Swiss Review 6/2019

Swiss Review / November 2019 / No.6 29 at the end of the listener call-ins en- hance this effect. Read one of them with your smartphone, and a music video will open up on YouTube. Pierre Lepori was born in 1968 in Lugano and lives in Lausanne. The au- thor, who works as cultural corre- spondent on Swiss public radio, trans- lated “Effetto Notte” (Noctural effect) into French himself. RUTH VON GUNTEN Pierre Lepori, “Effetto notte” (Noctural effect) Effigie edizioni, Pavia 2019. 96 pages; EUR 13.– Further recommendations (Ticino) Flavio Stroppini, “Comunque. Tell” (Capelli), A bitter and ironically written and illustrated account of the legend of William Tell. Marco Zappa, “Al Vént Al Bófa ... Ammò” (Dadò), The Ticino musician marks his 70 th birthday with a wonderful collection of song lyrics. “Die Wölfin – La luffa” They call him the “boy”. After his fa- ther’s suicide, he grows up with his grandparents and great-grandmother inaGraubündenmountainvillage. His one-armed grandfather – replete with historical references, left-field ideas and philosophical musings – plays a prominent role in his upbringing, as does his silent yet assertive grand- mother. Every page in this book pro- vides a complex spin on the boy’s fam- ily history and development as a person. LeoTuor’swriting is simple, ef- fortless and poetic. The work, which first appeared in 2002 in the author’s native Romansh, has now been republished in a revised, bilingual edition. Peter Egloff has pro- duced an outstanding German transla- tionof Tuor’s exquisite prose. LeoTuor was born in 1959 in Graubünden and lives in the Sumvitg Valley (Surselva, canton of Grisons). RUTH VON GUNTEN Leo Tuor, “Die Wölfin / La luffa” (The she-wolf) Limmat Verlag, Zurich 2019, 368 pages; CHF/EUR 38.50 mentation resembles an American se- ries,withrecurringflashbacks.Itworks, but ends up as regimented. In terms of style Dicker avoids being edgy, prefer- ringtofallbackonfamiliarphrasing.His characters are caricatures. The lawyer fromNewYork, for example, the star of the bar, goes by the name of… Starr. Nonetheless, the critics can keep walk- ing.Theauthormakesthatclearthrough a certainMetaOstrovski. Themaximof thisliterarycritic?“Aboveall,neverlove. To love is to be weak.” This dismissal of the inevitable detractors of Dicker’s work is a reflection of the thriller itself: slightly naïve, slightly comical. Indeed, it is the flashes of this schoolyard hu- mour that save “The Disappearance of StéphanieMailer” frombecomingdull. STEPHANE HERZOG Joël Dicker, “The Disappearance of Stéphanie Mailer”, Edition De Fallois paperback 840 pages Further recommendations (French) Roland Buti, “Grand National” (Zoé) Concise, affectionate account of a man in a mid-life crisis. Pascal Janovjak: “Le Zoo de Rome” (Actes Sud) A retrospective of 20 th -century history – through the lens of Rome’s city zoo. Collectif, “Tu es la sœur que je choisis” (éd. D`En Bas) Various authors from French-speak- ing Switzerland look back at the Swiss women’s strike of 14 June 2019. “Effetto notte” Alessandromoderates a night-time ra- dio programme that allows listeners to call in and say anything they want. After a faux pas on air, he is forced to go on holiday. While in America, the beleaguered presenter slowly gets back on an even keel. Chapters skil- fully alternate between listener call- ins and the story of his time on the other side of the Atlantic. This short book – earnest and observational one minute, absurd and amusing the next – offers new narrative and musical twists at every corner. The QR codes Vulnerable characters – and a step into the unknown A young woman stands at the edge of a roof and threatens to jump off. She stays there for almost two days while an entire city watches her every move. Simone Lappert, born in Aarau in 1985, uses this situation as a device to present a host of characters from different generations, bringing each one to life and showing how they react to the situation. There are old people with their world weariness, the young with their whole life ahead of them and the middle aged all but consumed by their pro- fessional commitments. Manu is the woman who wants to jump, then there is her cool boy- friend Finn, a bicycle courier, and two resigned older people running a grocery store and fall- ing deeper into debt, a homeless man selling questions written on paper to passers-by, a pubescent girl who wants to harm herself to avoid swimming lessons and Roswitha, the owner of the café frequented by the characters. Lappert recounts wonderfully vivid stories about the different characters, but deliberately leaves the conundrum of Manu and her jump unresolved. The jump into a net held by the fire service may come across as somewhat contrived. However, the portrayal of the indi- vidual figures and their suffering and joy add substance to the book. It is reminiscent of the Carson McCullers novel “The Heart is a lonely Hunter” written in 1940, which also brings an entire city to life through a raft of memorable characters. CHARLES LINSMAYER Simone Lappert, “Der Sprung” , Novel. Diogenes-Verlag, Zurich, 330 pages, hardback 30 francs, eBook 24 francs For more recommendations, visit www.revue.ch/en