It is, ultimately, simply too quick - in its action and its many leaps, including through moral and other kinds of hoops - but is certainly adequately satisfying as a pass-time read or book-club selection (lots to discuss!). Empty Hearts A Novel By: Juli Zeh, John Cullen Narrated by: Cynthia Farrell Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins Release date: 08-20-19 Language: English 4 ratings Regular price: 16. ) presentation and handling of the issues. a thriller for these times, both in subject matter - it practically screams, on every page: relevant! - and in its essentially TV-formatted ultra-quick (and thin.

And the bad guys are more than just a little bit silly. The suicidal drift of a society sinking into fatal anomie, on the other hand, could definitely do with more exposition. The incidental activity and the descriptions of day-to-day business and life - is what's most successful (except when it gets too predictable, as in the safe-house Britta, Babak, and Julietta retreat to). For such weighty material, Zeh has opted for a very breezy story - agreeably fast-paced, but certainly thin in way too many regards. It doesn't quite work - that ship largely sailed with the suicidal premise of The Bridge - but at least she tosses it in the mix, and tries to treat it seriously. 'With so much political context backgrounding the plot, 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. The EU has collapsed, the UN is facing dissolution and the surveillance powers of the. Zeh's thriller-plot continues to be rather far-fetched - cinematic or made-for-TV over the top simplistic - but offers more than a passing nod to the moral implications of actions and inaction. Its 2025, and Germany is ruled by the Movement of Concerned Citizens. Juli Zehs novels include Eagles and Angels, In Free Fall, and Decompression.

Empty Hearts by Juli Zeh