Switzerland – findingtimetowrite

Berlinale Film Festival

These past two weeks I’ve attended several films at the Berlinale – well, you have to, when a major film festival is on your doorstep (pretty much all of the venues were less than 30 minutes away from my door by public transport). That is, if you can get hold of tickets, despite the often huge venues where the films are screened. For most of the films you can only book online three days beforehand, so there I was with my fingers poised to click at 10 a.m. every morning, but things would sell out in less than a minute, and I was only successful on three days. Worse than rock and pop concerts! It amuses me to hear that people take days off work or travel all the way from Spain to attend the full ten days, but it also warms the cockles of my heart to see that a documentary from Ethiopia or a film from Ghana shown at 11 am on a weekday (for example) were sold out. Then again, what else can you do on a miserable February day in Berlin?

Most of the films were sad, thought-provoking and political (with a capital or a small P), which made all the questions about politics that journalists kept asking jury members, actors and directors seem rather unnecessary. I can completely understand the anger about the hypocrisy and silence surrounding Gaza (particularly in Germany), but let the art speak for itself and stop expecting actors to make valuable contributions to political discourse (if they choose to do so, that’s fine, but most of them won’t have anything very valuable to add to those topics). However, I got to attend Q&As with the directors and some of the actors at three of the events (another bonus of the Berlinale) and the questions were all about the films and the characters, so that was quite nice.

I did not get to watch any of the major prize winners, but here is a list:

GOLDEN BEAR FOR BEST FILM Gelbe Briefe (Yellow Letters)
by İlker Çatak (Turkish/French/German co-production)
SILVER BEAR GRAND JURY PRIZE Kurtuluş (Salvation)
by Emin Alper (Turkish)
SILVER BEAR JURY PRIZE Queen at Sea
by Lance Hammer (UK/US)

But here are the films that I did see and I thought all of them were quite good. Since most of these films are not out on general release yet, I’ll also make comparisons to other films that are similar in tone.

The Rose: Come Back to Me

Not strictly speaking part of the Berlinale, but released on 14th February as a love letter to the Black Roses (the name of the band’s fan base), this is a film about a K rock band who did not get on with the K pop trainee system and did things their own way, and managed to survive despite lack of promotion in South Korea, having to sue their management company, people trying to create distrust between the band members, military service, depression and a marijuana scandal. I discovered this band last year and attended their concert in London, so this was a great way to get to know them better, but also an inspirational story about the power of music and of being true to yourself. Comparisons: Sing Street, The Commitments.

Enjoy Your Stay – A Swiss-Filipino co-production, about Filipina cleaners working in a luxury Swiss resorts like Verbier. Some of them are abused, but all of them appear invisible to the wealthy people holidaying in the resort. The script follows the ‘found stories’ approach, so presents many real-life, but slightly fictionalised cases. The main protagonist Luz tries to help others but is faced with some tough choices and therefore cannot afford to be an angel herself. Strong ensemble cast and three-dimensional main characters, never entirely evil, just trying to survive in a ruthless global capitalist machine. Comparisons: A Better Life, Dirty Pretty Things, My Name Is Loh Kiwan, A Season in France, Eastern Boys.

De Capul Nostru (On Our Own) – Romanian film about teenagers whose parents have gone abroad for work and they are left to fend for themselves (sometimes with elderly, ineffectual grandparents in the background, or older siblings who are busy with their own lives). I did feel angry with the parents who kept promising to return home, but I also realised they genuinely thought they were working hard to offer a better life for their kids. A film that blends painful dialogue with teenage fun, deep social and personal problems with a dream-like atmosphere (and beautiful moments of a found-family dynamic). Filmed near where my parents live. Amazing acting and improv work by a very young cast in their first roles. Possibly my favourite film of the Berlinale. Reminded me of: Shoplifters, Kids, Happyend. This film did win a prize in one of the many categories: CICAE Art Cinema Award.

Videograms of a Revolution – documentary (based on footage created at the time) about the 1989 Romanian uprising. I knew this would bring back memories and it did: not so much the euphoria I felt at the time, as anger, sadness and shame at the chaos, confusion and power-grabbing going on behind the scenes. An amazing piece of history. Another plus of the Berlinale was that I got to explore various venues that are not normally cinemas, such as the German Cinematheque Museum, which is where this screening took place.

