Ilona Hartmann

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“Ilona Hartmann is probably Germany’s coolest writer. And she has invented a new literary genre: happy-sad.”
— Dirk von Lowtzow, Tocotronic

She has seven days. Seven days between a troubling diagnosis and the doctor’s appointment that could change everything. Seven days to avoid thinking about it—or finally put things in order. Instead of going on holiday or distracting herself, she descends into her basement storage unit, equipped with a headlamp, cereal bars, and a firm determination to confront what she has been avoiding.

Ilona Hartmann was born near Stuttgart in 1990 and lives in Berlin. As a freelance writer, she writes about pop culture and everyday life for magazines, newspapers, and an audience of more than 100,000 followers on Twitter and Instagram. She also hosts her own radio show on Fritz Radio and was co-host of the ZEIT podcast “Und was machst du am Wochenende?” (“And What Are You Doing This Weekend?”) for two years starting in 2021.

Her debut novel and bestseller Land in Sicht was published in 2020, followed by Klarkommen in 2024.

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