A cat explains the world to us: a soulful and funny novel with depth and little philosophical lessons about life. For readers of Matt Haig and Fredrik Backman.
FRANKIE
by Joachim Gutsch & Maxim Leo
Penguin Germany, March 2023
Imagine you’re looking for the meaning of life – and end up concussing a cat with a pepper mill instead…
Richard Gold has planned everything down to the last detail. Nothing will go wrong. Today’s the day he’ll take his own life. Or so he thinks. Because what Gold hasn’t counted on is that, instead of killing himself, he’ll acquire a new flatmate called Frankie. Frankie contributes nothing to the rent, keeps him up all night, wakes him in the morning, and otherwise ruthlessly exploits his hospitality. Nevertheless, they slowly become friends, at a time when Gold needs a friend more than anything…
Jochen Gutsch is a reporter at Spiegel magazine and a columnist at the Berliner Zeitung, and has won the Theodor Wolff Prize and the Henri Nannen Prize.
Maxim Leo is a columnist at the Berliner Zeitung, and has also won the Theodor Wolff Prize, as well as the European Book Prize. His book Red Love has been translated into numerous languages.
Together, they have conquered the bestseller lists with their hugely popular books Es ist nur eine Phase, Hase (« It’s just a phase, honey »), and Du bleibst mein Sieger, Tiger (« You’ll always be my winner, darling »), and their joint stage shows regularly sell out.
Luise is intelligent, Luise is independent, Luise is an island. She has also gained a reputation as an excellent marine biologist. Her specialty is the sea walnut, a ghostly illuminated jellyfish living in the dark waters of the oceans. When Luise is asked to go to Graz for a project with a famous zoo, she says yes right away. But Graz is the town she grew up in and the town where her estranged father, who is ill, still lives – and where the silence between them began, long ago…
Munich, 1827. Johanna von Seybach has moved from Königsberg to the magnificent Lily Palace, her uncle’s family seat – where an exciting season awaits her! Even before her official debut, it looks like a proposal from the eligible bachelor Friedrich Veidt is all but certain. But then Johanna has an unguarded moment of passion, and her reputation is suddenly in tatters. Friedrich drops her, and she’s left broken-hearted. Will anyone want to marry her, after such a scandal? Then she meets Alexander von Reuss at a glittering masked ball. That same evening, they grow closer than they should, experiencing a sensuous moment of surrender. But Johanna’s scandalous past is making such waves that even true love may not be enough to save her.
The ferry takes an hour for the crossing from the mainland to the little North Sea island – sometimes longer, depending on how rough the sea is. The Sander family has lived in one of the island’s two villages for nearly 300 years. Hanne has raised three children, while her husband has given up both his family and his seafaring life. Now her oldest son has lost his captain’s licence, is plagued by premonitions and tidal data, and is waiting for the storm to end all storms. Her daughter Eske looks after veteran sailors and widows at the old people’s home. She fears the influx of tourists more than the sea, because the tourists are turning the island’s culture into mere folklore. Only Henrik, Hanne’s youngest son, is at peace with himself. He is the first man in the family never to have dreamt of going to sea, and instead spends his time collecting flotsam on the beach. Over the course of one year, the Sander family’s life is irrevocably changed – by an almost unnoticeable breeze that eventually grows into a full-blown storm.
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