Description
When her imperious, chain-smoking German Jewish grandmother dies, it falls to Astrid and her father to drive a hire van to the Black Forest and collect the family heirlooms from Gisela’s nicotine-stained apartment. In Freiburg, they are faced with several lifetimes’ worth of belongings to sort through – infested Persian rugs, mysterious photographs, a toy monkey that started a marriage – and a grasping landlord, impatient to renovate. As the list of demands from uncles, sisters and cousins grows longer, the rabbit-holes of history and memory grow deeper. Long-buried secrets and tales of survival are revealed – from Nazi Germany to colonial Africa – and old feuds are reignited, as father and daughter struggle with the responsibility of preserving the family legacy. More importantly, will they be able to fit everything into a medium wheel-base transit van?

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