This island is her destiny. A moving tale of a woman’s fate in a picturesque setting.
DIE INSEL DER WÜNSCHE: STÜRME DES LEBENS
(The Island of Dreams: The Storms of Life)
by Anna Jessen
Goldmann/PRH Germany, March 2021
Hamburg, 1887. The young flower girl Tine Tiedkens is destitute. To escape her misery, she decides to try her luck on the island of Heligoland. But the crossing to the fashionable island turns into a nightmare, and when she arrives everything seems set against her. But then she unexpectedly runs into the young hotelier Henry Heesters, who once bought flowers from her in Hamburg, and lands a position in his elegant hotel. With diligence and enthusiasm, Tine works her way up from waitress to housekeeper – and falls in love with Henry. He, too, loves her – but just as happiness seems to be within reach, fate intervenes once again…
Anna Jessen has loved the North Sea since she was a child. To her, rocky Heligoland is the ‘Island of Dreams’, fascinating for its unique nature, loveable people and not least its unique history. Aside from travelling, Anna Jessen’s great passions are writing, music and working in the book trade.
As birthdays go, this year’s birthday for radio producer Everly Dean hit an all-time low. Worse than the birthday she had a tonsillectomy. Worse than the birthday her loveably reckless parents decided to split up (the first time). But catching your boyfriend cheating on you with his assistant? Yea, even clichés sting. But no matter. This is Everly Dean’s year! The year she doesn’t let her anxiety hold her back. The year she stops being the hot potato in the overblown drama of her parent’s marriage. The year she pitches her podcast idea to her boss. There’s just one problem. Her boss, Chris, is way too cute. He’s also supremely respectful of her, to the point of being distant (which means he hates her, right? Or is that the anxiety talking)? Oh, and Stacey, best friend/ DJ, forgot to mute the mic as Everly ranted about Simon the Snake (syn: see Cheating Ex). Maybe she has three problems. Suddenly, people are lining up to date her, Bachelor-style; fans are voting for their favorite dates (Note to self: never leave house again); and meanwhile, that spark she feels for Chris might be a two-way street. It’s a lot to handle for a woman who considers avoiding people an Olympic sport. She’s going to have to fake it ‘till she makes it to get through all of this. Perhaps she’ll make a list of three (that’s barely a list)… Five (no one likes an odd number)… Ten rules for faking it. Because sometimes making the rules can find you happiness when you least expect it.
Lenica, Marie, Fanny and Elsa – four friends spending a never-ending summer on the Atlantic coast in France. The future lies ahead of them like a promise; they are so carefree and full of the joys of their very existence that they don’t notice life laying down its path forward. When they meet again many years later they realize that their dreams and longings still join them together like some invisible power – in spite of everything that has happened since that evening when Lenica brought Sean along.