Is it easier to be happy or unhappy?
It all begins in a village on the Albanian-Greek border that has been torn asunder by war – with a grandmother and matchmaker par excellence who will spare no intrigue to ensure the survival of her family. And with the clever, stubborn, argumentative Eleni and her cousin Lefti, who longs for nothing more than peace. Inseparable as children, the two are all the more divided as adults. And yet they can never escape each other.
From Greece to Lower Saxony, from the 1950s to the present day: In her new novel, Vea Kaiser uses her unique voice to tell the story of one family’s pursuit of happiness and the disasters that result, of would-be heroes and heartbreakers. And of the kind of true love one encounters more than once.
With captivating tragicomedy, a tender eye for details and a furious passion for weaving tales, Vea Kaiser follows the story of an unforgettable family that had to be torn apart in order to find each other again. A novel about enduring longing and loneliness, about new beginnings, eternal sand castles and the beauty of life.
