“You haven’t been here, peanut. You don’t know what that means: Forest. You know nothing, but I’m gonna show you everything.“
Imagine a forest. Without beginning, without end. Imagine lakes, rocks, valleys, gorges. Imagine the wildest animals. Imagine a sea of trees, a continent of wood and green. Imagine the maximum forest. And now imagine in all this the Robber. Yes, the Robber. The only real expert for the rough life, for survival. Outside, without anything, against everyone, all on his own. 
There are things in life you can never be prepared for. Being a father for example. What does it take to be a good father? Where do you learn that, being a father? These questions are raised by the narrator in »The Journey to the Center of the Forest«. To find answers, he sets off one night on his way into a huge, mystical forest. This is where the legendary Robber is supposed to live. With him the narrator wants to complete the perhaps most important training – not in looting people, of course, but in how to become a father who knows how to protect his child in any situation. And yes, he is successful, he finds the Robber, or rather, the Robber finds him. The adventure begins …
Illustrator Rán Flygenring, who has worked with Finn-Ole Heinrich several times and received numerous awards, completes this text with her wonderful, dreamy forest illustrations and various helpful tutorials. The result is an homage to the force of the forest. And it is a loving letter to your own child, telling one of the last great adventures in a »world without adventures.
by Finn-Ole Heinrich & Rán Flygenring
- Awarded one of Germany‘s most beautiful books 2019!
- List of Recommendations – Rattenfänger Literaturpreis 2020 [Pied Piper Literature Prize]
mairisch Verlag | hc | 184 pp | 10+ & adult
Rights sold: Simplified Chinese, all rights available excl. Spanish & Portuguese
[original title: Die Reise zum Mittelpunkt des Waldes]