Hannes Jensen is having a hard time. His blind mistress Annick, he discovers, has been seeing another man ever since the start of their relationship, and now she’s run off with him to New York. All she’s left behind is her guide dog who now refuses to leave Jensen’s side – like a moving memorial to betrayal. Jensen takes the dog with him to Berlin for his sister’s funeral and meets Lea in a flower shop. He is immediately attracted to the unconventional woman. But at the same time, he realises, there’s something enigmatic and tragic about her.
Lea is not a native of Berlin. She comes from a Scottish island, a place where time appears to stand still. Generations have made a living there from sheep farming and local customs are as rough as the climate. Lea had been pregnant and escaped from the island to move to Berlin at the age of 17 because her
religious father wanted her to marry. Twenty years later, after being diagnosed with an incurable illness, Lea’s father asks his daughter to visit him one more time. Little does he know that her visit will reignite old conflicts and trigger a fateful chain reaction that eventually ends in a cruel death.
By the time Jensen meets Lea, this is all in the past. Although they fall in love, Jensen keeps finding evidence that there’s another man in Lea’s life. He starts to doubt everything and becomes so caught up in his own jealousy that it almost leads to his and Lea’s downfall.
Linus Reichlin’s fascinating novel deals with betrayal, suspicion and jealousy. And with the difficulty of succumbing to something as crazy as love – the most dangerous weakness in the world.
