Lily KingReading and ConversationShe studied literature and knows how good love stories work: secrets, highs, lows. But the greatest love story of her life, she experienced herself, and it follows no rules.In the last year of her studies, the narrator meets Sam and Yash, two highly gifted students from her seminar on 17th-century literature. The two live in the house of a professor who is traveling, they read, they argue, they play cards, they talk fast and think even faster. They give her the nickname 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 visible later...With "Herz König" (King of Hearts), Lily King presents a novel about first love, friendship, and the long-lasting impact 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 an entire life seems to open up. King tells this story with the precision for which she is known: without grand claims, with a feel for nuances, for self-deception, for the humor and vulnerability of people.Lily King, born in 1963, grew up in Massachusetts and now lives in Maine. Her work has received numerous awards. In German, her works include "Euphoria" and "Vater des Regens" (Father of the Rain).