I spent many years working on this project close to my heart, which is "to blame" for the fact that I became addicted to tobacco and opened this gem in Cologne 150 years after Anna's great adventure in Cuba.
La Galana, cigar manufactory & parlour, a piece of Cuba in Cologne. Come in and travel with me to a long-forgotten world... "
Von Zigarren, tollen Frauen (Galanas) und verlorenen VäternA marvellous historical novel that is even more profound and touching than the already imaginative and poetic book presentation in Cologne suggested.
In over 400 packed pages, we accompany 16-year-old Anna Meringer on her adventurous journey from Bremen via New York to Cuba, where she finally disembarks from the steamer she has sneaked onto and finds herself in the middle of the beginning of the first Cuban War of Independence in 1868. Anna proves to be a masterful composer of new cigar creations - it's a prankster who draws a connection here to Annette Meisl and her Cologne cigar parlour!
In general, the author uniquely combines her deep knowledge of the art of cigars, her love of Cuba and the Spanish language, as well as her knowledge of the highs and lows of human destinies. The book works as a historical novel, as the emancipation story of a great woman, and also as a romance novel (as "a man and I...", so to speak), but it also touches on depths that I would not have expected here - the search for the lost father runs like a red thread through the book, starting with the "ideal father".
There are actually three women who unveil the story(s) of a large overseas suitcase for us here - firstly Annette Meisl, the well-known Cologne artist and owner of the La Galana cigar parlour, then her alter ego Ana Galana, the artistic figure that Annette fuses so masterfully, almost spiritually, with a deep image of self-confident femininity, but also Cuba and cigars, and thirdly, of course, Anna Meringer. In many places, the three seem to merge into one another, but it remains Annette's secret how and where.
A little masterpiece that kept reminding me of the books that my parents used to order from the Bertelsmann book club and that I was allowed to read as a little boy (rather unknown works like Allende's et.....), also, by the way, because of the great drawings! Be sure to read and immerse yourself!
Die Buchpremiere war herzergreifend!
Anna ist meine neue Heldin. Eine junge Frau, die einfach ins Ausland geht und da ihren Weg sucht. Super! ich habe das Buch bei der Buchpremiere in Köln gekauft und in wenigen Tagen ausgelesen, ich konnte es garnicht mehr aus der Hand legen und jetzt hab ich mir noch mal das Kindle Exemplar, für Reisen geholt. Eine aufregende Geschichte über eine Welt, von der ich keine Ahnung hatte. Kuba, aber nicht das, das man sich so vorstellt, mit alten Autos und so. Sondern mit Kutschen und kämpfenden Revolutionären, fast 150 Jahre ist das schon her. Und das blasse Mädchen Anna, die sich zur Frau entwickelt und in der Männerwelt ihren Platz findet. Sehr ermutigend.
