A PLACE THAT REMAINS

  • Three women, three generations, one unique place - a botanical garden by the sea.
  • Moving and superbly researched.
  • 12,000 copies sold since publication!
  • A novel about transience, new beginnings, and hope. And about what it means to put down roots in a foreign land.
  • 600,000 copies sold of the author's novels with Rowohlt altogether.
  • English sample translation (MT) available.

Magda’s life changes in a flash: In 1933, her husband Alfred, a botanist in Münster, loses his professorship because he is Jewish. As the situation in Germany escalates, the Heilbronn family packs their bags. A surprising offer beckons in distant Istanbul: Republic founder Atatürk wants to modernize the country's universities, and a magnificent botanical garden with plants from around the world is to be created on the Bosphorus. Magda also packs seeds from her Westphalian home. But will she herself take root in this foreign land?

A few years later, the garden in Istanbul’s old city is a thriving center of science. The talented botanist Mehpare, Alfred's assistant, tends to the beds and greenhouses. So much can be collected and researched in the world - only Mehpare’s feelings remain uncharted territory. Until a tragic accident causes her to lose her footing.

Decades later, the young urban planner Imke is drawn to Istanbul. She is tasked with creating a study on the future of the Botanical Garden - and thus co-deciding the fate of this special place.

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  • Publisher: Rowohlt Kindler
  • Release: 17.04.2026
  • ISBN: 978-3-463-00067-1
  • 496 Pages
  • Author: Sandra Lüpkes

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Buchcover von A PLACE THAT REMAINS
Sandra Lüpkes A PLACE THAT REMAINS
Portrait von Sandra Lüpkes
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Sandra Lüpkes

Sandra Lüpkes is a freelance author of numerous works of fiction, non-fiction, scripts and stories. In Die Schule am Meer  she has written a social novel of grand scale about a progressive educational boarding school in Juist. The extensive research into the historical events and real people of the school's environment took her to Ticino, Berlin and naturally to Juist, where she grew up and has lived for many years.