Shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2019. Gilbert absconds to Tokyo, where he meets young student Yosa. The two head for the pine islands. One is looking for a suitable end to his life, the other a new beginning. A profound story of acceptance and transformation.

Marion Poschmann was born in Essen in 1969. A prize-winning poet and novelist, she has won both of Germany's premier poetry prizes, has been twice shortlisted for the German Book Prize and won the 2013 Wilhelm Raabe Literature Prize.