Swiss literature: New publications in March 2024
Published: Tuesday, Feb 27th 2024, 11:30
Updated At: Wednesday, Feb 28th 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 March.
Jens Steiner: "The edges of the world". Novel. Hoffmann and Campe, 352 pages. (Published on March 5)
On a small Danish island, Kristian hopes to find an answer to a question that has haunted him all his life and taken him to the edges of the world. He returns to this island, which he once left out of anger. He had followed his childhood friend Mikkel there to join an artists' group to work as a sculptor. But Mikkel had an affair with the love of his life. Author Jens Steiner, winner of the 2013 Swiss Book Prize, has written a novel about an unpredictable friendship and about the roots of friendship and family in general in "Die Ränder der Welt".
Alexandre Lecoultre: "Peter and so on". Novel. Verlag der gesunde Menschenversand, edition spoken script, 144 pages. (To be published on March 7)
Peter is a quirky protagonist. He observes people and things from the sidelines. And yet he is right in the middle of things when he walks through the village, sits in a café or works in the village store. But he can't go on like this. Alexandre Lecoultre finds an idiosyncratic language for this story, a mix of French, German and dialect, close to the spoken language. This meandering corresponds to Peter's search for happiness, for the meaning of life. Lecoultre, who was born in French-speaking Switzerland and lives in Bern, won a Swiss literary prize for "L'Age d'homme" (2020). The novel is now being published in German translation.
Levin Westermann: "Zugunruhe". Novel. Matthes & Seitz, 220 pages. (Published on March 7)
The poet Levin Westermann has published his first novel, "Zugunruhe". The title stands for the restlessness of birds just before they set off on their migration to warmer climes. The world is as inhospitable to the protagonist as autumn is to the birds, with its disasters, the pandemic, the climate crisis and people's dreams of colonizing space. On forays through Switzerland and Germany, he records people's destructive rage. In this sense, the unrest is an expression of a history of decay and the novel "Zugunruhe" is a form of rebellion in the face of impending doom.
Eva-Maria Gassmann: "Stolen sugar cubes". Novel. Edition 8, 220 pages. (Published on March 8)
Bösbach in the canton of Bern is a therapy center for children and adolescents. There, psychotherapist Verena and her colleague Juri treat Tim, who has behavioral problems. The novel "Stolen Sugar Cubes" provides an insight into their therapeutic work. Verena and Juri also become entangled in a love story. And then there is the gay couple Hans and Renzo on the nearby organic farm. Events come thick and fast when the Bösbach stream overflows its banks. The author Eva-Maria Gassmann runs a practice in Thun specializing in trauma therapy and psychoanalysis.
Thomas Röthlisberger: "Mitten im Wind". Novel. Edition Bücherlese, 240 pages. (Published on March 12)
In his novel "Mitten im Wind", Thomas Röthlisberger, who lives in Bern, once again takes his readers to the south of Finland. And he continues the story from his last novel "Steine zählen" (2022), which was nominated for the Swiss Book Prize. Old Matti Nieminen has been living alone in his remote farmhouse since his wife left him after forty years of marriage. When local policeman Henrik Nyström follows up a lead on an illegal fur trade, there are increasing indications that Matti's old adversary Pekka is back in the area. Matti must come to terms with his past.
Sibylle Berg (text), Julius Thesing (illustrations): "My rather strange friend Walter". Comic novel (from 10 years). Fischer Sauerländer, 144 pages. (Published on March 13)
Lisa is an outsider: at school she is a welcome victim for everyone, at home her parents just lounge on the sofa. She spends her evenings searching outer space for extraterrestrial life - until a spaceship lands behind the house. Klakalnamanazdt, or Walter as Lisa calls him, begins to clean up Lisa's life. Bullying and friendship are the themes of this comic novel, which encourages readers to take their own steps, even in difficult situations. The multi-award-winning prose and theater author Sibylle Berg has worked together with the German designer and illustrator Julius Thesing.
Özlem Çimen: "Baba's Silence". Novel. Limmat Verlag, 96 pages. (Published on March 14)
The author Özlem Çimen works as a curative teacher in Lucerne. In her novel "Baba's Silence", the narrator Özlem travels as an adult to the village in eastern Anatolia where she spent carefree vacations with her grandparents as a child. In passing, she learns that this village was once inhabited by Armenians. And her grandparents, themselves members of a minority, did not always live in this village. She begins to investigate how her family history is connected to the Armenian genocide. "Baba's Silence" interweaves the past with the present and tells a story about innocence, oppression and survival.
