Good Morning, Boys and Girls

Jens a.k.a. “Cold” is minutely planning his killing spree at his school. He fits the school killer profile to a T: He is 16 years old, listens to violent music, loves to play Counter Strike, writes dark short fiction. He is well aware that there have been other spree killers before him, so he has to be even more outrageous. He can already hear his parents giving interviews on CNN; in his mind he is orchestrating his posthumous fame, the world wide outpours of pathos. Only after “Cold” meets - and falls in love with - Susanne, a fellow student, his story takes an unforeseen turn.

“Juli Zeh closely staggers and dovetails the thoughts and emotions of her gun-toting hero (or anti-hero) Cold with the world he lives in: home, school, TV … She does not try to explain, to excuse, or to warn of anything. All she does is show how seamlessly Cold’s inner and outer world fit together … Zeh’s phrases contain a piece of simple truth or self-awareness, which we seem to have lost: Obviously, the rampage is a part of us.” (Frankfurter Rundschau)