Pony Show

Juli Zeh - Pony Show
Novel, approximately 480 pages
Published October 14, 2026

A prominent publisher stands accused of murder. A spectacular court trial. And the question: how negotiable is the truth?

Betty is over fifty, married, and heads a major publishing house. Fero is in his late twenties and a rising talent at her company. Betty and Fero are the perfect team - and a dangerous connection on very thin ice.

When Fero vanishes one day and Betty is caught at the Hungarian border with a pistol and counterfeit money, the case seems clear: Betty is Fero's murderer.

The "Loverboy case" lands before the Hamburg Regional Court, divides the public, and electrifies the media. Does Betty's case prove that women can be just as toxic as men? Or is she a prominent victim of a society that still prosecutes freedom-loving women? For Betty's defence lawyer Mark, it is the most important case of his career. But he soon realizes he cannot rely on anything - not even himself.

Who is pursuing which agenda here? Who is manipulating whom? And what do we believe simply because we want to believe it?

Juli Zeh, born in Bonn in 1974, studied law in Passau and Leipzig, and earned her doctorate in European and international law. Her debut novel "Adler und Engel" (2001) became a worldwide success; her novels are now translated into 35 languages. Juli Zeh has received numerous awards for her work, including the Thomas Mann Prize (2013) and the Heinrich Böll Prize (2019). In 2018, she received the Federal Cross of Merit and was elected judge of the Brandenburg Constitutional Court.