All guests of the European Literature Days from 2009 to 2014.

[ book tip by Literatur Schweiz ] Born in 1985, Dorothee Elmiger makes a fascinatingly fearless debut as a novelist. «Einladung an die Waghalsigen» (Invitation to the Bold of Heart) explores paths that lie far away from the mainstream and develops a poetic pertinacity. Margarete Stein is sitting at her kitchen table reading – and reading. She lives right above the police station which is headed by her father who is a police commander. The mother ran away long ago. She reads and her sister Fritzi wanders about the area. Together they search for a mysterious river called Buenaventura.

In an attempt to write a chronicle the sisters jot down everything they observe, explore, hope, wish for. In her «novel» Dorothee Elmiger does not arrange all these explorations into a closed frame, rather, she presents them in the form of singular particles and fragments that oscillate between close observation, inner perception and read up quotations. There is a certain unrest spinning inside her text, an unrest that reflects the quest for one’s own wishes and for a purpose in life. Elmiger’s poetic novel is like a intensely smouldering fire that cannot be controlled. Its musical and linguistic structure reveals a certain obstinacy and poetic audacity. All this makes the book a surprising debut and an invitation to curiosity.

(Beat Mazenauer, transl. by Anja Hälg)

[ Favourite quote ] «Der Winter bleibt eine Leerzeile auf dem Bogen Papier, den ich in die Schreibmaschine spannte.»

[ book info ] Elmiger, Dorothee: Invitation to the Bold of Heart. (original language: English) Einladung an die Waghalsigen. Seagull Books, London, 2011 (2008). ISBN: 978-0857420190.
Translated from German by Katy Derbyshire