Peru, 1887. The German Augusto Berns claims to have discovered the lost city of the Incas. The media coverage stretches from Lima to London. In reality, this place is more fantastic than anything Berns could have imagined. But who is the man who, as a boy, panned for gold on the Rhine and revered Alexander von Humboldt? Sabrina Janesch has followed the traces of this forgotten explorer and tells his thrilling story. A novel of great literary power that immerses us in an exotic world and shows what it means to live for a dream.