Ascent

Ludwig Hohl began writing this story in 1926 and finished it only in 1975, in the year of its first publication. With his narrative he manages to establish an enigmatic simplicity where poetry and philosophy coexist in close intimacy, telling an allegorical story of two young men climbing a mountain until they fulfill their destiny.

»Two young men with very different personalities set out to climb a mountain. Ull, decisive and determined, has his eye on the goal: the summit. Johann, irresolute, is just along for the climb; after several setbacks he gives up and turns back. Ull continues on – despite the near impossibility of summiting alone, and ignoring all warning signs – determined to reach the summit in defiance of his friend.« (book description from the US-edition by Black Square)

»Ludwig Hohl’s work, like almost no other these days, can be picked up and read without prerequisite or compromise. It’s as outrageous as it is self-evident. It doesn’t have to be discovered, recommended or be made accessible by interpretation, but is available freely to be read, like a human piece of writing belonging to nature and giving it a soul in the first place.« Peter Handke

»[Hohl] was a voyeur where the nuances and shivers of sensitivity are concerned. Hohl experienced physical and psychological phenomena as endlessly fragmented. With disillusioned qualms, he assembled these fragments to a mosaic of language that is of extraordinary clarity.« George Steiner

»Hohl is a great discovery, an unjustly neglected author.« Susan Bernofsky

»Swiss writer Ludwig Hohl is always good for a pointed and surprising observation. His work reveals countless idiosyncratic notes, among them maxims, parables, small portraits, sketches: the forms often merge into one another.« Martin Zingg, Neue Zürcher Zeitung am Sonntag