Elisa Shua Dusapin
Switzerland
Elisa Shua Dusapin, born in 1992 to a South Korean mother and a French father in south-western France, grew up in Paris, Seoul and Porrentruy. She worked as a theatre assistant and actress and studied at the Swiss Literature Institute in Biel. She now lives in the Jura. Her debut novel, Ein Winter in Sokcho, has won numerous awards, including the Robert Walser Prize and the National Book Award for Translation, and was adapted for the screen in 2024.
Her fourth novel, Damals waren wir unzertrennlich, tells the story of two sisters who, after years of silence, are forced by the death of their father to re-examine their relationship. In their late father’s house, Agathe, a screenwriter from New York, and her younger sister Véra, who suffers from aphasia, meet again for the first time in 15 years. They have nine days to clear out the house and come to terms with their sisterly relationship. Elisa Shua Dusapin explores this relationship with almost casual precision; much is conveyed through what remains unsaid. “Dusapin can capture emotions without speaking of them,” writes SRF Kultur. A bittersweet novel that lingers long in the memory.
Damals waren wir unzertrennlich. Novel. Kein & Aber 2025
Die Pachinko-Kugeln. Novel. Blumenbar 2022
Ein Winter in Sokcho. Novel. Blumenbar 2018
All translated from French by Andreas Jandl.
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