In a lonely valley in the Alps, Viktor has always dreamed of going hunting, but now it‘s too late. He is old, and the love of his life is dying. Once again he sets out to grant his wife's last wish: To see Tannenfall, the place where he once proposed to her. But when a ghostly stag attacks them and his wife disappears, his nightmare begins. On the hunt for the animal, Viktor penetrates deeper and deeper into a world between delusion and reality and stumbles upon a secret that is more dangerous than anything he has ever seen before …

"Tannenfall" by Bernhard Hofer is an extraordinary crime novel in which the central figure initially is a nameless old man who sets out to track down a deer that attacked his wife. But then the hunt for the mysterious and powerful animal becomes a confrontation with the mans own past. The reader becomes more and more aware of a great guilt that stains the life of the man, just waiting to catch up with him. The novel provides insights into the psyche of the nameless person who has avoided making a decision throughout his life and is now rebelling one last time so as not to die a coward. His inner struggle is evident as the reader gets drawn into the man's world of thought, where the boundaries between reality and delusion are no longer destinguishable. What is happening, what has already happened and what will happen? Slowly and forcefully, a silent horror unfolds increasingly in the remoteness of nature before the eyes of the reader. The deep forests and the steep gorges are symbolic of the depth and inaccessibility of consciousness. Through his outsanding powers of speech, Bernhard Hofer tells a poignant story of revenge, forgiveness, of guilt and the question of what actually makes a human being. Dark and captivating – a novel that won’t leave you.