It is the sixties, and the escape from the East is behind them. They have arrived in the promised land of their parents, in West Germany. But for the child, it is a dreadful place – and on July 5th, it decides to flee its violent present into a self-made, magical childhood. Birgit Vanderbeke's sophisticated, feather-light novel is the autobiographical story of a long flight from the East to oneself.