"The first true Corona novel set in the midst of the Spring 2020 lockdown, subtly describing the social and very private consequences of the pandemic."
Süddeutsche Zeitung
Do we dare to be truly human?
Dora moved to the countryside with her little dog. She desperately needed a change of scenery, more freedom and room to breathe. But Bracken, the small village in Branden-burg, is not quite as idyllic as she thought. There is no furniture in the house yet, the garden resembles a wilderness, and the bus connection to the district town is a joke. But above all, behind the high garden wall there resides a neighbour who, with his shaved head and right-wing slogans, seems to conform to all the prejudices.
Dora has to ask herself what she is looking for: Distance from her boyfriend, who is becoming increa¬singly alien to her in his dogged climate activism? Refuge from the inner turmoil that keeps her up at night? Answers to the question of when the world actually got so mixed up? While Dora is trying to keep her thoughts and demons in check, things happen in her vicinity she could not have expected. She encounters people who do not fit into any mould, who fundamentally challenge her ideas and her previous life, and who make her experience something she would never have thought she was looking for.
Juli Zeh’s novel tells the story of today – of our prejudices, weaknesses and demons, as well as the hidden strengths we reveal when we allow ourselves to be truly human.