Wo Men Bu Shi Mo Sheng Ren – We Are All Strangers – the underbelly of Singapore’s wealthy society, via the story of a patchwork family. Scenes of everyday life, small joys but also painful dramas, all handled in a fairly matter-of-fact way, as part of life, with a great deal of humour as well as pathos. Particularly poignant juxtaposition of the older generation going on a date just travelling around on a city bus, while the younger generation frolic in the swimming pool of a luxury hotel. But both of them have to deal with the consequences, although I’d have liked to see more of the point of view of the young girl – I felt that was missing. Comparisons: Taipei Story, Comrades: Almost a Love Story.

Shibire (Numb) – a young Japanese director’s partly autobiographical story of a boy growing up in Niigata with neglectful and violent parents, who becomes mute as a result of this. There was a great deal of silence therefore in the film, as we watch the boy at four different stages in his life: from youngster dropping out of school to look after the household while his mother goes off to drink and spend time with men to drug-dealing yakuza. Hard to watch at times, but I rather liked the small details that get shown and the silence. The eyes do the talking. The profile shots of the boy at various life stages got a bit repetitive though and I’m not sure why the only character who attempts to befriend the boy, Ivan, had to be Russian. Comparisons: Moonlight, This Boy’s Life.

A New Dawn – animated film from Japan about three young people fighting a losing battle to turn back time and revive respect and admiration for old crafts such as fireworks. Fighting against inevitable development and ‘progress’ – their house will be demolished, the bay will be drained and built up with solar panels. They are fighting a losing battle but manage to create one last glorious display. Although the story tried too hard to be interesting in structure and bring in flashbacks, it left me with a sense of sadness that is probably exactly what the director intended (he was also art director on Your Name) and shows the abandonment and decay of rural communities (not just in Japan). Pretty pastel visuals and some hilarious stop-motion animation too. I left singing the catchy title song by Imase. Comparisons: Your Name, Princess Mononoke.

En Route To – a touching story of solidarity and friendship among teenage girls. After the disappearance of the married homeroom teacher she’d been having an affair with, Yunji buys illegal pills off the internet to induce an abortion. She ‘borrows’ the money from her roommate, Kyung-sun, who is furious initially but then decides to help her rather clueless classmate. Lots of subtext there, especially for South Korean society that does not really want to know about sex with minors or teenage pregnancies or abortions, but interspersed with lighter moments, especially from the wise-cracking Kyung-sun. A much more positive spin on this kind of story than my comparison film: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days; Celine Sciamma’s Girlhood.

Friday Fun: Chateaux Outside France

I know it has become quite fashionable to purchase run-down chateaux in France and renovate them without speaking a word of French and then renting them out to other Anglos for weddings and parties. But there are beautiful manor houses in other countries as well. The ones below are certainly not looking too run-down.

The former King of Romania lived for most of his life in Versoix, Switzerland, probably in a chateau not unlike this one. From ParisMatch.ch

This considerably more dramatic-looking chateau near Lausanne also has the beautiful view over the lake and the Alps. From Knight Frank estate agent website.

If you fancy owning a vineyard alongside your chateau, then this one in Canton Vaud might be appropriate. From Immobilier Swiss.

Truly grandiose scale of Chateau de Jemeppe in Belgium, from Sotheby’s International.

This castle in Portugal may look more modest on the outside, but it has the most stunning traditional tiles on the inside. From Casas de Portugal.

A more modest Swiss offering, with just a small turret to please chateau fanatics like me, from Cardis.ch

But the one that has really captured my heart is hardly big enough to be called a chateau, despite its extravagant architecture. It’s the view from Montreux that is to die for! From ParisMatch.ch

#FrenchFebruary: Romain Gary, Gary Cooper and Ski Bums

Romain Gary: Adieu Gary Cooper, Gallimard, 1969. (There is also an earlier version of this which Gary wrote in English in 1963, entitled The Ski Bum)

I had heard of this book from the Romain Gary superfan Emma – she actually reviewed the English-language edition on her blog, but stated that the French one is funnier and more poetic, so that was the one I read. I also read it right after my week-long stay in Switzerland plus the second part of the book takes place in the Geneva area, so every little detail was so familiar to me, including crossing the Franco-Suisse border (although without any smuggled gold in my car).

