Safe Return Doubtful

translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch – published May 2026

This inventive, even madcap, novel is impossible to predict and thoroughly enjoyable to read. It stems from Haas being inspired by the Dutch graphic artist, Cornelius Escher, who based much of his work around mathematics. Escher dealt in optical illusions, and Haas in turn, deals in literary illusions.
Indeed, the main characters in the novel is an Escher, but Franz rather than Cornelius.

Escher is waiting for an electrician to show up at his apartment, and in the meantime picks up a book and starts to read. The story is about Elio Russo, who has just joined the witness protection program in Naples and is on the run from worrying gangsters. Understandably perhaps, he has trouble sleeping, and so reads before bed. He is reading about a man called Franz Escher, who is waiting for an electrician to arrive at his apartment. Their stories intertwine with various twists until ultimately the boundaries that separate them start to blur.

It’s a mystery in the true sense of the word, and will appeal particularly to anyone with a mathematical mind. The translator, Jamie Bulloch, has done a great job on what must have presented enormous challenges.

My GoodReads score 5 / 5