Heinz G. Konsalik

Heinz Günther Konsalik, real name Heinz Günther, was a German writer born in 1921 in Cologne and died in 1999 in Salzburg. He studied theatre, literary history and German studies in Cologne, Munich and Vienna, and the experience of World War II, in which he was seriously wounded on the Eastern Front, strongly marked both his life and literary work. He is considered one of the most widely read and commercially successful German authors of post-war Germany, with more than 150 novels and tens of millions of copies sold.

He wrote popular war, romance, adventure and medical novels, often set in dramatic historical or exotic locations. His most famous work is The Doctor from Stalingrad (Der Arzt von Stalingrad), and titles translated into Croatian include The Doctor from Sartene (Der Arzt von Sartene), The Star of Africa (Der Stern von Afrika), The Amber Room (Das Bernsteinzimmer) and The Runway (Die Rollbahn). Although he was not always highly regarded by literary critics, Konsalik gained a large readership thanks to his tense plot, emotionality and accessible style.