For over seventy years, "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" has enchanted new readers around the world. This novel about a girl who reads against all odds is finally available again in German - a story filled with zest for life and strength, infused with the euphoria of existence. Eleven-year-old Francie Nolan is an insatiable reader, a connoisseur of sweets, and a keen observer of human nature - and she has a dream: she wants to become a writer. A dream that is hardly attainable in the colorful, rough Williamsburg of 1912. Here, the tenement buildings buzz with all the newcomers, every day food is cobbled together from hard-earned money, and children flood the streets to collect a few pennies for sweets. But when Francie sits on the fire escape in the sun and reads, there is no place she would rather be.