An enjoyable and entertaining German novel about a young single mother, Annabel Hansen, who relocates to the coast to start a new life after her divorce and buys a boat. As you do. This unexpected and unlikely purchase brings to light a number of hidden personal histories and meetings with a whole bunch of characters who were all in some way deeply affected by the division of Germany after the war and the creation of the Stasi. That includes Annabel herself. As the novel progresses the backstories are revealed and it’s an unusual storyline which I found quite compelling. Stylistically the novel has its faults. There are too many coincidences and too much reliance on lengthy first-person accounts, which feel unnatural, and the characterisation is rather wooden, but the historical background in itself kept me engaged and eager to see how it all turns out.

I'm a sucker for a cafe story, and I'm a sucker for anything involving ship-y, tar-y things, so when you put them together, it's pretty much my favorite thing ever.

In any case, Storm Rose ticked all my boxes: great concept, vivid characters, descriptions of place and time that felt accurate. I liked the writer's voice a lot.

A story that revealed another facet of the east/west German divide I had been oblivious too. I wonder if some of the crafting of the prose was slightly lost in translation. A few too many coincidences for me but a good read and glad my request was accepted.

Translated from German, Storm Rose is an interesting and complex tale of the experiences of people attempting to escape from East Germany. Set in the present day, it follows the story of Anabelle Hansen who, after years of shutting out the past, decides to find out why her mother abandoned her and how much her adoptive parents knew about her mother's supposed defection from East Germany and if they were complicit. The trigger for her searching is a letter found hidden in the wall of the boat Storm Rose that Anabelle is buying with a partner that indicates that this boat was used to help escapees.
The story is interesting and holds the reader's interest, but whether it's due to the writer or the translator, the story loses impact because the many first-person flashbacks do not alter the "voice" from which they are told. Several flashbacks are told from male point of views, yet the style is so feminine that credibility is lost.