Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Italy (Marcos y Marcos)
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 letters like a personal favour: Peter Bichsel tells his stories from everyday life without a big but with a small, usually well-hidden lesson. He doesn’t want to explain anything, nor examine an issue in minute detail, no, he is only concerned with telling a story.
In his columns –...
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 letters like a personal favour: Peter Bichsel tells his stories from everyday life without a big but with a small, usually well-hidden lesson. He doesn’t want to explain anything, nor examine an issue in minute detail, no, he is only concerned with telling a story.
In his columns – written between 1990 and 1994 –, which have been gathered here, Bichsel doesn’t talk about the rapid to and fro of the zeitgeist but about people he meets and who are important therefore and have to be taken seriously. The reader feels taken by the hand and can, indeed, get the impression that these sentences were written only for them.
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)
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)
Children’s Stories
Catalan rights (Los Cuarto), France (Attila), Finland (Otava), Korea (Wisdomhouse), Japan (Asahi), Thailand (Gamme Magie Éditions), Slovakia (Milanium), Lithuania (Pamėginčius), Turkey (Ketebe), Azerbaijan (Alatoran), Iran (Aftabkaran), Israel (Makom Leshira Association), Bengali rights (Book Readers)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: UK (Calder & Boyars), USA (Delacorte), Spanish world rights (Santillana), Basque rights (Erein), Galician rights (Edición Obraidoro), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Atica), Portuguese rights (selection; ASA), Italy (Marcos y Marcos), Romanic rights (Uniun dals Grischs), Netherlands (Van Goor), Denmark (Gyldendal), Sweden (Norstedt & Söner), Norway (Gyldendal Norsk), Poland (Longin Studio), Czech Republic (Host), Hungary (Holnap), Romania (RAO), Estonia (Kirijastus Ilmamaa), Croatia (Stajer-Graf), Serbia (Draganic), Slovenia (LUD Literatura), Greece (Ekdoseis Epikuros), Macedonia (Kultura), Ukraine (Golovna Specializovana Redakcija), Belorussia (Logvinau), Georgia (Bakur Sulakauri), India (Hindi; Saar Sansaar), India (Urdu; Punjab Book Department)
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)