Juli Zeh

Empty Hearts

Novel

Original Title: Leere Herzen

original edition

Hardcover with jacket, 352 pages, 13.5 x 21.5 cm, 5.3 x 8.5 in.
ISBN: 978-3-630-87523-1
€ 20.00 [D] | € 20.60 [A] | CHF 28.90 * (* rec. retail price) recommended retail price

Publishing House: Luchterhand Literaturverlag

Date of publication: November 13, 2017
This title is available.

Kundenrezensionen: (51)

Rights sold to: France (Actes Sud), Italy (Fazi), The Netherlands (Ambo Anthos), Norway (Gyldendal), Slovakia (Inaque), Spain (Vegueta), Sweden (Weyler), US (PRH/Nan Talese)

Selected by New Books in German

English sample translation available

A brilliant vision of the future that sheds a revealing light on the present.

They are disillusioned and pragmatic. They have seen through the cynicism of politics, the modern craze for self-optimisation or the fluffy do-goodism of parochial society. They have successfully established themselves in the world – and they don't feel the urge to let this make them feel guilty.

Together with IT genius Babak Hamwi, Britta Söldner has set up a small firm that has made them both rich. Luckily, no one really knows what is behind the firm, for behind the façade of their unassuming offices Britta and Babak are running a lucrative business with death. When their company threatens to get some disagreeable competition, Britta does all she can to get rid of the unknown free-rider. But she has underestimated her rival. Before long, not only Britta's company is in danger, but her life as well …

Empty Hearts is a provocative, gripping and red-hot political thriller set in Germany in the near future. And it is also a disturbing psycho thriller about a generation that is empty at heart and without belief and convictions.

"Empty Hearts has the veneer of a thriller but it's more accurate to call it a chiller: chilling in the accuracy of its satire and chilling in its diagnosis of our modern malaise." New York Times Book Review

"With so much political context backgrounding the plot, Empty Hearts explores interesting ideas about the price of failure to act against tyranny and the moral complicity of people who capitalize on a bad situation, or do nothing in the hopes that it will all go away… Zeh challenges readers to consider how complicit we are in our current political dilemmas." Los Angeles Times

"Darkly entertaining [with] many cool Didion-esque apercus. [Zeh] develops a fine character study [...] A thoughtful political thriller with a provocative sense of humor."

Kirkus Review

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