In a smart home in the not-too-distant future, a small appliance pursues its favorite activity: Scout, a robot vacuum cleaner, enjoys listening to his owner Harold read to his seriously ill wife, Edie. When she dies and Harold threatens to drown in his grief, Scout and the other household appliances make it their mission to help their owner. For in the high-tech environment, which at first glance seems perfect, cracks appear, and Scout begins to understand that the world isn't just made up of circuits... Biography (Bernhard Robben) Bernhard Robben, born in 1955, lives in Brunne, Brandenburg, and translates from English works by Ian McEwan, John Burnside, Salman Rushdie, John Steinbeck, and John Williams, among others. In 2003, he received the Translator's Prize from the Art and Culture Foundation of North Rhine-Westphalia, and in 2013, he was honored for his lifetime achievement with the Ledig-Rowohlt Prize. New goods