Used book – The Heron's Flight, Katharina Hagena

Ellen is a sleep physician who suffers terribly from insomnia. As the Hamburg subway cars vibrate beneath her feet, she thinks of her native country, between the Rhine and a gravel pit, of her family's secrets, of the men in her life, of what she has loved and lost, of her daughter Orla, whom she wants to both protect from the world and help become a free woman. Marthe sings in the same choir as Ellen. A long time ago, her son Lutz disappeared without a trace. Since then, she observes the world around her with the silent stillness of a grey heron. She particularly observes Ellen and her daughter. And her desire for justice grows.

A unique, scholarly, winding book, under the sign of the heron, both a "messenger of death" and a remedy. A must-read.