GIVEAWAY: 3 copies of The Sisters Of Hope Square – IRELAND
Novel set in BAVARIA (and Hamburg)
8th June 2026
Love, After All by Ewald Arenz, novel set in Bavaria (and Hamburg). TR: Rachel Ward
Clara Wagenbach is not looking for love, she is simply selling a cottage. A couple arrives to look at it. Vera has brought Elias for the viewing. Within the first few minutes of their encounter, there is an ease that feels tangible between the older woman selling her property and the younger man, and Vera is not unaware of a momentary connection between the vendor and her own partner.
Life continues and the burgeoning relationship between Clara, photographer, and Elias, actor, starts to manifest. There are the early tentative steps, the pleasure at connection and the tiny observations of budding love.
Yes, Elias leaves Vera for Clara and what they experience is a truly deep connection. Clara is offered a job in Hamburg and they have to consider how their future may pan out, given the distance of 600KM between them; from this point forward, however, their lives are upended by unwelcome news.
The author is terrific at describing the tiny nuances of a couple relationship, of life as it unfolds on a daily basis – the early morning visit to a cafe where the waiters are still setting up the tables, the clink of tiny vases, the waft of coffee percolating through the room. The quiet vistas and rolling landscapes as the couple tours. As one of the characters observes, there is much to be said for the ‘simple beauty’ and the ‘beauty of simplicity’ and this is very much the tenet of this novel.
The story is written with a gentle humour and great observation. It is rare that such an almost languorous, yet skilled writing style can paint the subtlety of gesture and language and can convey so much and with such depth. Glances, gestures and intimacies and perfectly captured moments hold the reader’s attention. The main setting too, although not exactly specified, is in Bavaria (it is in all likelihood Bamberg and there is indeed mention of the bells of the Michaelskirche and the Neue Residenz (Bishop’s Palace) and Observatory).
This is an enthralling novel of human life and connection, beautifully translated by Rachel Ward.
Tina for the TripFiction Team
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