SIMON URBAN & MELANIE AMANN - "German Glück" Book Premiere

Simon Urban presents his new novel "German Glück" in conversation with Melanie Amann.

"German Glück" is a social novel that could be Germany's "The White Lotus": seven destinies collide in a luxury resort in the German provinces. A burning Tesla in Mecklenburg marks the zero point - Roger Ross, freshly fired and without luggage, flees to the luxury resort "Eden" and reinvents himself. But the hotel is no refuge; it is a magnificent final station for the illusions of our time. In "Eden", all guests cling to a life that has long become history: a TV comedian burned by online harassment, a tobacco manager who lost his wife to climate activism, twins living on their mother's pension, and a director's assistant who wants to save the resort with a murderous plan. This community of fate dances on the edge of the abyss - bitterly vicious and wildly funny at once.

Simon Urban, born in 1975 in Hagen, studied German literature in Münster and at the German Literary Institute Leipzig. His novel "Plan D" (2011) was translated into eleven languages; his advertising film #heimkommen, with 70 million views, ranks among the most successful German viral videos. For ARD, he wrote the source material for the feature film "Exit" (2020); his novel "Wie alles begann und wer dabei umkam" won the Hamburg Literary Prize. In 2023, "Zwischen Welten" appeared in collaboration with Juli Zeh.

Melanie Amann is a journalist, author, and lawyer. She worked for Der Spiegel for over twelve years, most recently as deputy editor-in-chief.

"German Glück", 400 pages, is published on 03.09.2026 by Kiepenheuer & Witsch.