Allegro Pastel

• Winner of Mörike-Prize 2021
• Shortlisted for the Wilhelm-Raabe-Literature Prize 2020
• Longlisted for the German Book Prize 2020
• Nominated for the Leipzig Book Fair Prize 2020
• Shortlisted for the European Union Prize for Literature 2020
• #1 on SWR List of Best Books (May 2020)
• Recommended for translation by Litrix (Summer 2020)
• Recommended for translation by New Books in German (Spring 2020)
• SPIEGEL bestseller – highest position #7
• English sample translation by Ruth Martin available

Tanja Arnheim, whose debut novel enjoys cult status, is turning 30 in a few weeks. Looking out onto Berlin’s Hasenheide park, she waits for an earth-shattering idea for her new book. Her boyfriend, the sought-after web designer Jerome Daimler, is in his mid-30s and lives in his parents’ bungalow in the countryside. Increasingly, he’s trying to understand his life as spiritual contemplation. Despite their long-distance relationship, Tanja and Jerome always stay close through texts and images. And they visit each other in their respective realities for long weekends: Their relationship is an attempt to be there for – but not lost to – each other. Their parents, friends and depressed siblings reflect a suffering to which Tanja and Jerome largely remain immune. Yet the desire to preserve their affection without letting it grow staid or painfully existential poses a major challenge for the couple.

Allegro Pastell is the story of a seemingly normal love and its transformations. A novel in three phases that begins in the recordbreakingly hot spring of 2018.