Martina Hefter (Author) Martina Hefter is an author and performer based in Leipzig. Her texts move between poetry, scenic forms of writing, and novelistic writing. She stages many of her texts in collaboration with other artists. In Germany, she has published three novels, and five volumes of poetry. Her novel Hey, Good Morning, How Are You? won the German Book Prize in 2024, and is her first work to be translated into English. Linda Gaus (Translator) Linda L. Gaus (she/her) holds a Ph.D. in German Literature from the University of California-Berkeley. She has been a professional translator and teacher of German for the past 30 years. She lives outside of Washington, DC with her husband and 2 cats.
A book like a tightrope walk without a net: a sheer drop to the left, a sheer drop to the right, you want to look away but you can’t and you don’t need to, because as long as Martina Hefter is telling this story, as long as her thoughts are so luminous and life and desire are so in- tense, nothing can happen * Anne Weber, winner of the German Book Prize 2020 * A triumph of sharp wit and profound humanity [...] A divine master- piece * FAZ - Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung * Navigating between melancholy and euphoria, and reflecting on trust and deception, the novel combines gruelling everyday life with mythological figures and cosmic dimensions in a fascinating way. Martina Hefter writes about all this in her intelligently choreographed novel, which exerts an attraction of its very own * German Book Prize Jury 2024 * A book that weaves atmospheric nuances into haunting images of tragedy and bliss, never slipping into sentimentality * NZZ * Deserves to be a bestseller * Die Zeit * Every line is ready to tear down the austere fac¸ade of society * Dinçer Güçyeter, winner of the 2023 Leipzig Book Fair Prize * My book of the year. So sad and yet so funny, so elegant and tender [...] about illness and old age and loneliness and the internet and the beauty of fiction. There hasn't been a more worthy winner of the German Book Prize in a long time. * Daniel Kehlmann, author of Measuring the World * A humorous yet profound prism of privileges, caring for seriously ill dependents, and the precariousness facing freelance artists * Spiegel Kultur * The novel's great strength is its lightness. Hefter evokes the disparate everyday interplay of physical decline and romantic longing so entertainingly and elegantly that every detail begins to sparkle through her narrative art * Simone Unger, mdr * An exceptional novel that is both profound and nimble * Nürnberger Zeitung *