Fred is an experienced and ambitious German diplomat. A woman who is never put off by anything, who is at home everywhere and nowhere. In Montevideo, however, she encounters for the first time in her career, she is recalled to Berlin and then transferred as a consul to the politically tumultuous Istanbul, which is the biggest challenge for her so far. He soon finds himself in the midst of political events and after meeting a Kurdish woman, who is already imprisoned by the Turkish regime for no reason, he begins to move on thin ice. The uncompromising reality of contemporary Turkey leads Fred for the first time in his life to think that diplomacy is sometimes simply not enough.
In her brilliant new novel, which is as funny as it is bitter, Lucy Fricke tells the story of a diplomat who loses her faith in diplomacy — and also what is most important in her profession: patience.
Between the secret services and German-Turkish cooperation, between the possibility of a love affair and the loneliness of a homeless person, Fred encounters the boundaries of friendship, the rule of law and the European idea. A novel not only about the art of diplomacy. – It is published with the support of the Goethe Institute.