Hey, Good Morning, How Are You?

De: Martina Hefter, Linda Gaus - translation

Brought to you by Penguin.

THE SPIEGEL BESTSELLER AND WINNER OF THE GERMAN BOOK PRIZE 2024

Juno Isabella Flock is a dancer and performance artist who spends her days caring for her ailing husband, and her nights chatting to love scammers online. She's aware of the risks these men pose – she's watched a documentary about them – but she's also discovered a heady freedom in these online conversations, and the things they allow her to say.

When Juno meets Owen_Wilson223 – or, to use his real name, Benu - she senses an immediate connection between them, even though they're separated by thousands of miles. Gradually, they reveal more and more about themselves to each other: about their real selves, and about who they really want to be. And just as Juno sees through Benu's lies, he sees through hers too.

Hey, Good Morning, How Are You? is a whirlwind of a novel. It's about yearning to stay young while age marches on; it's about how to stay truthful while the internet changes everything; it's about love and desire in all their many, conflicting forms. And most of all, it's a novel about the way we are all connected, by the same constellations and the same night sky, however different our circumstances.

'A triumph of sharp wit and profound humanity ... A divine masterpiece' Anne Weber

'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 intense, nothing can happen' German Book Prize Jury 2024

'[An] intelligently choreographed novel, which exerts an attraction of its very own' Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

TRANSLATED BY LINDA L. GAUS

© Martina Hefter 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026