Meeting with Peter Stamm born in 1963 in Switzerland. Journalist, writer, he is the author of a dozen novels since “Agnès” (1998) crowned by the Rauriser Literaturpreis p. He currently lives in Winterthur. And on the occasion of the 25th Independent Bookstore Festival, spotlight on the “L’Etage” bookstore located in Yverdon Les Bains, a Swiss municipality in the canton of Vaud.
” A former librarian, the narrator spends his time cutting out press articles that he archives in his cellar – all carefully stored in files. One of them is dedicated to Franziska, alias Fabienne, a successful ex-pop singer. He weighs no less than two kilos, a weight commensurate with the love that the narrator has had for him since childhood. They met on school benches and were even close friends. As time passed, they lost sight of each other. But one day, the narrator decides to reconnect with her and, after getting her email address, sends her a message.
With humor and tenderness, the voice of the narrator unfolds here to thwart the codes of the sentimental novel, and tell us a singular love story. Is it possible to keep feelings for the loved one intact, to protect them from time as one files a file? The answer to these questions lacks neither charm nor poetry. » (Presentation of Christian Bourgois Editions)
Translated from the German (Swiss) by Pierre Deshusses
The 2023 Bookstore Festival with Cyrielle Cordt-Moller from the bookstore “Upstairs” located in Yverdon Les Bains, a Swiss municipality in the canton of Vaud