Monique Schwitter was born in 1972 in Zurich and now lives and works in Hamburg. Between 1993 and 1997 she studied acting and directing at the Mozarteum University of Dramatic Arts in Salzburg and went on to perform in Zurich, Frankfurt and Graz. In 2005 she published her first volume of short stories, ‘Wenn’s schneit beim Krokodil’ (When It Snows at the Crocodile’s), for which she was awarded the 2006 Robert Walser Prize for the best literary debut of the year and the Förderpreis der Schweizer Schillerstiftung (2006). Her novel Ohren haben keine Lider (Ears have no Lids) was published in 2008, and her collection of short-stories Goldfischgedächtnis was awarded the Rotahornpreis in 2011.

"With intelligence and compassion, Schwitter portrays the sorry contradictions and sad inconsistencies of what it is to be human; the shoulds, coulds, woulds, what ifs and might have beens that litter our beautiful, flawed lives. Here is humanity stripped bare. It is in turn both discomfiting and strangely reassuring. The writing is stretched taut by the emotions and multiple layers it contains. The characters might be mad, sad, paranoid and delusional, but the clipped, incisive writing is stringently unsentimental. Eluned Gramich’s wondrously imperceptible translation of Schwitter’s German deserves more than a footnote or a brief aside… Not once did I feel the translation announce itself in an awkward sentence, an odd turn of phrase, a lazy word choice or even a misplaced comma. This, I think, is rare. Gramich has stepped into Schwitter’s mind, just as Schwitter steps into the minds of her characters. It makes for a stylish dual debut." New Welsh Review “One of the most delightful [works] that our literature has brought forth in recent times.” (Zurich Tages-Anzeiger)“In her prose style, Monique Schwitter succeeds in creating masterworks of the short form.” (Klaus Zeyringer, Der Standard)“The fatalist power of these stories is enormous.” (Michael Braun, Basler Zeitung)“This extraordinary book throws the reader against a wall.” (Helmut Schödel, Süddeutsche Zeitung)