An electrifying novel about a formative, all-consuming friendship that refuses to be categorised.

KASKADEN
by Louise K. Böhm
Penguin Verlag, July 2026

If Jojo could erase her past, she would. At uni, she is constantly scared that someone will find out that she doesn’t belong there, and even her parents don’t really understand what she’s doing in her lab all day. When her former best friend Yara gets back in touch, Jojo thinks back to her sheltered youth in a dreary suburbia she couldn’t wait to leave, and radiant Yara, her only anchor in this confusing world – Yara in those green trainers of hers, who had an answer for everything and protected Jojo from a world that didn’t value girls. Jojo still doesn’t understand why Yara ghosted her after high school.

But just as Jojo is about to lose herself in her memories, a flirtation with her tutor and money troubles force her to focus on the here and now. How much power will she let the past wield over her?

Smart and light as a feather, « Cascades » is a brilliant debut about friendship, love and everything in between – about marginalisation and belonging, about opening up and the strength that true friendship can give us.

For fans of Paradise Garden by Elena Fischer, Normal People by Sally Rooney, Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng and My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante.

Louise K. Böhm, born in Berlin in 2000, studied media, creative writing, and cultural journalism and policy before starting a career in the music business. Her writing has appeared in various literary magazines and anthologies. On social media (@louschreibt_), she writes about books, gives insights into her life as an author and talks about classism in the culture sector. KASKADEN is her first novel.