Doris Wirth: "Find me". Novel. Geparden Verlag, 320 pages. (Published on March 15)
Zurich-born Doris Wirth's debut novel "Finding Me" is a mixture of road movie and family story. The author tells the story of Erwin: He used to be a free spirit, today he is in his mid-fifties, professionally established and a family man - and he breaks free. He flees into nature and goes missing. In the end, he is diagnosed with psychosis. The story, told from different perspectives, flashes back to the social circumstances of starting a family and shows the consequences of verbal violence within the family. The novel questions the self-definition of performance and work, it shows the constraints in our society.
Lukas Holliger: "1983. cursed heat". Novel. Rotpunktverlag, 200 pages. (Published on March 20)
The scandal surrounding the Bern-based Novosti agency, the case of a Basel spy in Soviet service and the murder of a clairvoyant have all been documented in history. "1983: Cursed Heat" condenses these events into a tragicomic stocktaking of the year from the title at the height of the Cold War. The starting point is that the Russian clairvoyant Danilo Gromow is lying in a pool of blood in his bedroom; Heiner Glut, who had set fire to a forest the day before, is supposed to investigate. Lukas Holliger from Basel, a writer of prose, theater and radio plays as well as a satirical editor, combines historical facts with fiction in his novel.
Julia Kohli: "Life is the greatest possible disturbance". Novel. Lenos Verlag, 300 pages. (Published on March 20)
Mathylda Zelichowska is 58 years old and has had an eventful life. After her divorce, she is now a multimillionaire. After unflattering pictures of her appeared in the tabloids, she hid away in her luxury apartment. She eats little, drinks a lot and becomes increasingly lonely. To escape this, she travels to her home country of Poland. The visit to her aunt and the search for traces of the past are difficult. Nothing is as she imagined it would be. Author Julia Kohli lives in Zurich and writes for "Das Magazin" and the "NZZ am Sonntag". After "Böse Delphine" (2019), she is now publishing her second novel.
Pedro Lenz: "Längiziti". Drama. Cosmos Verlag, 104 pages. (Published on March 25)
After retiring, Jöggu and Lisbeth emigrated to Spain; seventeen years later, they return to Switzerland. But their old home has become a stranger to them: the local pub is now a nail salon, the former butcher's store is now a barbershop and the bank no longer has a customer counter. The play "Langiziti" by dialect author Pedro Lenz asks about home, about what it takes to feel at home. Lisbeth suspects that Jöggu is her only home. "And ig sis." Spaniard Antonio, who has lived in Switzerland for forty years, thinks that leaving is always wrong.
More:
Catherine Safonoff: "Exploration". Texts with pictures. Kommode Verlag, 120 pages. (Published on March 1)
Andreas Kiener: "Omnipotence". Graphic novel. Edition Moderne, 160 pages. (Published on March 5)
Béla Rothenbühler: "Polifon Pervers". Novel. Der gesunde Menschenversand, edition spoken script, 224 pages. (To be published on March 7)
Rudolf Bussmann: "Promised Land. Poems". Edition Bücherlese, 112 pages. (Published on March 12)
Margrit Schriber: "Maria Antonia Räss. The embroiderer". Novel. Bilger Verlag, 231 pages. (Published on March 12)
Alexander Kamber: "Night blue flowers". Novel. Limmat Verlag, 120 pages. (Published on March 14)
Jane Mumford: "Reptile. A cold-blooded libretto". With illustrations by the author. Knapp Verlag, 116 pages. (To be published on March 15)
Nicola Bardola: "The greatest possible proof of love". Novel. Nagel und Kimche, 288 pages. (Published on March 19)
S. Corinna Bille: "Meerauge". Novel. Rotpunktverlag, 296 pages. (Published on March 20)
Ursula Fricker: "Catch games". Novel. Atlantis Literature, 192 pages. (Published on March 20)
Mischa Suter. "Money at the border. Sovereignty and standards of value in the age of imperialism 1871-1923". Non-fiction book. Matthes & Seitz, 344 pages. (To be published on March 28)
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