Not a grand hotel, but an inn at the top of the pass with a view of the mountains and glaciers - this is the setting of Vicki Baum's early novella. The Privy and Commerce Councillors are here in their summer retreat, and the gentlemen from the city come from the city for the weekend. Just as the margarine manufacturer Giesinger says goodbye to his wife at the train station, Florentin enters the scene, an energetic young man, also known as a baron, who finally wants to dare the first ascent of the Red Needle. Already on the way to the inn, he is amazed at this woman immersed in the game by the stream. When the two hear each other breathing on the balcony that same evening, wall to wall, a tender, high-spirited love story begins, which takes you into the highest air, where, you guessed it, the abyss also lurks. With Das Joch, first published in 1922, the passionate mountain hiker and critical mountain tourist Vicki Baum pays tribute to her beloved Alps. In addition, in this early work, the title of which already hints at the hardships of marriage, the sharpness of perception, irony and the life theme of the later world-class writer already stand out: the urgency for a different life. Biography Vicki Baum, born on 24.1.1888 in Vienna, died on 29.8.1960 in Hollywood. First a musician, in 1926 an editor in Berlin, since 1931 in the USA; married to the conductor R. Lert. Her novels have been translated into numerous languages and some have been made into films.