The beautiful present
The beautiful present is a novel by Leonie Ossowski , which was published in 2001 in hardback. The book mainly focuses on getting older. It was published by Piper Verlag .
content
The main character in the novel The Beautiful Present is Nele Ungureit, a mature woman who led an eventful life and who had to cope with the separation from her husband Fred Ungureit. Nele lives in an apartment that Fred and Hannes have chosen for them and that Fred also pays for. In order to forget all the grief, she decides to go for a walk in the nearby park. There she met Mrs. Grieße. An old lady who lives in a retirement home . Nele visits her more and more often and makes friends with several residents of old people's homes, until Nele's visits and afternoon games together become a habit for her. Nele is then told that she has inherited a large villa. Since her ex-husband or son has always arranged financial matters so far, they are of the opinion that they should do the same when managing the villa . But that annoys Nele. At 69, she doesn't want to be portrayed as an eighty-year-old. That's why she decides to run away, as she did at the apprenticeship age. She packs her suitcase overnight and the next day she rents a car and drives out into the world without a specific destination in mind. When she stops at a river on her journey and looks dreamily after the flowing water, she has the idea of what she would like to do with the inherited villa. She would like to convert it into a kind of shared apartment (WG) for older people.
But Paul Suska and her son Hannes make it difficult for her to realize this dream. Since Hannes still feels responsible for his mother's finances, he has found a potential buyer of the villa, Paul Suska. However, Hannes is in cahoots with Paul Suska because Paul is planning to turn the villa into a golf hotel and Hannes is supposed to equip it with the furniture from her Möbel Ungureit store . Nele notices that Paul has "chattered" his aunt (Fina) 's money and tells this to Fina. At their meeting, Nele immediately makes her the proposal of the flat share, which Fina thinks is good and thus joins the project with Nele and Rupert. Fina finds an architect who can redesign the entire house and later live in it himself. Nele and Rupert give lectures about their plan to attract roommates; They make sure that they receive state funding for their projects and set up a foundation. The villa will be rebuilt before Christmas and all of the roommates will gradually move in. These were: Nele, Rupert, Rike, Frau Doll, Frau Grieße, Karl Feigel, Fina and Ulrich. Everything is going as planned. Every roommate has to do his or her regular job and the housewarming party is celebrated on Nele's 70th birthday. Until one day two unknown women stand in front of the villa and identify themselves as city officials. They take a look at the villa and note down alleged construction defects and Nele's lack of care training. As it turns out, Paul Suska noticed and blackened the villa in the city, probably because he is still interested in converting the villa into a golf hotel.
When Paul and Hannes visit the villa, a tragic accident occurs in which Fina dies. All residents expect the worst, as Fina was the heart of the project, especially because she financed the whole thing.
When Nele and Rupert, who are now very close, receive a letter from Fina's lawyer in the following days, they are puzzled because they are invited to Fina's will with this letter. When Nele, Rupert and Paul meet at the lawyer’s office, it turns out that Fina had the will rewritten and all real estate, the share in the villa and all of her assets have been awarded to her foundation. Paul Suska did not expect that, whereupon he angrily leaves the lawyers' room and Nele and Rupert go back to the villa to pass on the happy event that they can all continue to live together even without government funding.
Reviews
“The fact that reality looks different today for the majority of older citizens does not in any way bother reading, because Leonie Ossowski was about encouraging people to point out alternatives and to address the old age lethargy. She succeeded admirably in all of this in The Beautiful Present . A novel that many young readers would like to see. "
output
- Leonie Ossowski: The beautiful present. Piper, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-492-04238-4 .