One night, two thousand years ago, in a mountain village known as Nazareth. A carpenter's wife sits by the deathbed of her aged husband, and watches as her life drifts through her mind's eye, her turbulent and moving destiny, so closely intertwined with the mysterious destiny of her firstborn son. A son who, with the dawn, will no longer be under her protection. This new perspective on an exceptional moment in the history of mankind, retold with great sincerity, full at once of humour, love and wisdom, restores a sense of the original humanity of the members of the holy family.

Really, it was supposed to be a carefree jubilee outing. For the tenth time, three women friends in their early forties set out on their short annual excursion, this time to Bruges in Belgium: Dodo, impulsive and energetic, a single parent, frequently in financial difficulties; the beautiful, reserved Claire, who has made a career as a gallery owner in Munich; and the down-to-earth Nora, a mother and the wife of a lawyer, the only one of the three to have stayed where they all come from, in Pinneberg in northern Germany. That is where they grew up together, went to school, passed through adolescence and first love affairs, shared joys and sorrows – and cats' tongues, the symbol of a careless, intensive friendship. But the outing which began so lightly develops into a journey into the past which, as it soon transpires, was nothing like as carefree as it had seemed. Long and carefully guarded secrets come to light, and the much-mooted friendship is sorely tried. Cats' Tongues tells the story of three women who are closely bound up with each other from three different perspectives. Gradually, a picture forms out of the different points of view, a picture that is as multi-faceted as life and the three protagonists themselves – in turn witty, sad, hurtfully callous, and surprisingly loving.

A family has rented a houseboat and is planning to spend an inspiring holiday on the English canals. Luisa and Daniel look forward to forgetting about everyday life and to having time for each other again for the first time in a long while. Their children Lea and Jasper, both at a difficult age, have agreed to the family trip, because Jasper's nice friend Can is joining in the fun. In addition, Emma is expected to come, Daniel's exceptionally pretty daughter from an affair he had fifteen years ago. And besides, the parents do not need to know about everything that happens. Sure enough, things occur that nobody expected, and the boat feels increasingly crowded. A trip which becomes everything but a relaxing holiday, cleverly told by switching between various perspectives.

The twelve-year-old Lilly sits silently in front of the woman police officer. All attempts to make her speak fail. Lilly cannot explain the relentless chronology of unfortunate events that have pitched her family into disaster, she can only remember her childhood, which was overshadowed by disruptive events but which also contained some wonderful moments of happiness: her parents, ›the best in the world‹, and her foster sister Lotta who came from a home to make ›a real family‹ of them all – and who triggered the catastrophe which was not to end until Lilly took the hardest decision of her life … A book that you can't put down until you have read the last sentence.

Jon Ewermann has reason to be pleased with his life: the German and Latin teacher is extremely popular among his students at a high school in Hamburg and he is respected and admired by his colleagues. The staleness of his marriage to Charlotte after more than twenty years is made up for by his numerous affairs. But then – on his birthday, of all days – Julie, a new colleague, arrives at the school. Julie is young, beautiful and mysterious. For the first time in his life, Jon understands the true meaning of love. When he realizes that his passion for Julie is reciprocated, he becomes determined to leave his old life behind him, and will stop at nothing in his struggle for a future with her.