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Katja Oskamp’s humorous and life-affirming novella takes us to a small beauty salon in a suburb of eastern Berlin. The salon is in Marzahn, a large housing estate built in the days of the German Democratic Republic, with vast towers and walkways.

At the start, our narrator reflects on how, at the age of 44, her life has become stagnant. Her daughter has left home, her partner is unwell and her writing career has stalled. She decides to retrain as a chiropodist and soon finds herself tending to the mostly elderly community who inhabit the high-rises.

Through the regular visits of her clients, she gradually becomes acquainted with their lives – their loves and their losses, their hardships and declining health – as well as their feet. As the years pass, our narrator starts to enjoy the rhythm of her new life and finds an unexpected fulfilment in her work, alongside her stalwart colleagues, Tiffy and Flocke.

Marzahn, Mon Amour is fiction, but is based on the author’s own experiences as a chiropodist in the district of Marzahn. It is translated from the German by Jo Heinrich

Reader: Monica Dolan
Abridger: Sara Davies
Producer: Alexa Moore
Sound Designer: Matt Snowden

A Pier production for Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 4