About mother-daughter love and our yearning to belong, no matter what.
EIN VÖLLIG ANDERES LEBEN
(A Completely Different Life)
by Lisa Quentin
Goldmann/PRH Verlagsgruppe, March 2022
I’m all alone now, is Jule’s first thought when her mother dies. But when she goes to sort out her mother’s flat, Jule discovers documents that show she was adopted. Jule never felt properly close to her mother, and starts questioning her whole past: their sudden move to the West, losing contact with her father, her sister’s disappearance and her mother’s persistent silence… What would her life look like today, if she’d grown up with her biological family? Would she be happy? Jule knows that she has to find her birth mother to get answers. But she isn’t the only one who has been looking for them all these years…
Lisa Quentin, born in 1985, studied German and psychology in Freiburg, and then spent ten years as a copywriter and online editor. After qualifying as an NLP coach, she now works in digital media and researches user behaviour. EIN VÖLLIG ANDERES LEBEN is her debut novel for Goldmann.
‘Boy meets girl’: anything can start with this sentence – there isn’t a story that cannot be brought into the world with it. For Nora, too, a brief encounter changes her life entirely. All of a sudden she realises that she has for too long been a mere visitor in her own life. Now the painful end of her marriage and her ageing father’s increasing helplessness finally inspire her to make changes.
Ines and Kirsten thought they would be best friends for ever. But their friendship is shattered when Ines isn’t there for Kirsten during a desperately difficult time. The two girls never meet again. Now, more than twenty years later, Ines is a working mother and trying her best to live up to the demands she places on herself. When an invitation to a school reunion awakens long-suppressed memories, she is forced to admit that the loss of the friend she once so admired has shaped her whole life. At the reunion, she suddenly finds herself standing in front of Kirsten. But their encounter doesn’t turn out as Ines expected – and she begins to question everything. Are the two women really who they thought they were?
Childhood friends Amalia, Josef, Gero and Bodo are on a summer canoeing trip. However, the moment they arrive at their destination it’s clear that they aren’t welcome. Josef in particular, who is black, senses the locals’ discomfort in his presence. They evidently deeply dislike anything that looks remotely foreign. But should the friends let themselves be intimidated by a few backward provincials? Should they simply give in? Amalia, Josef, Gero and Bodo are determined to stay, and from that moment on there’s no turning back. Every step they take leads them closer to the abyss. They all know that this trip won’t end well, but none of them wants to admit it. Soon their summer adventure becomes a desperate effort to get out of this place alive.
When the young parents Franziska and Coordt find a lovely – and affordable – flat in one of Munich’s best neighbourhoods, it’s the opportunity of a lifetime. But there’s a condition attached: it won’t be just them and their small boy living there. Tempted by the chance of owning their own home, and one they wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford, they agree to a deal that will put their love to the test. Like a catalyst, the new flat accelerates and deepens existing cracks in their relationship, and their son, too, is aware of the increasing friction between them. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity has turned out to be a trap. Will they find a way out?