Children’s Stories
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There is someone who believes that there is no America; and an inventor who invents things that already exist. There is the man who...
Seven stories in which strange old fogies, failing, preposterous rebels, descendants of the knights of the sad face dare to challenge the irreversibility of what already exists. There is a man who knows, but does not believe, that the Earth is round; there is a guy who gives new names to things so that he will no longer be understood by the others.
There is someone who believes that there is no America; and an inventor who invents things that already exist. There is the man who knows the entire train schedule by heart, though he has never travelled anywhere, and who, when he learns that the people at the counter know just as much as he does, begins to count all the stairs in the world so that he will know something no-one else does.
»Peter Bichsel writes laconically, soberly, calmly. Not in the tone of the know-it-all seeking to edify the reader, but from the stance of the observer curiously inquiring into what they see. Of course, it's all also a little bit Swiss. And playful. Ironic. Genuinely brilliant. Which is why decades-old observations of the state of the world are not just still current and educational, but also entertaining.« ARD Druckfrisch
»These are keen observations from everyday life, grim interjections and gruff backchat, instructions on how to get through life in a respectable way, and generous absolutions for those who are floundering miserably. It is on this terrain that Peter Bichsel completes his mission: telling stories written by life, and which carry all the shades of glitz and misery.« Pia Reinacher, FAZ
»Peter Bichsel writes laconically, soberly, calmly. Not in the tone of the know-it-all seeking to edify the reader, but from the stance of the observer curiously inquiring into what they...
Persons
Peter Bichsel
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
And Really Frau Blum Would Very Much Like to Meet the Milkman
Catalan rights (Lleonard Muntaner Editor), France (Héros-Limite), Thailand (Gamme Magie Éditions), Georgia (Intelekti), Iran (Aftabkaran)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: UK (Calder & Boyars), Spanish world rights (Espasa Calpe), Italy (Marcos y Marcos), Denmark (Gyldendal), Sweden (Norstedt & Söner), Norway (Gyldendal Norsk), Korea (Munhakdongne), Hungary (Bookart), Croatia (Mlinarec & Plavic), Slovenia (LUD Literatura), Turkey (Kabalci), Greece (Grammata), Belorussia (Logvinau)
Beautiful Sister Boredom
Something Has to Be Done About the Banana Trees in Winter
The Donkey, Too, Has a Soul
The first of Peter Bichsel‘s P.S.-columns, which have become an institution sui generis over the course of four decades, was published in Zurich’s Tages-Anzeiger in 1975. But even in the 1960s, the author had been writing numerous journalistic contributions and columns on questions of the times, that accompanied his early successes as a literary storyteller. Beat...
Talking About the Weather
Talking about the weather, about anything, that is. Being understood, even if it’s just by someone who doesn’t even speak my language. Peter Bichsel’s columns can strike up a conversation with...
Uzbekistan (Turon-Iqbol)
Cherubin Hammer and Cherubin Hammer
Peter Bichsel tells the story of Cherubin Hammer, who thinks that he is a writer and is trying, unsucessfully, to live the biography of a writer. He confronts him with a second Cherubin hammer, a...
France (Héros-Limite)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Italy (Marcos y Marcos)
You Couldn’t Take a Stand Against Our Postman
Whether he talks about the suffering of professional footballers or about a strange journey on a train through Egypt, whether he chats about life in New York or an old postman who delivered his...
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Italy (Marcos y Marcos)
On the City of Paris
»I believe«, says Peter Bichsel, »that the importance of literature lies not in conveying content but in maintaining storytelling. Because people need stories to survive. They...
Thailand (Gamme Magie Éditions), Azerbaijan (Alatoran), Iran (Nashr-i Naw)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: French rights (Éditions d’en bas), Italy (Marcos y Marcos), Norway (Gyldendal Norsk), Turkey (Ayrac), India (Bengali, Tarjama Books), India (English, Tarjama Books), Israel (Babel)
The Buzzard
Buzzard is a rich, homesick native of Solothurn with whose money Solothurn’s historic city centre is »beautified« (and made unlivable). Buzzard, however, is also the name of the...
French rights (Éditions d’en bas), Italy (Casagrande)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Spanish world rights (Espasa Calpe), Norway (Damm & Søn)
The Reader. The Story
Peter Bichsel‘s five lectures from 1982 are not actually lectures but stories about lectures. They are refreshingly unpretentious and always exceedingly subtle – just as his works of fiction. At...
Turkey (Ketebe)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Italy (Comma 22), Denmark (Gyldendal), Sweden (Janus), Croatia (Naklada MD)
The Seasons
This the story of a house, an ordinary residential house, and the people and objects in it. The author raises the inventory and he invents a character, who is called Kieninger. Kieninger rents a...
France (Gallimard), Turkey (Ketebe)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Italy (Comma 22), Netherlands (Meulenhoff), Denmark (Arena), Sweden (Norstedt), Korea (Bookstory), Poland (Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy), Czech Republic (Odeon)