Venice for six months. A celebration of the senses. Matthias Zschokke writes about it in such an inspiring way that you feel you must have been there with him. Or that you have to set off and go there at once.
There are a considerable number of books about Venice. But no one has ever written one like this before! It brings the magnetism of the town to life in such a passionate, observant and laconic way that it overwhelms you. For example, the moment when the author steps out of the door onto the sunlit square and notes:
»I am overcome by a sublime feeling, I envy myself.« On one level the author perceives everything as though he were seeing it for the first time, but at the same time he is one of the residenti, the locals who are not expected to pay tourist prices on the vaparetto, who drink their macchiatone standing up at the bar. From the early summer of 2012 he lives in Venice for six months; perhaps it would be more accurate to say he lives in the town and takes note of everything he sees, smells, tastes, hears and experiences: not in a silent journal, but in mails to friends, relatives, colleagues. Zschokke’s infectious curiosity protects him from idealisation – it is directed towards the whole world, wishing to fully grasp every thing it is possible to know. In this way a shimmering kaleidoscope emerges, a study of the big picture and the smallest of quirks, from theatrical rumblings and the literary scene to the real things of everyday existence. A marvellous thing, this book.
Matthias Zschokke, born in Bern in 1954, grew up in Aargau and the canton of Bern. He has lived in Berlin since 1980, where he works as an author and filmmaker. He made his debut in 1982 with the novel »Max«, for which he was awarded the Robert Walser Prize, and has published a large number of novels, plays and feature films. Matthias Zschokke has been awarded prestigious prizes including the Gerhart Hauptmann Prize, the Solothurn Literature Prize, was the first German-speaking author ever to win the Prix Femina étranger for the novel »Maurice mit Huhn« (Maurice with Chicken) and the »Eidgenössischer Literaturpreis (Swiss Literature Prize)« for »Der Mann mit den zwei Augen« (The Man with Two Eyes).
Rights soldFrench: Editions Zoé S.A.
