Wiper
For years, Wassim has been cleaning the same corridors and restrooms in a commercial building in central Oslo. While his brother has a coveted job, a wife, and kids, Wassim is single and not yet sure what to do with his life, to his parents’ great despair. But one day, he is mistaken for the private investigator Kolbeinstveit, an anonymous detective renting an office space in the building Wassim cleans. It soon turns out that Wassim’s passion for stain removal, and his huge network of taxi drivers, tailors, and hairdressers, makes him a perfect detective.
Armed with universal keys and spray bottles, Wassim finds himself gaining access to Oslo’s art and finance elite, and we are thrown head-first into a wild roman noir, stretching from the dingy Gunerius shopping mall to the fancy mansions of Holmenkollåsen. At the same time as Wassim is solving exceedingly complicated mysteries, he must juggle the challenges of family relations and expectations of settling down and getting married. And what will happen when the real Kolbeinstveit turns up to call his bluff?
Wiper – a Spotless Detective is a crime comedy about identity struggles and culture clash, a turbulent story of social mobility – mysterious, funny, and with just the right pinch of seriousness.
«Wiper is packed with ironies and witticisms and throws punches in all directions.»
«The cleaner Wassim Ali, also known as Wiper, is the voice of this novel. And what a voice! […] [Zahid Ali] takes time and care to build familial and cultural relations between Pakistani-Norwegians and Norwegians. His style is refreshingly light-footed. At times with hard-hitting and funny characterizations […] a lot to enjoy in Zahid Ali’s debut novel, and he keeps the suspense up until the very last paragraph.»
«All in all, this book is a wonderful and entertaining concoction of wild animals, random celebrities, and plenty of invisible Pakistanis in workwear. And it is likely to be the first time that beetroot curry and turmeric plays a central part in solving a crime.»