Books

Farewell to paradise. A masterpiece by Kirsten Boie set in the summer of 1961.

Karin is enjoying the heat wave: by day she swims in the river Elbe, and in the evenings enjoys watching her new television. This must be paradise!  But when one of her friends lends her a book on Jewish children under Nazi rule, she begins to wonder. Did her parents really know nothing about the situation, just like everyone else around them? Karin’s world begins to crumble, before life as she knows it changes abruptly six months later when the dykes break, and the town where she lives is completely submerged. The floods of February 1962 shattered her paradise. However, as her new life begins, Karin comes to realise that her parents weren’t as innocent during the war as they claimed to be.

This is a novel about adolescence, displacement, awakening and liberation, set against the backdrop of the flood of Hamburg in 1962. A touching, poetic, heart-breaking, yet ultimately optimistic novel for teenagers and adults.

Age: 12+

Awards: August 2011 - Gustav-Heinemann-Friedenspreis; February 2011 - Katholischer Kinder- und Jugendbuchpreis; May 2010 - Die besten 7 Bücher für junge Leser (DeutschlandRadio / Focus)