So the location and the skiing captivated me from the start, because, let me be completely honest with you, I could so easily have become a ski bum myself (and am still very upset that I’ve lost the best years of my skiing life living in countries where skiing is not easily accessible). The ‘ski bum’ seems to be the official, if rather unflattering name of the wintry counterculture hero, the winter edition of the ‘surf dude’ if you like. Prepared to do any kind of job, live in fairly basic conditions, as long as they can catch that perfect powder snow and ski for 100 or more days per season. This is not the perfectly groomed, rather crowded, very expensive skiing experience that most of us have when we go on a week-long skiing holiday, but a sort of return to nature – perhaps more fantasy than reality, but perfect escapism.

For Lenny, the ski bum of the English title, it is certainly escape from conscription to go to Vietnam, but also from JFK’s statement: ‘Ask now what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country’, which simply sounds sinister and coercive to him. Lenny is a dropout, with minimal education and no desire to better himself, but with the movie star looks of Gary Cooper he is able to make a bit of extra money as a ski monitor to wealthy ladies. He admires Gary Cooper as the strong, silent type, which he also strives to become (especially since he doesn’t speak any other languages, and in fact has some trouble expressing himself clearly even in English). He avoids any romantic entanglements, looks down upon any displays of emotion, although he isn’t quite the nasty macho type – more like a bewildered little boy that women would like to mother.

However, he is slightly ridiculed for his Gary Cooper fixation by the motley crew of other ski bums who have all converged at the chalet of their rich, generous friend Bug Moran (I can’t help wondering if Gary deliberately chose such an unprepossessing name for him):

Gary Cooper is over. Completely and utterly over. Farewell to the quiet American, sure of himself and his sense of what’s right, who fights against the baddies, always for a good cause, who lets justice triumph in the end and always wins. Farewell, American certainties! Ciao, Gary Cooper!

If Lenny’s friends are all hustlers without any loftier ambitions than finding the perfect slope, Jess Donahue, the daughter of the American consul in Geneva, is surrounded by a group of wannabe revolutionaries spouting ideologies and pictures of utopian future worlds they plan to build. Both groups are equally deluded and funny, yet somehow Jess and Lenny come together as the most unlikely (yet nevertheless touching) couple ever. Except that there are ulterior motives to their relationship… and a lot of betrayal and heartbreak will follow, no matter how cynical both Jess and Lenny claim to be.

Gary addresses some serious themes in this novel: the loss of ideals, the gruesome consequences of Realpolitik, the search for identity as an individual but also as a state when the political landscape has changed. Yet these are all handled with a light touch, deftly concealed in a gripping, almost cinematic story with many moments that made me laugh out loud.

For example, in the first part of the book, Lenny is trying to escape from a short affair with Swiss secretary Trudi, but she won’t take no for an answer, so he finally tells her that he killed a policeman in Basle and is therefore on the run and cannot remain with her. A tearful separation scene follows, but, needless to say, the next day the Swiss police shows up to arrest him as Trudi felt obliged to report him. Yep, that’s the Switzerland I know and love!

Frothiness and satire, with a dash of social critique and genuine emotion – I don’t know how Romain Gary does it, but he does it well!

I should add that there is a Genevois rock band named Adieu Gary Cooper and their album Outsiders is full of social critique done in a humorous way as well, such as the one below: ‘Work is badly paid’.

Friday Fun: Remembering a Week of Peace

You may be bored already of my sharing endless pictures of the mountains last week on Twitter. I had such a peaceful and happy time housesitting for a friend of mine in a village close to Vevey on Lac Leman in Switzerland. It was the first proper holiday in nearly a year and a half where I didn’t have to rush around, meet lots of people, fall sick or receive any bad news. I got to read, write, sleep, walk, eat cheese and chocolate and watch the latest season of Borgen. And cuddle up with two adorable pets.

Sunrise over the Dents du Midi from the balcony.

Sunset over Lake Geneva from the other balcony.

It wasn’t always sunny – nor was it easy to take poetic pictures because there are ALWAYS building works going on. Yes, everyone wants to live in such a beautiful area and have these superb views.

Daily walks with a dog helped me to make the most of the fresh air and the views.

