Empty Hearts

　　來自德國知名的當代小說家，深具真知灼見的政治驚悚小說，呈現令人震撼的未來景象！



　　短短幾年後的未來，世界變得比今日更加不穩定：川普下台了，而英國已完成脫歐程序，然後接著是法國脫歐。發生了全球金融危機、武裝衝突，以及移民潮，超級民粹主義運動統治了德國。當民主政治面臨被摧毀的危機，許多人民不是轉而只專注在自己的生活，對周遭發生的事件視而不見，就是陷入沮喪與憂鬱。



　　身為妻子、母親的布麗塔(Britta)，同時也是一名成功的商人，她不再思考每日新聞具有什麼意義，將注意力都放在家人和自己的事業上。而她的事業，是經營一間專門防治自殺的診所。



　　看起來是這樣。



　　然而這個看似完全合法正當的診所，與獲利豐厚的企業：「橋梁」(The Bridge)，有著不可言說的關聯。布麗塔表面上經營診所，實際上運用由她的員工、程式設計師巴巴克(Babak)所設計的複雜演算法，深入挖掘網路資訊，辨識出具有自殺傾向的「候選人」，經過篩選後，將名單引薦給任何需要自殺炸彈客執行攻擊的組織，以獲取報酬。運用演算法，他們得以減少附帶傷害、避免臨陣膽怯的炸彈客，秘密企業「橋梁」，也因此有效地控制了整個市場，恐怖攻擊自此幾乎不可能不靠「橋梁」發生。



　　這也是為什麼，當兩名身穿炸彈背心的不知名男子，在萊比錫機場被捕，會讓布麗塔如此驚愕。



　　那不是由巴巴克的演算法所招募的候選人。



　　「橋梁」，有了身分不明的競爭對手。



　　接著，「橋梁」的資料庫遭竊、一名診所員工被謀殺，促使布麗塔和巴巴克躲藏起來、隱匿行蹤。而緊跟在他們之後的，是一個全新型態的恐怖組織：空虛之心(Empty Hearts)……。(文/博客來編譯)

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, and 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 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, driving Britta, Babak, and their latest recruit into hiding. On their heels is a new terrorist organization called the Empty Hearts, a group unlike any Britta and Babak have 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

　　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 Leipzig, and currently lives in Brandenburg. She has been awarded numerous prizes for her work, including the Carl Amery Literature Prize, the Thomas Mann Prize, and the Hildegard von Bingen Award.