Imogen Taylor

When Iris took over the family hotel from her grandfather, Bad Heim was still a popular spa town. But now fierce forest fires rage in the area, spewing smoke into the air. The summers are dry and hot and never seem to end. Guests have become a rare sight. But suddenly, a young mother shows up with her small daughter and asks for a room. Something doesn''t seem right about her. Does she need help? Or even pose a threat? Franziska Gansler''s debut conjures up the heat of the fires, the ashes falling on skin, and the all-pervading smell of smoke. Yet you will want to stay with these women in this inhospitable place as they draw closer together and prepare to fight for their freedom.

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR (MARIE CLAIRE): A sweeping historical fiction novel about the fall of the Soviet Union, told through the eyes of Ukrainian mothers and daughters over 4 decades "An astute, deeply empathic portrayal of the dislocation of first-generation immigrants and intergenerational trauma" - Financial Times In this stunning work of political historical fiction, loaded with "vibrancy and humour", the collapse of the Soviet Union reverberates throughout multiple generations of 2 families-presaging and foreshadowing conflicts in Russia's Ukraine War (TLS). As a child, Lena longs to pick hazelnuts in the woods with her grandmother. Instead, she is raised to be a good socialist: sent to Pioneer summer camps where she's taught to worship Lenin and sing songs in praise of the glorious Soviet Union. But perestroika is coming. Lena's corner of the USSR is now Ukraine, and corruption and patronage are the only ways to get by-to secure a place at university, an apartment, treatment for a sick baby. For Tatjana, the shock of the new means the first McDonald's in the Soviet Union and certified foreign whisky, but no food in the shops; it means terrible choices about how to love. Eventually both women must decide whether to stay or to emigrate, but the trauma they carry is handed down to their daughters, who struggle to make sense of their own identities. Engrossing, rich in detail, and full of unforgettable characters, this is a captivating love letter to mothers and daughters from one of Europe's most powerful voices in political fiction.