← To the world of Lena Voss

Places

Kiel

Where the Nordmark’s voyage begins

Book 1’s voyage begins in Kiel. Lena takes the seven o’clock morning train there. In the harbor, the FS Nordmark is waiting at Berth 8, at the far end of the basin, where the old concrete has heaved over the years and rainwater stands in long, shallow puddles. Three berths down lies a container ship, and gulls sit on the pilings. The harbor smells of diesel and salt. At 10 p.m. the Nordmark casts off, and Lena stands at the stern rail until the city is nothing but a line of lights and she can no longer see the coast.

First encounter

• First noticed: the smell of diesel, salt, and something metallic
• Object: the shallow puddles on the heaved concrete, where the sky shows up a second time

Connected to

• Lena VossOceanographer at the ICRU in Hamburg, following a falling line
• Kai SörensenFS Nordmark captain, eight years without a word to Lena
• FS NordmarkLena’s research vessel in Book 1, captained by Kai Sörensen
• Lena’s ApartmentLena’s Hamburg apartment, which never looks quite lived in

Spoiler-free. This describes the starting point of the book named, without its major twists or resolutions.