Goldene Zeiten im Gepäck

In present-day Germany, Frau Kaiser, a sharp and stubborn resident of a nursing home, knows a secret about her young care worker Karla — and uses it to blackmail her into a road trip across Eastern Europe in an old Renault. Officially, they are chasing down a lost love from Frau Kaiser's youth; unofficially, both women are running from things they haven't told anyone.

Interwoven with the present-day journey is the story of two young swimmers who found each other at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, only to be separated by the political and personal barriers of the era. Adriana Popescu blends real Olympic history with an invented love story to build an emotional, often funny road novel about second chances, and about the gap between the compromises people make when they are young and the courage it takes to undo them decades later.

Popescu, a former screenwriter for German television, is known for warm, character-driven women's fiction; Goldene Zeiten im Gepäck follows the same register — light comic touches balanced against real grief and longing.