How can two lovers find a way back to each other, when the pain of the past stands between them? With plans adrift after a fire burns down their rented holiday cabin, Rahel and Peter find themselves unexpectedly on an isolated farm where Rahel spent many a happy childhood summer. Suddenly, after years of navigating careers, demanding children and the monotony of the daily routine, they find themselves unable to escape each other's company. With three weeks stretching ahead, they must come to an understanding on whether they have a future together. What happens when love grows older and passion has faded? When what divides us is greater than what brought us together? And how easy is it to ask the fundamental questions about our relationships? Praise for LOVE IN FIVE ACTS: "Highly recommended" The Times "Exquisite . . . Utterly captivating" Woman and Home "Unfailingly impressive" Irish Times "Beautifully direct and lucid prose" Sydney Morning Herald "A beautiful novel" New European "Sympathetic and clear-eyed" Financial Times "An intelligent study of female ambition and frailty" Observer Translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch

How can two lovers find a way back to each other, when the pain of the past stands between them? With plans adrift after a fire burns down their rented holiday cabin, Rahel and Peter find themselves unexpectedly on an isolated farm where Rahel spent many a happy childhood summer. Suddenly, after years of navigating careers, demanding children and the monotony of the daily routine, they find themselves unable to escape each other's company. With three weeks stretching ahead, they must come to an understanding on whether they have a future together. What happens when love grows older and passion has faded? When what divides us is greater than what brought us together? And how easy is it to ask the fundamental questions about our relationships? Praise for LOVE IN FIVE ACTS: "Highly recommended" The Times "Exquisite . . . Utterly captivating" Woman and Home "Unfailingly impressive" Irish Times "Beautifully direct and lucid prose" Sydney Morning Herald "A beautiful novel" New European "Sympathetic and clear-eyed" Financial Times "An intelligent study of female ambition and frailty" Observer Translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch

"Highly recommended" Sunday Times "Utterly captivating" Woman and Home "Sympathetic and clear-eyed" Financial Times Summer Reads of 2021 "Unfailingly impressive" Irish Times "Sparse and precise" Telegraph "A beautiful novel of what it is to be a women in modern Europe" New European "An intelligent study of female desire, ambition and frailty" Observer Bookseller Paula has lost a child, and a husband. Where will she find her happiness? Fiercely independent Judith thinks more of horses than men, but that doesn't stop her looking for love online. Brida is a writer with no time to write, until she faces a choice between her work and her family. Abandoned by the "perfect" man, Malika struggles for recognition from her parents. Her sister Jorinde, an actor, is pregnant for a third time, but how can she provide for her family alone? Love in Five Acts explores what is left to five women when they have fulfilled their roles as wives, mothers, friends, lovers, sisters and daughters. As teenagers they experienced the fall of the Berlin Wall, but freedom brings with it another form of pressure: the pressure of choice. Punchy and entirely of the moment, Love in Five Acts engages head-on with what it is to be a woman in the twenty-first century. Translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch

"Highly recommended" Sunday Times "Utterly captivating" Woman and Home "Unfailingly impressive" Irish Times "Sparse and precise" Telegraph "A beautiful novel of what it is to be a women in modern Europe" New European "An intelligent study of female desire, ambition and frailty" Observer Five women attempt the impossible - to love, to be strong, and to stay true to themselves. Bookseller Paula has lost a child, and a husband. Where will she find her happiness? Fiercely independent Judith thinks more of horses than men, but that doesn't stop her looking for love online. Brida is a writer with no time to write, until she faces a choice between her work and her family. Abandoned by the "perfect" man, Malika struggles for recognition from her parents. Her sister Jorinde, an actor, is pregnant for a third time, but how can she provide for her family alone? Love in Five Acts explores what is left to five women when they have fulfilled their roles as wives, mothers, friends, lovers, sisters and daughters. As teenagers they experienced the fall of the Berlin Wall, but freedom brings with it another form of pressure: the pressure of choice. Punchy and entirely of the moment, Love in Five Acts engages head-on with what it is to be a woman in the twenty-first century. Spiegel #1 bestseller More than 150,000 copies sold in Germany Translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch