Lily King

"Heart King"
presented by the Harbour Front Literature Festival Hamburg

Reading and discussion

She studies literature and knows how good love stories work: Secrets, highs, lows. But she experienced the greatest love story of her life herself, and it follows no rules.

In the last year of her studies, the narrator meets Sam and Yash, two highly talented students from her seminar on 17th century literature. The two live in the house of an out-of-town professor, read, argue, play cards, talk fast and think even faster. They nickname her Jordan and draw her into a world of books, ambition and wit. Friendship turns into a web of love, desire and dangerous attraction. What initially seems like the beginning of a free adult life becomes an experience whose consequences only become apparent later ...

With "Herz König", Lily King presents a novel about first love, friendship and the long-lasting effects of early decisions. At the same time, it is a book about literature itself: about reading as seduction, about language as a game, about conversations in which a whole life seems to open up. King tells this story with the precision for which she is known: without making grand claims, with a feel for nuances, for self-deception, for the comedy and vulnerability of people.

Lily King, born in 1963, grew up in Massachusetts and now lives in Maine. Her work has received numerous awards. Her books published in German include "Euphoria" and "Vater des Regens".