Bøger i Swiss Literature serien

Scrounged from his notebooks and hearsay, this is the story of a schoolteacher named Konrad Zundel: a philosopher, a wanna-be writer; scattered, self-conscious, glum, anxious, unlucky, discontent . . . At the end of his rope, he decides to flee his workaday life at all costs, only to find escape always a little beyond his reach. First his tooth falls out in the sight of other travelers, then he finds a severed finger in a restroom on a train. In fact, Zundel seems on the verge of falling to bits, as do his words, thoughts, wife, and world-will there be anything left, and anyone to hold the pieces? Zundel's Exit is a Chaplinesque comedy of disintegration, never knowing if it's coming or going.

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

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.

"A luminous parable...A masterpiece."--The New York Times

Edition originale: Das Jahr der Liebe, Suhrkamp Verlag, 1981.

In this eerie, compelling, and playful novel, a young man tormented by his feeble memory meets an elderly man, Robert, endowed with the recall of an elephant. Soon, in exchange for becoming his live-in servant, Robert agrees to allow his young protege to inherit his prodigious memory upon his death. While this might seem a fair if absurd exchange, Robert's demands become progressively more macabre, until the narrator is forced to decide what he is truly willing to sacrifice for the ability to remember. 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.

When Quentin's lover announces that she's leaving him for his brother and moving to America, he replies spontaneously that he too is leaving the country: but going where? To Tahas, he improvises: "e;a city whose very name sounded exotic."e; Following through on this impulse, Quentin soon finds a job exactly where he claimed to be going . . . and with his departure from familiar Europe, finds himself aimless in a desert country equal parts dull and dreamlike, enclosed in "e;the Ring"e; to which the wealthy expatriate community is confined by its own xenophobia. Stifled within this community and alienated without, Quentin must decide what sort of life is worth living-safe and aloof, or engaged with the deprivation and even danger of what lies beyond the Ring.

The first novel in Arno Camenisch's celebrated "alpine" trilogy is set during a single summer. The four main (unnamed) characters are a dairyman, his farmhand, a cowherd, and a swineherd who all live and work in close proximity--but this is no "Heidi." Theirs is an existence marked by dangerous work, solitude, cruelty, alcoholism, and sheer stubbornness; but the author's handling of these situations and lives is characterized at all times by affection, surreal humor, and a brilliant ear for the sounds of the setting.

Volatile Texts is Zsuzsanna Gahse's ironic and prescient meditation on a Europe that is disintegrating, yet language itself is the true subject of these prose miniatures, which are volatile because they expose language as an arbitrary construct made of interchangeable parts; however, this is also what makes the book such an exciting read.

With tongue resolutely in cheek, saxophonist, critic, poet, and one-time enfant terrible of Swiss literature Jurg Laederach here pursues the ambition of forcing all of human existence into a single novel. 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.

"Originally published in German as Hinter dem Bahnhof, by Engeler, 2010"--Title page verso.

Largely autobiographical, Why the Child Is Cooking in the Polenta incorporates Aglaja Veteranyi's own experiences as a circus child, refugee, and wanderer . . .