A novel about living the life you want, inspired by the true story of trans woman Charlotte von Mahlsdorf.

ETWAS VERBORGEN SCHÖNES
(Hidden Beauty)
by Arne Jensen
Heyne/PRH Germany, December 2023

Uckermark, July 2018. On an old estate in the middle of nowhere, ninety-year-old Ottilie Rabe gathers her extended family around her to finalise her will. But when they come together, old wounds are opened. There is one thing from her past which Ottilie knows she must deal with – a terrible secret she has been hiding for decades, and which will change all their lives for ever.

Berlin, 1944. The body of a high-ranking Gestapo officer is found in a flat. He has been battered to death with a hammer. Investigating officer Werner Beltheim is under pressure to solve the case quickly. His prime suspect is the dead man’s daughter, who was found sitting next to the body. Her name is Ottilie Rabe…

Medic and therapist Arne Jensen has always been interested in modern German history and how it has affected the postwar generation. HIDDEN BEAUTY is partly about his specialist subject of how war trauma is passed down through families.