Author Hefter receives German Book Prize
Published: Monday, Oct 14th 2024, 19:00
Retour au fil d'actualité
This year's book prize goes to author Martina Hefter for "Hey good morning, how are you?". It is a cleverly choreographed book that "exerts an attraction all of its own", according to the jury's statement. "In a fascinating way, the novel combines grueling everyday life with mythological figures and cosmic dimensions, it navigates between melancholy and euphoria, and reflects on trust and deception."
The 59-year-old Hefter lives in Leipzig. She is not only an author, but also a dancer and performance artist, just like her novel's protagonist. In "Hey good morning, how are you?", Juno, who is in her mid-fifties, lives in two worlds: During the day she cares for her seriously ill husband, at night she dives into the internet.
Who is cheating who here?
There she chats with so-called love scammers: These are internet scammers who use fake profiles to contact people looking for love and exploit them financially. Juno gets involved with love scammers from Nigeria, but hides her true identity and at some point you wonder who is deceiving whom. And then there are moments of true closeness.
And the novel is also about ageing, colonialism, longing, friendship and love. Hefter tells of these major themes laconically and delicately.
Book prize awarded for the 20th time
The German Book Prize is considered one of the most important awards in the industry and was presented for the 20th time on Monday. The seven-member jury reviewed a total of 197 novels from Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
The six finalists also included Maren Kames ("Hasenprosa"), Clemens Meyer ("Die Projektoren"), Ronya Othmann ("Vierundsiebzig"), Markus Thielemann ("Von Norden rollt ein Donner") and Iris Wolff ("Lichtungen").
The book prize is awarded by the Stiftung Buchkultur und Leseförderung des Börsenvereins des Deutschen Buchhandels. It is endowed with a total of 37,500 euros: The winner receives 25,000 euros, the other shortlisted authors 2,500 euros each. Last year's winner was the Austrian Tonio Schachinger with his novel "Echtzeitalter".
©Keystone/SDA
French 
English 
German 
Spanish 
Arabic