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2022 PEN Translation Award FINALIST
In this masterful novel, author Juli Zeh skillfully shifts away from the conventional tale of a middle-aged, middle-class father out for a New Year’s Day bike ride to an unexpectedly dark, psychological family drama.
Lanzarote on New Year’s Day: Henning is cycling up the steep path to Femés. As he struggles against the wind and the gradient he takes stock of his life. He has a job, a wife, two children—yet hardly recognizes himself anymore. Panic attacks have been pouncing on him like demons. When he finally reaches the pass in utter exhaustion, a mysterious coincidence unveils a repressed yet vivid memory, plunging him back into childhood and the traumatic event that almost cost him and his sister their lives. In this masterful novel, bestselling author Juli Zeh skillfully turns a New Year’s Day bike ride into an unexpectedly dark, psychological family drama.
Praise for Juli Zeh
“Zeh challenges readers to consider how complicit we are in our current political dilemmas.” —Los Angeles Times
Praise for New Year
“In this wrenching psychological portrait from Zeh, a character’s buried traumatic past distorts his memory and loosens his grip on reality...Zeh’s novel skillfully asks how a person can come to terms with a painful past that has been intentionally misremembered for the purpose of sustaining one’s mental health. Readers, though, will have no trouble remembering this.” —Publishers Weekly, *starred review*
“This spine-tingler captures the peak of what appears to be a spectacularly hallucinatory middle-aged crisis.” —Kirkus Reviews, *starred review*
“Zeh’s suspense writing is masterful. … In New Year, she spins a tale of the uncanny, as Henning encounters items from his childhood in this far-flung vacation destination, items that unlock a repressed childhood trauma. … Her straightforward style leaves few obstacles for the reader, and Price’s translation is crisp. This no-nonsense style lends itself well to fast-paced reading, keeping us in the tension that makes this book a page-turner.”—World Literature Today
"The prolific and award-winning German thriller novelist Julie Zeh places readers in Lanzarote, The Canary Islands, on a New Year’s Day when a man named Henning is out for an athletic bike ride. On reaching the Femés pass, a combination of untreated anxiety, middle-aged life stressors, and a strange coincidence lead Henning to a triggered memory about childhood. The eeriness of the landscapes’ familiarity and the trauma of what nearly killed Henning and his sister highlight how difficult it can be to integrate past pain into adult existence. It’s a tale of psychological dread that nonetheless retains visceral unease, and a terrific read for a winter’s day when you feel completely safe and warm at home."—Lithub Best Books of 2021
“Read New Year to have your heart moved, but also to see a virtuoso writer at work.” —European Literature Network
“A character piece and social critique wrapped in a psychological thriller, the intelligent and absorbing New Year is as much of a journey for the reader as for Henning, and the tension doesn’t slacken until the last page.” —The Herald
“New Year is structured like Henning’s bike ride: the journey to the top that maps out Henning’s present and recent past; and the exhilarating ride down again, as we discover just why Henning is the way he is.” —David’s Book World
“Because both the thriller and the analysis of society are here intertwined so densely, New Year is perhaps Juli Zeh’s best book to date.” —Süddeutsche Zeitung
“New Year is an impressively original book whose elegant construction testifies to Zeh’s writerly prowess.” —New Books in German
“Past experience is part of us, like a code in computer software―Zeh, in her usual straightforward way, has condensed this to make a compact novel.” —Stern
“A thrilling, cinematic story.” —VPRO Boeken
“With New Year, Juli Zeh has succeeded in writing a lost-memory thriller and at the same time an accurate psychogram of today’s overwhelmed fathers.” —WDR 3
“With New Year, Juli Zeh shows that good entertainment can indeed be easily coupled with depth and literary quality. This psycho-thriller is thus well on its way to becoming a bestseller.” —SRF 2 Kultur
“Juli Zeh has written not only an enthralling psychogram of a man, but also quite nearly a classical tragedy.” —Südwest Presse
“This book develops into a rapid, exciting drama, the kind of which you might have never read before.” —Der Kleinborsteler
“An intense and gripping psychological thriller. The second part of this novel, impressive in its mastery of narrative, will cost you some hours of sleep.” —Midi Libre
“Once devoured, New Year obsesses its reader for days on end. Juli Zeh strikes hard and strikes home.” —Transfuge
“An experience of psychological dissection. New Year is a vertiginous plunge into the psyche of a man straining under the weight of what he believes he must achieve and, in a subtle game of smoke and mirrors, into our own neuroses. With the tale of a mad ascent, the novel defuses, with the author’s characteristic scathing and elegant irony, the diktat of perfection and permanence extolled by the media that has invaded the sphere of social life and intimacy, and invites us to respond with a middle finger stuck up with pride.” —Lire
“It is genuinely admirable how, page after page, Juli Zeh manages to develop a truly nerve-racking thriller. Ever changing register, she always starts with questions rising from the conditions of life in today’s society.” —DNA
“In this harrowing thriller, Juli Zeh evokes children’s solitude, their panicked fears of abandonment, their incapacity to see their parents as anything but perfect.” —Arts Libres
“Juli Zeh has rediscovered the somewhat lost art of the psychological thriller.” —Libération
“In New Year, Juli Zeh invents a new type: the hysterical man. She could just as easily have written two separate books. A poignant sketch of modern narcissistic parents, and their roots in the past.” —Trouw
Praise for Empty Hearts
“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“Darkly entertaining … A thoughtful political thriller with a provocative sense of humor.” —Kirkus Reviews, *starred review*
“Will keep readers turning the pages … Zeh makes it easy to suspend disbelief in this cold-blooded and macabre future.” —Publishers Weekly
“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.” —Los Angeles Times
Praise for Decompression
“Zeh’s award-winning thriller climaxes with a scene of splendid drama.” —The Guardian
“Deftly translated by John Cullen, Zeh plays with our expectations throughout … Like The Method, this is a story about obsession—this time with status, looks, and celebrity culture.” —The Independent“Erotic intrigue, deep-sea diving and clients from hell make for a lively mix—the gathering suspense is complemented by nuanced characterization in a pleasingly unpredictable work.” —Kirkus Reviews
“A mesmerizing and disturbing psychological thriller ... Zeh’s talent pulls this morally murky tale up from the depths and toward a redeeming light.” —Wall Street Journal
“A deft thriller.” —Publishers Weekly
Alta L. Price runs a publishing consultancy specialized in literature and nonfiction texts on art, architecture, design, and culture. A recipient of the Gutekunst Prize, she translates from Italian and German into English. Her work has appeared on BBC Radio 4, 3 Quarks Daily, Words Without Borders, and elsewhere. Her latest publications include books by Martin Mosebach, Dana Grigorcea, Anna Goldenberg, and Alexander Kluge.