The women of the famous oatmeal dynasty have been fighting for more than half a century – for their lives, and for happiness.

DAS HAUS KÖLLN
(The Family Kölln Trilogy)
by Elke Becker
Heyne, 2024

Book 1: GLÄNZENDE ZEITEN (Golden Age, January 2024)

North Germany, 1886: The life of Charlotte Kölln’s husband is tragically cut short by an accident at work. There is no time for Charlotte to grieve, though, because the gristmill has to keep grinding, otherwise her family will face ruin. As a woman, Charlotte can neither get credit nor officially run the business, but she doesn’t let that stop her. When her eldest son announces that he plans to marry one of the workers, Bertha, Charlotte isn’t pleased. She is worried about her family’s status, which she wants to preserve at all costs. The two headstrong women must find a way to get along – and in the process realise that they can do anything, so long as they stick together.

Book 2: GROSSE HOFFNUNG (A New Hope, April 2024)

The sequel to the exciting family saga about the legendary oatmeal dynasty.

Northern Germany, 1912. Bertha Kölln’s new breakfast oatmeal is a huge success, and her family is working tirelessly to increase production. But then the Great War arrives in the sleepy little town near Hamburg, and the Kölln family, too, is affected. But they refuse to be broken, either by the war or by several accidents that have occurred in the mill. When Bertha’s son Peter marries the young bohemian Else Voormann, the couple don’t have it easy: Peter doesn’t understand confident, decisive Else – and Else for her part doesn’t trust her husband, who is spending far too much time with a pretty seamstress. Once again, two very different women must decide: will they fight each other, or stick together?

Elke Becker yearned for the sea and adventure, and travelled all over the world before settling down on Mallorca in 2005. The idea to write about the real-life Kölln family came to her over breakfast one day, as she was eating a bowl of the famous Kölln oatmeal; so she set off on a research trip to northern Germany, a beautiful place which has always been dear to her heart.