And here is the said dog – the wriggly, scruffy, needy and adorable Zeppy

The calm captain of the house, with the loudest purr I’ve ever heard.

In the neighbouring village, I sought out David Bowie’s old villa, aka The Cuckoo Clock House, where he lived 1976-82. His son, Duncan Jones, went to what was then called the Commonwealth International School in Pully until he was 14.

I simply cannot imagine David Bowie in a chalet type house, and apparently he hated it, but the extreme quiet (and tax relief) must have helped during a tough time in his life.

At my best I’m an artist who’s a taut and febrile cultural weather vane, super-attuned to contexts, especially those of anxiety and decay. Tax exile in Switzerland ruined that. I thought I was big enough to see over the Alps, but it turned out I wasn’t.
David Bowie about his time in Switzerland

I can’t help wondering if he was subconsciously thinking of Emily Dickinson’s poem:

Our lives are Swiss—
So still—so Cool—
Till some odd afternoon
The Alps neglect their Curtains
And we look farther on!

Italy stands the other side!
While like a guard between—
The solemn Alps—
The siren Alps
Forever intervene!

Friday Fun: Back to What I Do Best…

When things go against you and the entire family collapses with something that could be flu or bronchitis or tonsillitis or all three rolled into one, one should stick to what one knows and likes best, namely my beloved chateaux or manor houses, which is how Friday Fun got started.

In previous years, I might have been tempted to do a World Cup of stately homes from the countries participating in the FIFA World Cup, but this year it has been so problematic (not that I was any happier about 2018) that I will just stick to a few sturdy favourites. Oh, and they all are (or were until recently) for sale, so better hurry!

Chateau Pezenac in France, from Sotheby’s Real Estate.

Wonder if the sheep come with the property? Chateau de Marsan, from The Glam Pad.

Chateau Marsan is available for sale with all its interior decorations, which, as you can see, are very chateau-like indeed.

Not just France, Italy also provides stunning locations for villas, this one is popular as a wedding location. From Luxury Architecture.

The Italians never stint on their external decorations, unlike the more austere French exteriors. From Mansion Global.

This Chateau Hauteville in Switzerland was put on sale by the family for auction with all its contents and was purchased by Pepperdine University for its European campus.

The Neo-Gothic splendour of Miclauseni Castle in Romania, from Tripadvisor.

Friday Fun: Nostalgia

Did you know that the term ‘nostalgia’ was coined in the 17th century to describe a medical condition of melancholy and anxiety present in Swiss mercenary soldiers fighting abroad (that’s why it was also know as the ‘mal de Suisse’ in those days)? Apparently, initially military doctors hypothesized that the malady was due to damage to the victims’ brain cells and ear drums by the constant clanging of cowbells in the pastures of Switzerland. But I didn’t grow up within earshot of the cowbells, only lived for a short while in the beautiful Lake Geneva area and am still irreparably damaged and homesick for that part of the world.

In fact, I enjoyed that part of the world so much that I probably stayed much longer in a marriage than I should have.

On the day when I can finally report that I have achieved some kind of financial settlement and inner peace following divorce, I think back once more on the things I loved about that area and introduce a kind of amnesia about the bad memories. Isn’t that what nostalgia is all about?

Memories of the local area https://findingtimetowrite.wordpress.com/2016/07/08/friday-fun-more-memories-of-the-local-area/

A walk on the Franco-Swiss border https://findingtimetowrite.wordpress.com/2014/08/22/friday-fun-a-walk-in-the-frenchswiss-countryside/

Artworks on the border https://findingtimetowrite.wordpress.com/2016/07/13/friday-fun-art-on-the-borders/

Swiss chateaux https://findingtimetowrite.wordpress.com/2016/03/04/friday-fun-surely-not-weary-of-chateau-already/

A fond farewell to the area before moving to the UK https://findingtimetowrite.wordpress.com/2016/07/29/friday-fun-farewell-ferney-and-voltaire/

And more about Voltaire and Ferney https://findingtimetowrite.wordpress.com/2016/06/06/voltaire-and-his-creation-ferney/

Weekly Wrap-Up 11th Feb 2018 (Part 1 – All Swiss)

The weekly wrap-up is a fortnightly wrap-up this time, because didn’t do that much the previous week. I have more than made up for it this week, however, so brace yourselves, it’s going to be a long one! [In the end, I divided it up into 2 parts, as it was really long and also because I have lost some of my pictures.]

