Swiss literature: New publications in February 2024
Published: Tuesday, Jan 30th 2024, 11:10
Updated At: Wednesday, Jan 31st 2024, 00:59
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Prose, spoken word, essays and poetry by Swiss authors and writers who live in Switzerland: The Keystone-SDA news agency has selected new works that will provide food for thought in February.
Simone Meier: "The Inflamed". Novel. No&but, 272 pages. (Published on February 1)
In her novel "Die Entflammten", Zurich author and journalist Simone Meier intertwines two family stories. Gina, an art history student, follows in the footsteps of Jo van Gogh-Bonger. Over a hundred years ago, this woman had a plan: she wanted to make her dead brother-in-law, an unknown painter called Vincent van Gogh, famous. The plan turned into a gigantic success story. For Gina, on the other hand, her fascination with the woman from a hundred years ago turns into an intoxicating novel about a brief love affair - and about two families caught up in art.
Mireille Zindel: "Fest". Novel. Lectorbooks, 272 pages. (To be published on February 5)
Noëlle is in a psychiatric clinic in the Jura because she has been delusional for years about a man called David. She buries notes for him under a tree that she thinks is ultramarine and not green. The witch Muira gives her amulets to bring David to her. When she stops taking her medication, she begins to perceive the reality around her, but she doesn't want to give up the madness completely - because for her it is also a form of freedom. In her novel "Fest", Zurich author Mireille Zindel uses formal means to make the upheavals in the psyche of a lovesick woman tangible.
Lorena Simmel: "Ferymont". Novel. Verbrecher Verlag, 200 pages. (Published on February 7)
Lorena Simmel was born in Fribourg, studied at the Swiss Literature Institute in Biel and now lives in Berlin. In her debut novel, she shows her readers life on the vegetable farms in Seeland from the perspective of the seasonal workers. A young first-person narrator travels to her Swiss home village of Ferymont to work as an agricultural assistant. There she befriends Daria, who comes from the Republic of Moldova. This quiet novel focuses on the imbalance between Eastern and Western European regions.
Patricia Melo: "The City of Others". Novel. Unionsverlag, 400 pages. (Published on February 12)
Chilves looks at the glittering world of São Paulo from a place that is a non-place: between makeshift shacks and oil barrels, everyone is their own person. But there is also Jéssica, who dreams of a future together, or little Dido with his puppies, or the writer Iraquitan, for whom the beauty of strange words is everything, or the liar Farol Baixo. With her socially critical work, Brazilian author Patricia Melo has earned herself a reputation as an important voice in contemporary Brazilian literature. In her novel "The City of Others", she creates an unexpected community and asks what defines us as human beings. Melo lives in Lugano.
Ralph Duttli: "Alba". Poems. Wallstein, 199 pages. (To be published on February 28)
Born in Schaffhausen, Ralph Duttli is a versatile writer. He has published novels, poetry, radio plays and essays, he translates and works as an editor. This versatility and his educational background in Romance studies and Russian studies are now also reflected in his poetry collection "Alba". The volume brings together ten cycles from a decade and a half. His poetry, characterized as "musical", is about salt or animal creatures such as fireflies, octopuses or bees. And: Duttli echoes voices from the most diverse eras and linguistic areas, from Catullus and Dante to Rimbaud and Robert Frost. Duttli has lived in Heidelberg for thirty years.
Dana Grigorcea: "The weight of a bird in flight". Novel. Penguin Verlag, 224 pages. (Published on February 28)
Dora is writing a novel about an aspiring sculptor. This Constantin Avis had traveled to New York in 1926, where a gallery owner had promised him great success. But in the end, he wondered how far his art could really take him. And Dora asked herself the same question. The further she writes in her novel, the deeper she slips into the story of her protagonist, until her story becomes intertwined with Constantin's. Romanian-Swiss author Dana Grigorcea was awarded the Swiss Literature Prize for her latest novel "Die nicht sterben" (2021) and was nominated for the German Book Prize.
Perikles Monioudis: "The deep blue dream". Novel. Rimbaud Verlag, 300 pages. (Published on February 29)
At the center of "The Deep Blue Dream" are the daughter of a painter and a man. In the 1980s, the two founded a trading company for PC clones. They sell the later successful chain of stores in order to collect art and look after their father's collection. The reason: they assume that machines will take over everything at some point. In their opinion, the only way to save humanity is to collect art that cannot be read by machines. Zurich-based author Perikles Monioudis studied sociology and political science. His new novel is about dreams that change and the search for the real.
More:
Markus Bundi: "Wild animals". Novel. Septime Verlag, 120 pages. (Published on February 12)
Georges Haldas: "Vor der grossen Abfahrt / Avant le grand départ". Poems in French and German. Limmat Verlag, 168 pages. (To be published on February 14)
Regula Portillo: "Turning Loop". Novel. Edition Bücherlese, 224 pages. (Published on February 14)
Urs Widmer: "Wild Herbeigesehntes. Early stories". Diogenes, 336 pages. (To be published on February 21)
Andrea Fazioli: "Hidden Ticino. The second case for Elia Contini". Crime novel. Atlantis, 384 pages. (Published on February 22)
Alice Schmid: "The Hanging Saw". Novel. Atlantis, 160 pages. (Published on February 22)
Jürgen Theobaldy: "Nun wird es hell und du gehst raus. ausgewählte Gedichte". Wallstein, 293 pages. (To be published on February 28)
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