Book Launch: Yael Inokai

The new novel by Berlin-based author Yael Inokai is set in a Grunewald villa and a luxury department store in the city. When the store's managing director is murdered in a gruesome manner, it is Leonora Bloch - his long-serving cleaner - who finds the body and must face the aftermath of his death.

The crime story, woven through with very different human fates, leads into the department store's oyster bar, where a microcosm between wealth and poverty unfolds. Amid all the grandeur and luxury, no one seems more at home than 73-year-old Leonora Bloch. What secrets does she know - and what secrets does she keep?

Yael Inokai led the LCB's Autor·innenwerkstatt Prosa fiction workshop in 2023 and 2024. "Die Auster" (Hanser Berlin, 2026) is her fourth novel, following "Ein simpler Eingriff" (2022).