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

[ book tip by Literatur Schweiz ] Eidgenössische Literaturpreise 2012
 
Raised voices in the «Helvezia» tavern, composed in a virtuoso manner by the narrator. One final evening spent together, until the last bottles are empty and the village watering hole is to be closed forever. Anecdotes are told, the patrons tease each other, they talk of the natural dangers looming ahead and bemoan modern times, they philosophizes about life and death, laugh and turn sentimental. Does the end of the pub stand for the end of rural life? «Last Last Orders» completes Arno Camenisch’s trilogy set in the Grisons region of Switzerland, whose parts repeatedly bring to fruition the coupling of German and Rhaeto-Romanic in surprisingly novel ways.
(Federal jury of literature, trans. by Simon Froehling)
 
(Last Last Orders, Translated by Donal McLaughlin, to be published by Dalkey Archive Press, Chicago)

[ Favourite quote ] «Was, Wasser, fragt die Tante am Stammtisch in der Helvezia und schaut den Alexi an, spinnst du jetzt denn ganz.»

[ book info ] Camenisch, Arno: Ustrinkata. (original language: Deutsch) Last Last Orders. Engeler-Verlag, Solothurn, 2012 . ISBN: 978-3-033-03028-2.