Description A prescient political and psychological thriller ripped from tomorrow's headlines, by one of Germany's most celebrated contemporary novelists A few short years from now, the world is an even more uncertain place than it is today, and politics everywhere is marching rightward: Trump is gone, but Brexit is complete, as is Frexit; there's a global financial crisis, armed conflict, mass migration, and an ultrapopulist movement governs in Germany.
With their democracy facing the wrecking ball, most well-off Germans turn inward, focusing on their own lives.
Britta, a wife, mother, and successful businesswoman, ignores the daily news and concentrates on her family and her work running a clinic specializing in suicide prevention.
But her legitimate business is connected to a secret and far more lucrative operation known as The Bridge, an outfit that supplies terrorist organizations looking to employ suicide bombers.
Using a complex candidate-identifying algorithm designed by Babak, a brilliant programmer and Britta's only employee, The Bridge has effectively cornered the market, and terrorism almost never takes place without Britta's services--which is why news of a thwarted suicide attack in Leipzig comes as a shock.
Then The Bridge's database is stolen and a colleague at the clinic murdered, driving Britta, Babak, and their latest recruit into hiding.
On their heels is a new terrorist organization called Empty Hearts, a group unlike any they've encountered before.
Part suspenseful thriller, part wickedly effective social satire, Empty Hearts is a novel for our times, examining urgent questions of morality, politics, and culture, and presenting a startling vision of a future where empathy is a thing of the past.
About the Author JULI ZEH's novels include Eagles and Angels, winner of numerous prizes including the German Book Prize; In Free Fall; and Decompression.
She has worked at the United Nations in New York, taught at the German Institute for Literature in Lei.
| Rightward | Trump is gone but |
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Nan A. Talese Empty hearts, hardcover/juli zeh
