Paradise Garden

Nominated for the German Book Prize 2023 and the Harbour Front Literary Festival's Debut Prize (Hamburg).

Fourteen-year-old Billie rarely ventures beyond the concrete boundaries of her high-rise housing estate. Money is always tight—by the end of each month, it barely stretches to pasta with ketchup—but her mother, Marika, fills their small world with warmth, imagination, and fierce love.

Everything changes when Billie's estranged Hungarian grandmother arrives unexpectedly. In the aftermath of this visit, Billie loses far more than the fragile stability of her everyday life. Suddenly unable to ask her mother the questions that matter most, she makes a bold and reckless decision.

Taking off alone in their old Nissan, Billie sets out on a journey to find the father she has never known—and to understand why she keeps dreaming of the sea, a place she has never seen. What unfolds is a powerful coming-of-age story about loss, resilience, and the search for identity, told with emotional precision and quiet courage.