Two women, two worlds, two lives at a crossroads.
LITTLE GERMANY #1 DER DUFT DER NEUEN WELT
by Maria Nikolai
Penguin Germany, May 2025
Germany, 1901. Domestic servant Lissi has embarked on a foolish affair with the scion of the family she works for. But her hopes of a romantic wedding are shattered, and when she finds herself pregnant, alone and desperate, she decides to leave her home town. Meanwhile, Julia Varrell has been lured into an arranged marriage under false pretences, and feels lonely on her husband’s idyllic estate. She, too, wants out. And so Lissi and Julia find themselves on board a ship bound for New York.
The two of them quickly become close friends, and agree to help each other make a fresh start. A bakery in Manhattan’s Little Germany offers them work and a roof over their heads. Soon, the bakery and its heavenly sweet pretzels gain a reputation among the upper echelons of New York society. What no one suspects, though, is that disaster is looming on the horizon – one that will disrupt not only Julia’s and Lissi’s lives, but the whole of Little Germany…
• Based on a true story
• Vol. 2 to be published in October 2025
Maria Nikolai loves the stuff of history and tender love stories. With her debut The Chocolate Villa she wrote her way into the hearts of her readers, and spent many months in the bestseller lists. The saga sold about half a million copies. Maria Nikolai’s fans were also enchanted by her second historical fiction trilogy, set on picturesque Lake Constance towards the end of the First World War. LITTLE GERMANY, her new émigré saga, tells the story of two bold young women seeking their fortune in the New World.
When Melanie’s fiancé has an accident and ends up in a coma, young Melanie fears for his life, and for their future. After weeks of desperation and paralysis, she seeks refuge and distraction on her 96-year-old great-grandmother Hanna’s estate. In the attic of the manor house, she discovers a Vietnamese fairy tale – and then Hanna tells her about her eventful past: how she grew up in Vietnam as the daughter of a wealthy family, and how she met her ‘jasmine sister’ Tanh, a girl born into poverty. As Melanie listens, fascinated, her great-grandmother regales her with tales of adventure among temples and rice fields, and the story of an extraordinary friendship between two girls separated by a fateful event. But Melanie finds solace not only in Hanna’s memories and unshakeable zest for life, but also in the company of widower Thomas, who looks after the manor’s gardens. And suddenly, she feels a little spark of hope stirring in her heart…
Karlskrona, Sweden, 1910. Liv feels constricted – and not just by the corset she puts on every day. Her loveless marriage to shipowner Sten Boregard, too, is stifling her. Her desire for freedom grows stronger when she meets Marlene, a sailor’s widow, who has been ostracised by the other sailors’ wives ever since her husband and his crew died on the high seas. But Marlene won’t let anyone bring her down, and Liv is impressed by her free spirit and energy. The pair become close friends, and when Liv unexpectedly inherits a rose-covered gamekeeper’s cottage in the woods, she and Marlene boldly decide to create a refuge where women can fulfil their true potential. They secretly breathe new life into ‘Rosenhag’ and its wildflower garden – but little do they know that not only their secret, but they themselves, are in grave danger…
In the spring of 1776, thirteen-year-old Elsbeth Culpepper wakes to the sound of cannons. It’s the Siege of Boston, the Patriots’ massive drive to push the Loyalists out that turns the city into a chaotic war zone. Elsbeth’s father—her only living relative—has gone missing, leaving her alone and adrift in a broken town while desperately seeking employment to avoid the orphanage.
Paris, 1910. Now that her engagement to an aristocrat has been called off, Jeanne Toussaint tries to make ends meet as a seamstress in unsavoury Montmartre. One night, she meets jeweller Louis Cartier in a nightclub. He and his brothers have shops in Paris, London and New York where anyone who’s anyone buys their jewellery. Louis immediately recognises that Jeanne has a sure sense of style and is immensely talented. But it’s more than that: he can’t deny his attraction to this charming, vivacious young woman. But storm clouds are gathering on Europe’s horizon, and the Cartier family are in danger of losing everything.