Alte Sorten

EWALD ARENZ
ALTE SORTEN / HEIRLOOM VARIETIES
A Novel, ca. 255 pages
SPRING 2019

English sample available

#10 Year 2020 Bestseller List Paperback
More than 680,000 copies Sold
Shortlist Independent Bookseller’s Favourite Novel 2019

“Ewald Arenz writes in a quiet, literary, but very intense voice about the power of nature that can rebalance people and help them recognize and appreciate the value of the essence of life. A very beautiful book, and an absolute must read.”
Barbara Strauß, WESTDEUTSCHE ALLGEMEINE

 "Sensitive, insightful and true to life. A fine little masterpiece.“
Dirk Kruse, BAYERISCHER RUNDFUNK

"Ewald Arenz makes the reader smell fresh earth and taste steaming potatoes and one wishes to work on a farm oneself immediately.“
Autorenbuchhandlung


LOOKING FOR A WORLD OF YOUR OWN

Sally and Liss: two women who couldn’t be more different from each other. Just about to take her A-levels, Sally only wants to be left in peace. She is furious with everything and everyone, and she hates it all: suggestions, offers, rules, regulations, adults. What she hates most are questions, particularly about her appearance.

Liss works the farm among fields and vineyards all on her own. At their very first meeting Sally realizes that Liss is different from other adults; no secret studying, no rush judgements, no suspicious questioning.

Liss offers Sally a bed for the night. One night at the farm turns into several weeks.
For Sally the elder woman remains a mystery for a while. What kind of woman is she, never talking about herself, living on her own in the house where you can still feel the presence of others? The two women connect, not so much through conversation as through observations and most of all through working together on the farm, in the fields, the woods and the vineyard. And, slowly, they also get to know each others’ injuries.
Atmosphere, images and the description of the landscape with its people sharpen the eye for the essence.


"An enchantingly fine novel."

Olaf Pryzbilla, SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG



"The taste of the old pear varieties is literally on the tip of your tongue when you read it."

Dominika Schriever, LANDLUST



"Sensitive, empathetic, and lifelike. A little masterpiece."
Dirk Kruse, BAYRISCHER RUNDFUNK

"With brittle tenderness, Ewald Arenz tells how the two [main characters] approach each other without many words and unexpectedly get the chance to arrive at themselves.
"
Silvia Feist, EMOTION


"Arenz [...] offers linguistic precision for indulgence. His story is rough and tender, hard and soft, striking and sensitive at the same time - and stylistically first-class at all times. Even the description of simple activities becomes a pleasure. [...] A novel of the best kind.
"
Christian Endres, DOUBLE POINT



"Ewald Arenz has succeeded in a pleasant way in a novel of education, in which he shows how two wounded souls have a healing effect on each other.
"
Peter Etzel, NÜRNBERGER ZEITUNG



"Ewald Arenz makes the reader smell fresh earth and taste steaming potatoes and one wishes to work on a farm himself immediately.
"
AUTORENBUHCHHANDLUNG

"The linguistic balancing act never seems artificial in this book, which has deeply impressed me. And when the author also tells us about his love for nature, beekeeping, winegrowing and distilling schnapps, this is the icing on the cake of a very special story that leaves no one untouched. Read it!"

Barbara Hoppe-Vennen, AACHENER ZEITUNG

Rights sold to: Gingko (Shanghai Book) (Simplified Chinese Characters); Sonatina (Croatian); Host (Czech), Nieuw Amsterdam (Dutch), Orenda Books (English World); Albin Michel (French); Garzanti (Italian); Yan Pasaj (Turkish);