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Paradise Garden
Fourteen-year-old Billie rarely crosses the boundaries of her high-rise housing estate. By the end of the month their money barely stretches to pasta with ketchup, but her mother, Marika, lights up Billie’s world with her imagination and big heart. One day, however, they receive an unwelcome visit from her Hungarian grandmother, and Billie loses much more than the colourful everyday life she shared with her mother. No longer able to ask Marika any more questions, Billie sets off alone in their old Nissan – she is determined to meet the father she never knew and find out why she keeps dreaming about the sea, even though she’s never been there.
»The beginning was the last day before the summer holidays.
The beginning was a song on the radio.
The beginning was big plans.«
Elena Fischer
352 pages
2023
978-3-257-07250-1
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»The blurb sounded promising. What followed were hours in which I couldn't put the book down. The young author tells the story of 14-year-old Billie so sensitively...«
»For Paradise Garden is a road novel in which one is always ready to give the shirt off one's back for the happiness of its characters, or at least the end of their misfortune.«
»There is a surprising lightness to the quiet sadness that runs through the book, which is repeatedly underscored by witty dialogue and whimsical twists.«
»It is impressive, to say the least, how masterfully and down-to-earth she tells of life in a high-rise suburb [. . . ]«
»Paradise Garden is an accomplished debut about the courage to get to know one’s own origins and to accept them as they are.«
»This novel is a small miracle - and a big surprise.«
»The young author paints the picture of three women who [...] initially have little empathy for each other and only slowly build up understanding and affection after a tragic accident.«
»You want to read more from this author.«
»A really good debut.«
»[. . .] we will be hearing a lot more from Elena Fischer.«
»Landing the first novel with a renowned publisher and then immediately being nominated for the ›German Book Prize‹.«
»Elena Fischer writes so lovingly about sadness that it is comforting.«
»In its emotionality, Elena Fischer’s coming of age novel is reminiscent of Benedict Wells’ Hard Land.«
»A protagonist who casts a spell on you and attests to [Elena Fischer’s] gift of perception and great narrative talent.«