Anne Gesthuysen, WE’RE, AFTER ALL, SOMEBODY

Kiepenheuer & Witsch - Novel - Hardcover - November 2021 - 320 pages

A young female pastor who shakes up her parish, the upbringing of two dissimilar sisters in aristocratic circles and the courage it takes to shape one's own life when everything seems predetermined - this is the new novel by bestseller author Anne Gesthuysen.

The citizens of the community of Alpen are sceptical when Anna von Betteray takes over from the pastor, who is ill. After all, she is divorced, blue-blooded, in her mid-thirties much too young for the position and, last but not least, a woman. The only man at her side: her dog Freddy. While Anna tries to come to terms with a dark chapter of her past and carefully modernises the parish, her sister Maria's life is completely disrupted. Her husband is arrested, and shortly afterwards her son disappears. Maria was the exemplary daughter in the eyes of their status-conscious mother, who was crowned queen at shooting parties and married a count, while Anna played in the stables with dirty trousers and fell in love with the wrong men. It is only in times of need that the sisters overcome their differences - and receive support from a surprising source. Because when it comes to finding a little boy, everybody sticks together.

In her new novel, Anne Gesthuysen tells with incomparable wit, great warmth of heart and sensitivity about a family that first has to lose itself in order to find itself.