Swiss Literature - Böcker

In the second book of Arno Camenisch's Alp trilogy, "Behind the Station," is told through the eyes of two young brothers growing up in a small, secluded village in a valley flanked by the alpine mountains. Written in the same style as "The Alp," we start to believe that there's little difference between the children and the adults in this village, save for their love for mischief and ghost stories. The grandmother, the parents, and the neighbors: it is an amphitheater full of drama, somehow colored through the eyes of children. Arno Camenisch's quiet control and powerful descriptions of village life prove that he is an international voice to follow.

A stunning tour de force, Man in the Holocene constructs a powerful vision of our place in the world by combining the banality of an aging man’s lonely inner life and the objective facts he finds in the books of his isolated home. As a rainstorm rages outside, Max Frisch’s protagonist, Geiser, watches the mountain landscape crumble beneath landslides and flooding, and speculates that the town will be wiped out by the collapse of a section of the mountain. Seeking refuge from the storm in town, he makes his way through a difficult and dangerous mountain pass, only to abandon his original plan and return home.A compelling meditation by one of Frisch’s most original characters, Man in the Holocene charts Geiser’s desperate attempt to find his place in history and in the confusing and fragile world outside his window.

A cornerstone of Swiss modernism, at last available in English translation from one of the great German translators of our time.

A nomadic family of circus performers, refugees from Romania, travels through Europe and Africa by caravan. The mother's death-defying act causes constant anxiety for her two daughters, who voice their fears through a grisly communal fairy tale about a child being cooked alive in polenta--but their real life is no less of a dark fable, and one that seems just as unlikely to have a happy ending. An actor and performance artist as well as a poet and novelist, Veteranyi was acclaimed for her seemingly "artless" narrative voice, in which pain and hilarity always vie for the upper hand--a voice at once lyrical and jaded, prurient and spiritual, comical and horrifying.

Featuring the work of some of the greatest poets of the twentieth century as well as their contemporary counterparts, this anthology is unique in bringing together a broad selection of Switzerland 's greatest authors in all of the country 's major languages. Featuring Blaise Cendrars, Hugo Ball, Jacques Chessex, Hans Arp, Gerhard Meier, Philippe Jaccottet, Adelheid Duvanel, Arno Camenisch, Giorgio and Giovanni Orelli, Urs Allemann, Claire Genoux, and Robert Walser, among many others including some whose work has never before been available in English translation this overview of Swiss poetry stands as the ideal introduction to an undervalued and idiosyncratic force in international literature, standing at the foundations of many of the most influential literary movements, be they traditional or experimental.

Featuring the work of some of the greatest poets of the twentieth century as well as their contemporary counterparts, this anthology is unique in bringing together a broad selection of Switzerland 's greatest authors in all of the country 's major languages. Featuring Blaise Cendrars, Hugo Ball, Jacques Chessex, Hans Arp, Gerhard Meier, Philippe Jaccottet, Adelheid Duvanel, Arno Camenisch, Giorgio and Giovanni Orelli, Urs Allemann, Claire Genoux, and Robert Walser, among many others including some whose work has never before been available in English translation this overview of Swiss poetry stands as the ideal introduction to an undervalued and idiosyncratic force in international literature, standing at the foundations of many of the most influential literary movements, be they traditional or experimental.

The debut novel of Bernard Comment, acclaimed author and editor, now available in English for the first time, The Shadow of Memory brings a fairy-tale premise into the modern world, where information--and its loss--can be a matter of life and death.

A riot of confession, complaint, and sensual detail, this novel charts the first year alone of a man who has abandoned his wife, life, family, and homeland, seeking an impossible ideal: freedom.

A brokenhearted man leaves behind his familiar Europe to find himself in a desert land equal parts dull and dreamlike, torn between his desire to lose himself in this new country or hide away with the pampered expatriates who reside in a green zone known as the Ring.

""I can assure you that no movie will ever achieve the speed of prose. Human beings just haven't realized that yet.""--J?rg Laederach. With tongue resolutely in cheek, saxophonist, critic, poet, and one-time enfant terrible of Swiss literature J?rg Laederach here pursues the ambition of forcing all of human existence into a single novel. "The Whole of Life" tells the story of a man, Robert "Bob" Hecht, in three sections: "Job," about work and looking for work; "Wife," about sex during a bout of impotence; and "Totems and Taboos," in which Bob himself ruminates on the limitlessness of human limitation. In "Life," space is compressed to the suffocating dimensions of a single mind, while single moments are expanded cubistically into entire landscapes. Bodies are vivisected and reassembled, and language is invaded, exploded, and reassembled. "The Whole of Life" sees Laederach composing a novel by taking it apart as he goes.