"Blue doesn't suit you," says the grandmother, and the grandfather also advises against the profession of a sailor. Yet it is Jenny's greatest dream: "She imagined herself on a ship, surrounded by singing sailors. She wore her blue suit until the sailors draped a blue shirt over her, just like they wore. It was far too big, but everyone insisted how good it looked on her." A childhood by the sea. A longing for freedom. In her impressive debut, Judith Schalansky tells the story of growing up on the Baltic Sea coast of East Germany, of an unbridled desire for freedom and the urge to travel the whole world.