London is the city that keeps on giving in terms of cultural events and certainly reconciles me with the lack of winter sports and beauteous landscapes. I know it’s limiting to speak only of cultural events in the capital, but I can only speak of my own experience. Just like I mentioned Lyon. Morges and Montreux when I was living near Geneva, I can only give my very partial and biased view of events now that I am living just outside London.

Rosie Goldsmith welcoming Alain de Botton at Literally Swiss event.

I will start with the most recent event: a Swiss literary cabaret at a rather unusual venue that I had previously never heard of: The Tabernacle in Notting Hill. This converted church hall was the perfect backdrop for an evening that was actually a series of Q&As and readings featuring 7 authors with links to Switzerland, and hearkened back to the famous days of the Cabaret Voltaire in Zürich of the Dadaists. Absurdity was far from the agenda, however, although one of the big names invited, Deborah Levy (who did mention the Dadaists and Tristan Tzara), read out a story about a girl who believed she had swallowed a glass piano. Levy’s link to Switzerland was perhaps the most tenuous, as she has never visited the country but has set some of her stories there.

The others had fascinating things to say about Switzerland (yes, they all loved the landscape – can you blame them?), the Swiss, Europe in general, the rest of the world and literature. Pedro Lenz, whom I had met in Morges, writes in the Swiss German dialect, which has been rendered into Glaswegian for English-speaking audiences. I understand virtually nothing of either of the two readings (he performed the original and made it sound like anything but German, while someone else read the translation). Fascinating, because he had to make up his own rules, as Swiss German has only recently started to exist as a written language.

Peter Stamm was my main reason for going there. He was there with his two unimpressed teenage sons, and got a bit miffed when asked what makes him a Swiss writer. He pointed out that he considers his writing to be literature rather than particularly Swiss literature. He also got a big laugh when he read an essay about football nationalism and how the Swiss embrace the European ideals and project to a certain extent. He then paused and said: ‘I know this is a tricky subject here.’

Monique Schwitter was another outstanding performer of a passage about a writer having to give a 7 minute reading, as she is both an actress and a writer. She has been living in Hamburg for many years now, couldn’t wait to leave boring little Switzerland when she was younger, but is now thinking of going back, because she misses walking uphill and downhill. She had the best quote of the evening, from Robert Walser about the Swiss mentality: ‘He takes his heart out of the pocket, examines it, tucks it away again and walks on.’

Nicolas Verdan was the only author from the French-speaking part of Switzerland – I was familiar with his journalistic work, but didn’t know that he was partly Greek and that his crime novel is set in Greece and tackles the refugee crisis there. He made a very pertinent point: how much harder it is for Swiss French writers to get published in the ‘big city’ (i.e. Paris) and be taken seriously, than for Swiss German writers to get published in Germany.

Rather unflattering picture of Alain de Botton. It was dark and my phone is a bit rubbish, what can I say?

I only recently discovered that Alain de Botton is of Swiss origin. Despite sounding quintessentially English, he grew up as a French speaker in Zurich. Obviously from a privileged background, with well educated, very cerebral parents, who sent him off aged 8 to attend a boarding school in England. He spoke very movingly about how he misses Switzerland very much like an eight-year-old might miss a place: the food, tastes, smells (which explains perhaps my over-fondness for Viennese cuisine). He also spoke of his beloved nanny, whom he still visits every year in her remote valley, and how he has always tried to write philosophy that would be accessible to her as well.

The biggest surprise in this utterly delightful evening (with free-flowing snacks and Swiss wine, courtesy of the Swiss Embassy) was Xiaolu Guo , a Chinese-British filmmaker and writer who has had writers’ residences in Switzerland and is now teaching at the University of Berne. She talked so candidly about the differences between the UK and Switzerland – ‘I’m not allowed to say that Switzerland is boring, I’ve learnt to say it is peaceful’ and how she was welcomed as a guest in Switzerland (a visiting author), while in the UK she was a poor migrant. She described how she only encountered the fictional Heidi a couple of years ago and didn’t believe in nostalgia and fairy-tales, because she was raised with good old tradition-shaking Communist values and Soviet-style stories of children vanquishing dragons. I was there with a Russian friend and the three of us had a little chat while she signed my book. Russian, Romanian and Chinese women all have so much in common because of our history and we talked about bringing up children of a different culture, who will never understand the totalitarian world and clash of ideologies that we grew up in. (Thank goodness for that!)

