Four Parents, One Nightmare

When Valentine unexpectedly inherits a dilapidated hotel in South Carolina, it feels like fate is nudging them in a new direction. Now in their forties, alongside their partner Linh, longtime friend and bandmate Raul, and Raul’s partner Banner, their priorities have shifted.
Val convinces the others to leave Berlin and New York behind and move together to the Southern United States. There, they plan to renovate the hotel and form an unconventional chosen family. A child would be raised by all four parents. That way no one would have to give up their own identity; everyone could remain artists while still enjoying a fulfilling family life.

A Fresh Start Turns into a Nightmare

The move is meant to be more than just a shared housing project. The four want to test how friendship, love, parenthood, and artistic work can come together beyond traditional roles. The hotel thus becomes a site for a familial experiment.
Yet as the four settle into their new home and their daughter August is born, visible cracks emerge. Relationships strain under pressure, and the life they designed together threatens to collapse.
On the day of the hotel’s grand opening, the tense mood finally spirals into a nightmare: August has vanished. The four parents turn on one another. Before long, the public mood follows suit against them.
Calla Henkel was born in 1988 in Minneapolis. The American author, director, artist, and playwright has staged works at, among other venues, the Volksbühne in Berlin. Her collaborations with Max Pitegoff have been shown in museums and galleries around the world, including the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Henkel lives in Los Angeles and Berlin. Following “Fame for a Night” and “One Last Gift,” “Das haben wir nicht gewollt” (Amazon affiliate link) is her third novel for Kein & Aber. A preview is available on the publisher’s site. (dd/pm)