In den Wäldern der Biber

Alina's carefully ordered life in Frankfurt is falling apart, and on impulse she flees to a small village in Brandenburg, to the grandfather she hasn't had contact with in eighteen years. He lives alone in a house at the edge of the forest that badly needs renovating, keeps chickens, tends a garden, bakes his own bread, and spends his evenings watching the local beavers — and he takes his granddaughter in without asking many questions.

Alina's memories of childhood summers spent with her grandparents are dark and unreal, but surrounded by nature, the past starts to come back into focus. She reconnects with Elias and Isabel, two people she knew from those same summers — building a friendship with one and falling for the other. In den Wäldern der Biber is a quiet novel about rural life, the peace found in nature, and the things left unsaid.