Heidi Happy performing at Paleo Festival in Nyon.

The perfectly named Heidi Happy was performing music at the start of the evening, although she wasn’t getting as much attention as she deserved. I happened to sit next to and make friends with a fun-loving and charming Anglo-Australian couple, Jayne and Jim, with whom I hope to keep in touch. I saw several blogger/publishing friends, although sadly I didn’t get to see the translators I was eager to speak to, such as Jamie Bulloch. I think translators deserve to be feted as superstars just as much as the authors!

Of course I had to buy Xiaolu’s memoir of growing up in China and then moving west Once Upon a Time in the East, Peter Stamm’s Ungefähre Landschaft (a novel not yet translated into English and set in Norway rather than Switzerland) and Alain de Botton’s The Course of Love and get them signed. I probably would have bought Monique Schwitter and Verdan as well, except that they were only available in English translation and I prefer reading them in the original if I can. (Which may seem to be contradicting the sentiment in the previous paragraph, but not at all. I just love practising my German and French.) Last, but not least, there was also a generous gift of an advance copy of one of the Swiss authors who was not there, Martin Suter’s Elefant, translated by the afore-mentioned Jamie Bulloch, due to come out in May.

Haibun: A Good Night

It’s the last Haibun Monday of the year and we have all week to link to dVerse Poets’ prompt of a good night, a preparation for this time of year when it’s dark outside but hopefully we find some comfort, warmth and light inside. It’s hard to stay cheerful when I know so many are bombed out of their homes and find no comfort at all, but I cannot miss the last prompt of the year, especially since our host is the lovely Toni, whose mother is currently very, very ill. So here is my memory of a Swiss celebration, the descent of the cows to the valley in autumn.

Desalpe in Fribourg, from myswitzerland.com

This being Switzerland, of course, we stop at midnight on the dot, but before that it’s all song and games. With apple on dapple cows, boys and girls equally handsome and flag-bearing. In the tent they throw up tables, cheerful chatter, out pops another bench. Communal prancing, booted feet, fun triumphs over grace. Stocky white sausages smoke on the grill, and the wine is hot and spicy, the apple juice well mulled. Children toddle freely to try out the Alpenhorn and the bovine flower crowns. Dogs wait under tables, so well-behaved we nearly forget they are there, until we step on their tails.

Promptly at first dawn

the field forgets our presence –

paper flowers cleared.

Reference Book to Treasure: Crime Fiction in German (Der Krimi)

If you have any interest at all in German literature or in crime fiction, you will enjoy leafing through this erudite and yet still very readable collection of articles. Or, if you are slightly obsessed like myself, you will read it from cover to cover and then start all over again. And I’m not just saying that because I was flattered to receive an electronic proof copy by the University of Wales Press. It is that rarest of creatures: an academic study which is also very enjoyable and could become a bestseller!

What is remarkable about the book is the breadth and depth of topics it covers. In terms of breadth, no stone is left unturned. The editor Katharina Hall (known to many crime fiction fans as Mrs. Peabody from her much-loved blog) and the other contributors cover not just the obvious subject areas (West German, East German, Austrian and Swiss crime fiction), but also lesser-known categories such as women’s crime writing, historical crime fiction, the place of Africa in German crime fiction and even television dramas. Furthermore, the definition of crime fiction itself is deliberately broad, and includes literary authors writing crime-infused experimental or social novels (Hans Fallada, Peter Handke, Elfriede Jelinek) as well as more traditional crime.

In terms of depth, you will find here not only comprehensive overviews of the development of crime fiction in each of the German-speaking countries, as you might expect from an academic tome, but also a focus on specific writers or books. Martin Rosenstock’s analysis of Dürrenmatt, for instance, is beautifully nuanced, pointing out how the Swiss author breaks all the classic formulas of the crime genre, whilst also poking fun at the self-aggrandising Swiss myths of neutrality, wealth and historical heritage.

