Katrin Sobotha-Heidelk

In the winter of 1945, two eight-year-old friends from East Prussia lose each other. Elsa ends up in Mecklenburg and Hanni in Oldenburg. After their traumatic experiences as refugees, each learns to avoid the humiliations of being a refugee child in her own way. Elsa makes herself invisible, while Hanni remains silent about it. They reconnect through the search service and write to each other until they can no longer do so. The story unfolds in parallel, interlinked narratives, illustrating how their life paths gradually diverge and how, eventually, two women rooted in their surroundings come to see what is familiar as right. In their old age, they speak frankly with each other. It is an East-West novel about arrival, adaptation, and departure.