Goethe Book Club
Goethe Book Club Goes Digital: Mortal Mischief / A Death in Vienna, by Frank Tallis (2005)

Book One of The Liebermann Papers

Tue, 12/01/2020
6:30 PM Online

A virtual book club discussion of Mortal Mischief / A Death in Vienna (2005) by Frank Tallis

Read and discuss works by contemporary German authors in this series hosted by the Goethe-Institut. All books can be read in recent English translation or in the German original; our discussion will be in English. Led by local German professor Amanda Sheffer (The Catholic University of America), this book club focuses on contemporary fiction and will explore experiences and thoughts about the text.

In cooperation with the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at the Catholic University of America.

Please Note: In order to participate in the online discussion (carried out over Zoom), registrants must obtain access to the novel on their own. Hard copies of the novel can be ordered through multiple vendors online; the eBook is also available for download to Kindle, iPad, and other digital reading platforms.

Mortal Mischief (USA title: A Death in Vienna) by Frank Tallis (2005) (Book published in originally in English)

Vienna, at the turn of the century.

Philosophy, science, and art are flourishing. Coffee shops are full of the latest cultural and political theories. The new field of psychoanalysis, formed in the wake of Freud, is just beginning to make itself heard.

And a woman is dead.

Dr. Max Liebermann is a young psychoanalyst, and friend to Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt. Rheinhardt, though hard-working, lacks Liebermann's insights and forensic eye - and so Liebermann is called upon to help with police investigations surrounding the death of a beautiful young medium, in what seems at first to be supernatural circumstances.

While Liebermann attempts to get to the bottom of the mystery, he also must decide whether he is to follow his father's advice and marry the beautiful but reserved Clara. But the personal and the professional cannot be wholly separated, and the darkness of Liebermann's case threatens to swallow his entire life.

(Source: Penguin Books Ltd.)
RSVP Frank Tallis (1958- )

Dr. Frank Tallis is a writer and clinical psychologist. He has held lecturing posts in clinical psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry and neuroscience at King's College London. He has published over 30 scientific papers in international journals, and has written a textbook on cognitive and neuropsychological aspects of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). He has written four works of psychology for the lay reader: Changing Minds (a history of psychotherapy), Hidden Minds (a history of the unconscious), Lovesick (an exploration of the relationship between romantic love and mental illness), and The Incurable Romantic, a fascinating account of a life investigating obsessive love. Tallis's Liebermann books have been translated into fourteen languages and optioned for TV adaptation. Tallis lives in London.


Discussion of the novel will take place via Zoom on Tuesday, December 1, at 6:30 pm EDT / 5:30 pm CST. Please RSVP via Eventbrite in order to receive discussion prompts and the Zoom invite link. Discussion prompts from moderator Dr. Amanda Sheffer will be emailed to all participants RSVP'd via Eventbrite in advance of the discussion. The Zoom invite and additional directions/tips for accessing the Zoom discussion will be emailed to all participants no less than 48 hours before the discussion begins. The discussion will take place in English.