The Parent Trap

The book behind the world-famous film -- in a new translation by Anthea Bell

Luise has ringlets. Lottie has braids. Apart from that they look exactly the same.

But they are sure that they have never set eyes on each other in their lives.

When the two girls meet at a summer camp and discover the secret behind their similarity, they decide to switch places. Everyone is fooled (apart from the dog) and, despite a few mistakes and misadventures, everything goes to plan for Luise as Lottie and Lottie as Luise - until their father meets a young, beautiful woman and things start to unravel...

Funny, moving, affectionate and improbable, The Parent Trap has twice been adapted for film - but the book remains one of the great classics of German children’s literature.

Erich Kästner, writer, poet and journalist, was born in Dresden in 1899. His first children’s book, Emil and the Detectives, was published in 1929 and has since sold millions of copies around the world and been translated into around 60 languages. After the Nazis took power in Germany, Kästner’s books were burnt and he was excluded from the writers’ guild. He won many awards, including the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1960. He died in 1974.