Eluned Gramich Knihy

Fighting to free herself from a toxic relationship, 21-year-old Lora escapes to her recently widowed grandmother’s home in Hamburg. When Daniel, Lora’s delusional ex, and a string of estranged relatives turn up, covert agendas emerge and conflicting views on sexual ethics surface, with sudden and surprising consequences. This vividly powerful, ‘no-holding-back’ debut confronts the darker aspects of history, offering a hidden narrative of post-war Germany. Quietly ambitious, funny and sometimes tragic, Windstill reveals the stories we tell to protect the ones we love.

As much about learning a language as it is about nature, this dignified and nuanced memoir of the author's stay on the remote Hokkaido island in the far north of Japan evokes what is cultured and cultivated, and yet also honours the wild; the untranslatable.