Iris runs a hotel in Bad Heim, a German spa town six hours from Berlin that used to be a place people came to. Now the fires burn across the river every summer, the smoke never clears, people wear masks outside, and the bookings stopped. She keeps the place open anyway, mostly alone. Then a woman shows up with a small daughter and takes a room, and something about her doesn’t add up. She won’t say her real name. A man calls the hotel asking whether Iris has seen a woman and a child. That’s the whole setup, and Gänsler runs it tight — 176 pages, two threats closing at once, one out in the hills and one on the phone.
Eternal Summer