Each chapter (or article) is followed not only by endnotes and a select bibliography of books (mostly those available in translation), but also recommendations for further secondary reading. Where no English translations are available for a work cited, there is a small extract in English at the end of the chapter as well, just enough to give you a flavour of the original and whet your appetite for more. This is also one of the stated aims of the book: ‘to provide readers with a springboard for further reading, viewing and research’. There is also an excellent table at the front with the chronology of crime fiction in German, including political, criminal and publishing milestones from 800 until the present day.

I will not attempt a blow-by-blow account of each topic, but allow me to highlight just a few.

Viennese tram. No relation to the book, but couldn't resist smuggling in that photo. — Viennese tram. No relation to the book, but couldn’t resist smuggling in that photo.

I may be slightly prejudiced in favour of Austrian writers, but I certainly appreciate the article on the odd humour and often extreme experimentation by Austrian authors, written by Marieke Krajenbrink, and have already ordered several books from her list of recommendations.

Thanks to an article Katharina Hall agreed to write for Crime Fiction Lover, I had previously experienced her encyclopedic knowledge of crime fiction dealing with different aspects or periods in German history (mostly the Nazi period and the reunification of the country after the Cold War). It was a pleasure, however, to read a more thorough analysis of the topic, as well as a detailed discussion of two fantastic (and very different) novels: Fallada’s Alone in Berlin and Simon Urban’s Plan D.

Finally, I cannot forget the fascinating articles which open up an entirely new world to me: Julia Augart’s analysis of the so-called Afrika-Krimi and Faye Stewart’s research on the Frauenkrimi (women crime writers). I had never heard of the first as a subgenre, and never stopped to compare the themes and styles of male and female German crime novelists.

In conclusion, either this book is a great exception to the rule, or else academic books have evolved considerably since my time, because I find it very approachable indeed. It achieves that wonderful balance between ‘speaking to ordinary readers’ without ‘dumbing down’. I’ve learnt something new in every single chapter and yet, try as I might, I can’t find any pretentious or obscure references which so often plague literary criticism. I was hoping for some Lacan or Foucault or at least Wittgenstein to throw my arms up at, but no! It stays admirably grounded throughout.

Congratulations to all the contributors and editors involved in this project. There is nothing quite like it in the English language. I will certainly treasure it and return to it as a work of reference for many years to come.

Feeling Alien: in Germany, Switzerland, New Zealand

‘Now, Marina, this time you’ve gone too far with your tenuous links between books which you are reviewing!’ [I can hear you say.] ‘The thread here is so thin it wouldn’t hold a spider! What could a zombie apocalypse, an angry teenager and a staid family man have in common?’ But hear me out, for there is some zany logic at work here: each of these books is about someone coming from ‘outside’ and trying to inveigle themselves into a new world, a new society, yet failing to understand its rules or deliberately subverting them. There is also a common theme of loss and of feeding on anger and sorrow. Not convinced? Let’s go into a little more detail.

Alina Bronsky: Scherbenpark

The first ‘alien’ (which is what Japan was calling those with foreign passports until the early 1990s) is a Russian growing up in Germany. 17 year old Sascha has a clear aim in life: she wants to kill her mother’s violent ex-partner, Vadim, who murdered her a couple of years before the story starts and is now banged up in prison. A Siberian aunt who doesn’t speak a word of German has come to look after Sascha and her younger brother and sister. Meanwhile, Sascha tries to write a book about her mother, to show what she was really like, but ends up spending the summer sulking instead, teasing and annoying people, thinking she knows everything best, raging at anyone who tries to help and getting herself into some really strange situations. She is good at school and speaks German far better than anyone else in her ghetto, so she feels superior to her fellow Russians. Yet at the same time she is disdainful about the Germans in their naive comfortable existence, which she simultaneously yearns for but also ridicules.

I understood Sascha’s anger and bewilderment, but at times she seemed too wise for her years and at other times too childish. There was also no real menace other than Vadim – everyone around her turns out to be far better than they seem at first sight (and, quite frankly, they often behave far better than she deserves). Sascha herself, for all her posturing, is not as cruel and uncaring as she pretends to be, she ends up helping everyone and (with one exception) never puts herself in any real danger. All this sounds a bit like wishful thinking to me. However, as an insight into an adolescent mind and a way of life ‘on the wrong side of the tracks’, I thought it was pretty good.

