FRANK GOOSEN - Lovely Rita

Lovely Rita - The New Novel by Frank Goosen

In his new novel, Frank Goosen steps back into the pub - specifically "Haus Himmelreich", an old corner bar where stories and fates intersect. At the counter sit Käpt'n, der Lange, and Willi Trommer, regulars who have been planted there since time immemorial. They are joined by Gisela the expert beer-tapper, Wacholder-Anni with God's toolbox, Faris the comedian, Harry the old social democrat, Carlo who looks like Cat Stevens, and the Gräfin, who has seen the whole world but sometimes lives inside an old song.

Above all, there is Rita Urbaniak - Lovely Rita - the landlady who once wanted to do something entirely different, until life got in the way. And her sister Chris, born during the war, always on the move in search of what people so casually call happiness.

Frank Goosen writes with warmth and wit about a dying habitat: the pub. And isn't it absurd that the foam on a glass of lager is called a "flower", while the glass itself is called a "tulip"?