Sometimes a cold wave is all that is needed to give the mature years another chance to shape one's own life. Henning Ahrens tells sincere, tongue-in-cheek, attentive stories about people who face their old age with the courage to face life: Old parents, grown-up children and the consequences of what one has done, as well as late upheavals, missed opportunities and unexpected new beginnings.

On the beach, draughtsman Hardy Espen steps on a soldier's dog tag and finds himself in the company of an heir both unexpected and loyal. His partner Aîné, an art historian by training and now a florist, wants to face her parents one last time. Héloïse, a cattle farmer and Hardy's neighbor, sees the opportunity to start over again in her farmyard, and a gendarme who chases aprons looks for new tasks as the end of his professional life looms. They all realize that life holds up the consequences of one's own past, that it never stands still - and that it is therefore better to stay calm and keep up. And so they set off in the west of Normandy, between hills and sea and under clouds that still and always promise a hint of heaven.

Henning Ahrens, born in Lower Saxony in 1964, is a writer and translator based in Frankfurt. He has translated the works of Jonathan Safran Foer, Colson Whitehead, Meg Wolitzer and Richard Powers, among others, into German. He has received several awards for his literary work. His most recent novel, "Mitgift", was nominated for the 2021 German Book Prize.

For ticket reservations and information, please contact the Literaturbüro in the City of Salzgitter's Department of Culture on 05341/ 839-3752 or by email at literaturbuerostadt.salzgitterde

Advance booking offices are the bookshop in the Ärztehaus in Lebenstedt and the Lesezeichen bookshop in Salzgitter-Bad. Tickets cost 10 euros in advance and 12 euros at the box office.