Anna Ruchat
Switzerland
The writer and translator Anna Ruchat was born in Zurich in 1959 and grew up in Ticino, where she still lives today. She studied philosophy and German literature in Pavia and Zurich. She made her literary debut with translations of Thomas Bernhard. Since then, she has translated numerous other authors such as Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Nelly Sachs and Paul Celan. Since 2022, she has been teaching translation at the Fondazione Unicampus San Pellegrino in Rimini.
Ruchat first appeared with her own stories in 2004 – and what a debut it was: her first book, In questa vita (German title: Die beiden Türen der Welt), was immediately awarded the Schiller Prize. This was followed in 2019 by the Swiss Literature Prize for Gli anni di Nettuno sulla terra (Neptune Years). With Vertraute Gespenster, Anna Ruchat now presents her first novel. In it, the author gradually unravels a toxic family dynamic. Told from various perspectives, readers follow a wealthy Swiss family forced to confront its past. The story begins like a contemporary fairy tale and is full of references that recall Anna Ruchat’s work as a translator. Through skillful montages of letters, notebook entries and narrative, Anna Ruchat sends her readers, together with the protagonist, on a hunt for a ghost that nobody wants to talk about.
Vertraute Gespenster. Novel. Translated from Italian by Barbara Sauser. Limmat 2026
Neptunjahre. Short story. Translated from Italian by Barbara Sauser. Limmat 2020
Schattenflug. Short story. Translated from Italian by Maja Pflug and Jacqueline Aerne. Limmat 2012
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