Die Liebe an miesen Tagen

Clara, a photographer in her late thirties, drifts contentedly through her days between assignments and caring for her mother, who has dementia. She isn't looking for love. While trying to sell an old country cottage she once renovated with her ex-husband, she meets Elias, an actor, and his girlfriend Vera.

Clara and Elias sense an immediate connection, though they lose touch soon after. Months later, a chance visit to one of Elias's theater performances brings them back together, and this time neither can ignore what's between them. What follows is a careful, unhurried reckoning: two adults, shaped by prior marriages, grief, and routine, deciding whether they can still let someone new into their lives.

Ewald Arenz writes with the same understated, sensory attention to ordinary detail that marked his earlier novels, favoring emotional honesty over dramatic incident.