Offene See

Awarded "Favorite Book of Independents" in 2020! Young Robert knows early on that he will be a coal miner like all the men in his family. However, he finds the confinement unbearable. He loves nature and movement and longs for the vastness of the sea. Therefore, shortly after World War II, he decides to set off for the place of his dreams, the open sea. Almost at his destination, he meets an older woman who invites him for a cup of tea in her slightly rundown cottage. He has never met a woman like Dulcie before: unmarried, living alone, unconventional, with very clear and, to him, outrageous views on marriage, family, and religion. An afternoon turns into a longer stay, and Robert discovers a completely unfamiliar world. In conversations with Dulcie, his perspective on life, shaped by his parents, begins to change. As a thank you for her generosity, he offers to help her around the cottage. However, when he tries to trim a wildly overgrown hedge to reveal the view of the sea, she sharply forbids it. She also reacts dismissively to a manuscript of poems that Robert finds—poems dedicated to Dulcie, which she absolutely does not want to read.