Of wanderlust, homesickness and reconciliation with the past

Hardly any other ship has such an eventful history as the Astoria, the oldest cruise ship in the world. Under the name Völkerfreundschaft, the ship once took selected GDR citizens to almost unattainable places of longing. Sailor Henri and stewardess Simone also traveled to distant lands under the flag of the small country, which was one of the most important seafaring nations in the world at the time.
To this day, Henri and Simone have never lost their fascination for this ship that determined their destiny. Now they embark on another cruise on the Astoria, and with it a journey into their past. They meet the Swede Frida, who experienced the ship's christening as a child and whose story is also closely linked to that of the ship.

The MS Stockholm/Peoples' Friendship/Astoria

The secret protagonist of this novel is the oldest operational cruise ship in the world. It sailed for decades under the name Völkerfreundschaft. Back then, its home port was Warnemünde on the Baltic Sea. Today, this ship lies in the port of Rotterdam and is called Astoria. It was built in Sweden at the end of the Second World War and christened Stockholm. The ship has had 12 different names and an exciting and moving history. In the early years, it sailed the North Atlantic route between Gothenburg and New York. Off the coast of Nantucket, it collided with the Andrea Doria, which sank. The GDR then bought the ill-fated ship and when it could no longer afford it, it was sold on to Neptunes Enterprice New York. The novel tells the story of this special ship and the people it carried across the sea.

About the author:

Kati Naumann was born in Leipzig in 1963, spent part of her childhood in Sonneberg/Thuringia and lives with her family on the outskirts of Leipzig. She studied museology and worked as a museologist in the book museum of the German Library in Leipzig and in the Musical Instrument Museum at Leipzig University. She has written poems, lyrical texts for rock bands and song lyrics for various artists (including the classical duo Marshall & Alexander and Inka Bause). She wrote the libretto for the successful musical “Elixier”, which premiered at the Leipzig Opera. She has also worked on various music programs for NDR television. For ZDF, she wrote scripts for the children's program “1,2 oder 3”, among others. She has developed several children's radio play series for Universal Music Publishing (including “Die kleine Schnecke Monika Häuschen”) and continues to write episodes for them. To date, she has published eight novels, thirteen children's books and almost 100 radio plays.