The 73-year-old Goethe, a widower for some time and so famous that his servant Stadelmann secretly sells his hair, loves the young Ulrike von Levetzow. There are 54 years between them, but Goethe tells himself: "My love does not know that I am over seventy. I do not know it either." Martin Walser's novel tells the story of an impossible love: moving, stirring, and tender. Martin Walser's poignant novel about Goethe's last love - "A blazing text." (Süddeutsche Zeitung) "Martin Walser narrates this love story like a flash fire, igniting embers with the very first sentence." (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) "Discreet and tender, filled with love, in a comprehensive understanding - Martin Walser's most beautiful novel." (Frankfurter Rundschau) "Rarely has love been depicted in all its passion and absurdity so wrenchingly. For Goethe, it is enough.".