Red Handler

Frode Brandeggen (1970 – 2014), an unknown voice to most readers, made his debut in 1992 with the experimental 2000 + page novel Conglomerate Breath. It was never reviewed and soon forgotten. He created a new form of genre, writing 15 micro novels about Red-Handler, a protest-oriented crime fiction project aims at confronting genre’s weakness and often unnecessary length. As his weapon, he developed a private investigator who is already at the scene or in the immediate vicinity when foul play takes place, so that the perp can be caught red handed and the case quickly solved, thus offering crime fiction to people who don’t have the time to read long books or who hate to read, but love crime fiction.

This book for the first time brings together all the 15 micro-novels Brandeggen wrote about Red Handler, and is also equipped with a comprehensive amount of enthusiastic, explanatory, complementary and sometimes strangely digressing endnotes, written in the pen of Brandeggen’s closest literary confidant in the final years, German professional annotator Bruno Aigner (1934-).

The book about the fictive character Red Handler is the literary talent Johan Harstad’s newest project, sprawling with creativity. Watch out – you will be caught red handed!

Foreign sales
Germany, Rowohlt 
The Netherlands, Podium 
Hungary, Ø // Észak

«Kudos to Harstad for writing this novel, brilliantly demonstrating both his literary courage and his willingness to initiate important literary debates.» VG

«RED HANDLER showcases Harstad’s riveting creativity and impressive ability of make-believe […]» Morgenbladet

«RED HANDLER is an extraordinary and hilarious project.» Dagens Næringsliv

«Original project […]» Stavanger Aftenblad

«It’s obvious that Johan Harstad had a really fun time writing RED HANLDER.» Dagsavisen 

«The contrast between the utterly banal crime stories and the intricate analyses in the footnotes makes for a hilarious read.» Bergens tidende

«As knowledgeable as he is clever, Johan Harstad parodies both the unpunctuated avant-garde novel and the hyper-commercial whodunnit» Bok365