The breathless, snappy style could get on my nerves after a while, but fits this particular protagonist. Bronsky is no great stylist (at least, judging from this novel), but it was better than Tigermilk – in fact, it felt like the original upon which Tigermilk was based. Surprisingly, Bronsky was not 17 but 30 when she wrote this. I read the book in German but it has been translated by Tim Mohr and published by Europa Editions as ‘Broken Glass Park’.

Marius Daniel Popescu: La Symphonie du loup

The author is a Romanian poet and literary editor, who emigrated to Switzerland in his late twenties and worked as a bus driver in Lausanne. However, he has continued to be very active on the literary scene in both French and Romanian, founding a literary journal in Switzerland and publishing two volumes of poetry. This book is his first novel and was quite a success in France but remains only available in French.

The book has an autobiographical flavour, describing childhood and student days in Romania during Ceausescu’s time, interspersed with scenes from present-day Swiss life and learning to be a father. The author is a few years older than me, but so many of his bittersweet memories sound familiar: living with his grandmother in the countryside; getting onto the crowded trains without a ticket and bribing the ticket-inspector instead; participating in public processions to praise ‘our beloved leader; family gatherings, funerals, hospital visits, overcrowded student halls. Then we have the glimpses of Swiss bureaucracy, little everyday habits and routines, absurd rules which make us smile (or grind our teeth). The protagonist does not exactly feel like a misfit, but somehow remains spreadeagled between countries, not quite belonging to either, trying to explain one to the other.

The structure of the book can be difficult to follow: made up of strips of memories, like paper that has been through the shredder and is now mixed up in all styles and colours. There is no chronology, of course, and we get glimpses of a child, a student, and then a man tending to a toddler and watching the joy on her face as she learns something new. Then back again, in no particular order. The descriptions of life in Romania were evocative, sometimes lyrical, sometimes funny, at times shocking, but certainly rich in colour and atmosphere. The explorations of present-day life as a father and family man were not bad either, but the constant jumps from one to the other became irritating and I failed to see the relevance and connection at times. I suppose it was done for the sake of contrast between the luminous instances of love and protection in the ‘now’, and the rather lonely childhood under so-called ‘state protection’.

The author has been praised as a stylist and won prizes for this novel, but I am not fully convinced. At least in French, which is a second language for both of us. It feels a little like we are trying to converse with oven gloves on. The author is a poet, I can see that curiosity and playfulness with language in certain passages. But at times he relies on very detailed description which can be bland and overly long, or even lists and word-for-word rendering of instructions (in 3 languages) or posters at the opticians’, things like that. Perhaps it makes native French speakers become more aware of the inconsistencies of their language, but to me it seemed lazy and not terribly relevant. Finally, I found the author’s over-reliance on the second person to tell the story of childhood (as if a grandfather were reminding his grandson of his past) tiresome in the long run.

Elizabeth Knox: Wake

Knox is a well-known writer in her native New Zealand, but I haven’t come across her before. (My knowledge of authors from that part of the world is atrocious.) So I had no idea what to expect, other than that the author is dismissive of genre distinctions. She most certainly is!

This is horror story, science-fiction, psychological thriller, mystery and disturbing dystopian tale all rolled into one. Despite its gruesome opening scenes, it’s really more about the characters and how they learn to live with each other, take care of each other and deal with loss. No spoilers if I tell you that there are only fourteen survivors living under a force field which has descended upon their town on the Tasman Bay and is isolating them from the outside world. Inside this ‘dome’, there is an invisible monster who feeds on death, grief, anger, fear and other weaknesses and is picking them off one by one. Think ‘And Then There Were None’ with even more inexplicable phenomena.

In this book, we not only find an actual alien, but also people feeling jolted out of their happy, unquestioning existence, a sense of strangeness permeating everything they do, say and think thereafter. No one can be quite sure of themselves or others – is the evil within or without? Readers will be just as confused as the characters.There is a real sense of danger, as any outcome seems possible. One thing is certain: there will be no return to the age of innocence.

A story very much outside my reading comfort zone, but which left me unsettled and very thoughtful. The kind of reading which throws up more questions than it answers, I would compare it with Ioanna Bourazopoulou’s What Lot’s Wife Saw in terms of impact.