It is the longing of many: to receive a break, to find peace, to take stock. This is precisely the theme of Kerstin Kempker's new book. Although she never uses the word 'I' in it, it is her most personal text to date. An author has received a scholarship in the Palatinate. She arrives there in early spring - a city dweller now looking out at a tranquil rural landscape: vine slopes, still ungreened, hills on the horizon. Life has a different pace here; when something happens, it is not immediately swallowed up by the constant change of events. What one sees and hears leaves a more tangible mark on perception; it awakens memories, triggers thoughts and images. A process of inner cleansing begins: 'The great letting go, there it is, she lays down the few certainties, gives everything up. This strange security, yet still not v.