About the book: 2021 / International bestseller No. 1. “A supernova in the thriller genre,” according to the description of the famous German weekly. A thriller whose unexpected and shocking twists we see from several angles. One day you will leave the cage, daughter... Lena Beck disappeared fourteen unbearable years ago. All this time, her father was desperately looking for her, hoping for a miracle. And now, it seems, it happened. Lena was kidnapped, but now she was able to escape - and during her escape she was hit by a car. Just two and a half hours drive from home. This is what the police assume, although there is no certainty. But there is hope. The parents are going to the hospital now. And, to their great disappointment, they realize that the unconscious victim is not their daughter at all. A completely unknown woman. However, along with her they found a thirteen-year-old girl named Hannah, who claims that this is her mother named Lena, that their family lives in a forest hut, cut off from the world, and “mom inadvertently wanted to kill dad”... Hannah is the spitting image of Lena in childhood . Just a clone. What does it all mean? The girl is the key to the puzzle... “Punctuating, original, bewitching work. Hausmann is a force to be reckoned with." – David Baldacci “A consummate thriller, beautifully written, powerful, compelling.” – Peter James “An exceptional thriller.” – Arno Strobel Romy Hausmann was born in the German Democratic Republic in 1981. At the age of twenty-four, she became editor-in-chief of a Munich film company, and after the birth of her son, she began working as a freelancer on television. “The Beloved Child” is her debut thriller, which immediately topped the Der Spiegel bestseller list, and soon became a world bestseller. Romy is the winner of the Crime Cologne Award 2019. She lives with her family in a secluded house in the forest near Stuttgart.