient who used two sentences during the thirties and a third sentence after meeting again in the seventies. The objects of World War II and mentally ill individuals intrigued the author to combine the two when he was engaged in a conversation with his mother’s friend who worked as a nurse in Bad Kreuznach—a German town in the district of Rhineland-Palatinate. In the beginning of the second part, the war has ended twenty-eight years ago and Bryan is now on the way back to Germany …show more content…

Scott is a psychiatrist in Coventry. Being well known in his field, he receives calls requesting his service overseas; the Olympics is coming up in Germany and he is needed to volunteer in the health booth. At first, he is hesitant, but ends up going because it might also help him to look for his best friend. His assistant is Ken Fowles, who helps him find distributors. On the second day of the interviews, the last interviewee was a Canadian man, Keith Welles. Ken finds Keith ineligible, but Bryan seems interested. With his great impression, Bryan requests a different business with Keith: going to Germany to help search for …show more content…

During the errands, he passes one of the malingerers, Kroner. After contacting Keith about finding information and future instructions, he rests so he can start his volunteering the next day. The volunteer work is to go to the booth and check the health of the athletes who are participating in the games. Finishing his work, he has planned to follow the malingerer to find any clues where James might be. After following him all day for around a week, he knows all the stops he goes to and his general schedule. He met Petra, a nurse at the Alphabet House who cared more excessively than the other patients. He asks questions on how he might find James as she replies on what Kroner told her saying, “… [James] is buried in the memorial grove beside the panorama view on the Burghaldering, up beside the colonnade.” As he gets to the memorial, Lankau is there, ready to shoot him with the ninety-four-Type Shiki Kenju pistol. They get into a grotesque fight where they are stopped by children who run up to stop them. Lankau is weaker so Bryan has him take him somewhere private to talk to him. After getting the partial truth, he leaves and goes back to the hotel to call Keith to inform him on the newly acquired

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