Die Entdeckung der Currywurst

Lena Brück, over 80, lives in a nursing home. It is said that she invented currywurst. The narrator of this novella visits her to learn more. Lena Brück first talks about everyday matters and then recounts an extraordinary event: Shortly before the end of the war, she hid a young Marine soldier in her Hamburg apartment and began a romantic relationship with him. Since the deserter has a wife and child whom he wishes to see again, she conceals from him that the city has surrendered. She keeps him in her apartment, provides him with stories and meals, prepares wild vegetables, acorn coffee, and fake crab soup—until he loses his sense of taste.