Outline von Cusk, Rachel

Audre Lorde was a writer, feminist and civil rights activist - or, as she famously put it, 'Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet'. Born in New York in 1934, she had her first poem published while she was still in high school. After stints as a factory worker, ghost writer, social worker, X-ray technician, medical clerk, and arts and crafts supervisor, she became a librarian in Manhattan and gradually rose to prominence as a poet, essayist and speaker, anthologised by Langston Hughes, lauded by Adrienne Rich, and befriended by James Baldwin. She was made Poet Laureate of New York State in 1991, when she was awarded the Walt Whitman prize; she was also awarded honorary doctorates from Hunter, Oberlin and Haverford colleges. She died of cancer in 1992, aged 58.

Jules Epstein has vanished from the world, last seen in the Judean foothills. How a man of his vigour could disappear is an enigma.

Over a year earlier, following the death of his parents, Epstein began his transformation, shedding the possessions he had spent a lifetime accumulating - a watch here, an Old Master there - before travelling from New York to Tel Aviv and checking into the Hilton, intending to do something to commemorate his mother and father.

Meanwhile, a novelist leaves her husband and children behind in Brooklyn and arrives at the same hotel, hoping that the view of the pool she used to dive into as a child will unlock her writer's block. But when a retired professor recruits her for an intriguing project involving Kafka, she is drawn into a mystery that will change her in unimaginable ways.

Jeder Neuanfang ist schwer und wird von Ängsten und Unsicherheit begleitet: »Ich habe schon immer ein Geheimnis gehabt«, sagt das Mädchen im Buch, »eine winzige Freundin namens Angst. Die Angst hasst meine neue Schule. Ich verstehe niemanden und niemand versteht mich. « Angst macht sprachlos und einsam. Doch zum Glück ist das Mädchen mit seiner Angst gar nicht allein. Auch die anderen Kinder haben Ängste und je mehr sie darüber sprechen, desto weniger Macht hat die Angst über sie. Francesca Sanna schließt mit dieser einfühlsam erzählten Geschichte an ihr erfolgreiches Debüt »Die Flucht« an und zeigt auf, dass wir Zuspruch und Freundschaft finden können, wenn wir es wagen, über unsere Ängste zu sprechen und sie mit anderen zu teilen.