Thomas Stangl, showered with prizes in Austria for his novels and essays, is still largely an unknown quantity in the English-speaking world. His debut, Der einzige Ort (‘The Onl
To find those millions of words, I had to cross the threshold of the broom cupboard that my father insisted on calling a ‘study’: a little room about a couple of metres square,
I came to Italian relatively late; some pleasures are worth deferring, or at least that’s what I tell myself. In 1985 I was on a trip with a friend to Florence, and the flood of
The year is 1945 and Berlin – the capital of the Thousand-Year Reich – is a city eviscerated by war. ‘The stumps of their mutilated buildings rise naked and ugly among the he
Enjoy the rest of your trip The insurance broker in the town in German-speaking Switzerland that I moved to decades ago retired when he reached that age. I sometimes meet him walki
The “Literally Swiss” video series On December 5th 2018 at the British Library in London we held a cabaret night of readings and performance by two talented Swiss writers and t
The Queen in the Forest An old man has gathered berries and nuts in the forest in a basket he carries them home through the forest When he arrives at the clearing where his house s
Wednesday, 5 Dec 2018, at 7pm (to 8:30), British Library (Terrace Restaurant), 96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB, tickets here Featuring Michelle Steinbeck and Michael Fehr, two of th
British Library, Harry M Weinrebe Learning Centre, 96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB, Wed 5 Dec 2018, 3:30pm – 5:30pm. Places limited: book here. Understanding and unlocking
Jenny Aaron calls herself a policewoman but the reality is much more complex: ‘Her body is a weapon.’ As a member of an elite team tracking Germany’s most dangerous criminals
