From the bestselling author of The Glassblower Trilogy comes an inspiring historical saga of a female photographer who must defy convention to live her dreams in turn-of-the-century Germany. In 1905, on her twenty-sixth birthday, Mimi Reventlow receives a marriage proposal from the vicar of her family’s church. But a future of housework, childcare, and servicing a parish doesn’t appeal to the restless and unconventional Mimi. She has ambitions of her own―to follow in the footsteps of her beloved uncle Josef and become a traveling photographer. Leaving behind all that has been mapped out for her, Mimi dares to pursue her passion and sets out alone to make her own mark. A visit to her ailing uncle in the idyllic mountain town of Laichingen, Germany, pauses Mimi’s journey. Here, among provincialism and rejection, she struggles to find her place within a vibrant but wary community. But Mimi’s resilience is only strengthened by adversity. Her courage is indomitable. Maybe here, among surprising kindred spirits and longing hearts, in a place she never expected, Mimi’s dreams might be coming into focus. Petra Durst-Benning was born in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, in 1965. For more than twenty years, she has been writing bestselling historical and contemporary novels, including The Glassblower’s Trilogy, The Century Trilogy, and The Seed Traders’ Saga. Translated into several languages, Petra Durst-Benning’s novels have sold more than a million copies in English. She now lives with her husband and two dogs in the countryside south of Stuttgart. For more information, visit www.durst-benning.de. Edwin Miles has been translating in the film, television, and literary fields since 2002. Originally from Australia, he completed his MFA in fiction writing at the University of Oregon in 1995, where he worked as a fiction editor on the literary magazine Northwest Review . In 1996 he was short-listed for the prestigious Australian/Vogel Award for a collection of short stories. Miles’s translated works include Petra Durst-Benning’s The Century Trilogy and The Seed Trader’s Saga, Bernhard Hennen’s The Saga of Elvin, and Jonas Winner’s Berlin Gothic novels. After many years of living and working in Australia, Japan, and the United States, he now resides in Cologne, Germany, with his wife, Dagmar, and their children.