1914. A man scatters sand from the South of Italy on the streets of Berlin. At a time of war, such behaviour is not only strange, but suspicious, too. The inspector who takes on the mysterious case finds himself caught up in a story of love and taboo between two men and a woman: Jacob Tolmeyn, an art historian from Berlin, fears persecution due to his homosexuality and takes up a research post in Southern Italy, far away from the dangers of the big city. He inspects the Staufian forts together with his assistant Beat, a former Papal Swiss Guard, when they meet Letizia, an Italian women’s rights campaigner. The three of them experience the dangers and opportunities of their era until Tolmeyn returns to Berlin, where he unwillingly attracts the inspector’s attention with a trail of sand.

A Grain of Sand on the Longlist of the German Book Prize 2014.