It was a weekend in March – the serpentines winding up the valley were endless. Max driving the old Ford he had borrowed from his mother was at the end of his tether. How often I had reminisced about that scenario!

Max from the rear: black T-shirt, black jumper, his neck revealing the first lines, his brown hair sprinkled with the odd grey. Max who could condense his whole world in his voice – happily amused or tired and fed up. Max who loved me …

Twenty years later Anna returns to the site of the accident. She is longing to come to terms with that tragic event, to put the horror of the past to rest, to understand so that she can finally begin to live once again.

A view from two perspectives: an aesthetic one by the Italian architect, Anna, and the down-to-earth view by the teacher, Moni. Johanna Beck's first novel relates in short vignettes and a very distinctive voice about two days in the mountains which culminated in catastrophe.

About the author:

Johanna Beck was born in Munich in 1960. She studied Architecture in Munich and Vienna, Paedagogy in Innsbruck and Bolzano and Philosophy in Salzburg. Her work has been published by various newspapers. "The Sun in March" is her first novel. Johanna Beck resides in Vienna.