The Curious Fondness for the Sea is a highly contemporary novel that poetically explores a question many books these days consider much more soberly -- the question of how our origins determine our identity. Gregor Hens has created an almost magical cosmos ... 

--Andrea Gerk, Deutschlandfunk 

Read, travel, marvel: at a dazzling set of characters who move through a two-faced, magical landscape wedged between the open sea and a harbor that only appears to offer safety.

--Felicitas Hoppe

The Curious Fondness for the Sea tells imaginatively and skillfully of its characters' big questions of origin and belonging. The novel demonstrates the great power of invention and composition [...]

--Maria-Christina Piwowarski