About the book
Berlin Balcony Bet
The Basil War By half past six on a Thursday morning, Lena Hartmann had already ruined one blouse, insulted a basil plant, and discovered that the man in 4B owned a watering can shaped like a duck. The blouse had been white. That was its first mistake. Its second mistake was existing within range of the espresso machine in Lena's kitchen, which had started the day with a cough, a hiss, and then a violent brown sneeze across her ribs.