Peter Arnds - Leaving behind his eccentric family and stifling German hometown, Jonathan embarks on a hitchhiking adventure through Australia in search of Alice, an exchange student he knew back in school who left mysteriously one night without explanation.

Peter Arnds, Searching for Alice,  Dalkey Archive Press, 2018.


Sehnsucht: the yearning for faraway people or places. When Jonathan graduates from university with a degree in literature his father hands him two gifts: an alarm clock and the chance to work in the family business. But Jonathan has different plans. Leaving behind his eccentric family and stifling German hometown, he embarks on a hitchhiking adventure through Australia in search of Alice, an exchange student he knew back in school who left mysteriously one night without explanation.
This stunning and rich debut novel is a story about coming of age and coming to terms with the past. Searching for Alice explores the lure of the open road and the joys of traversing geographic borders, language barriers, and cultural boundaries.


“Castles in the Sand” (story)

Peter Arnds, A Rare Clear Day, Red Fox Press, 2014.       


Poems and paintings from Achill
Works made during a stay at the Heinrich Boell Cottage.
Laser printing on Verena bulky 100 gr.
Hand bound




A member of PEN (German writers abroad) Peter Arnds is the author of six books and approximately 50 essays of literary criticism. Recently he published a volume of his poetry and water colours (A Rare Clear Day, Red Fox Press 2015), which he produced during his residence at the Heinrich Böll Cottage on Achill Island in 2012, and a translation of Patrick Boltshauser’s novel Stromschnellen (Rapids, Dalkey Archive Press, 2014). Rapids was nominated for the International Dublin Literary Award 2016. Peter has published numerous short stories and poems in journals such as Cyphers (A Dublin Literary Journal), Animal: A Beast of a Literary Magazine, Prairie Poetry, Cape Rock Magazine, By & By Poetry, as well as in Landing Places: Immigrant Poets in Ireland, an anthology published by Dedalus Press.