Inspired by true events, told with a lot of black humour and yet great empathy: David Schalko's criminal epic 'Heavy Bones' is a brilliant, unique novel about Austrian post-war society - and a fascinating insight into the inner workings of people whose souls were destroyed by National Socialism. Vienna, March 1938, 'Anschluss' of Austria to the German Reich: On the day when half of Vienna cheers its new leader on Heldenplatz, a gang of young petty crooks robs a well-known Nazi. For seven years, the petty criminals then have to act as so-called Kapos to ensure the 'maintenance of operations' in the Dachau and Mauthausen concentration camps and thus grow into serious criminals. After the end of the war, the gang around Ferdinand Krutzler takes over the Viennese underworld. With unprecedented brutality, she uses her power not least to get former Nazi opponents out of the way.