29^th Leukerbad International Literary Festival

Authors

Mariann Bühler

Switzerland

Born in 1982 near Lucerne and a longtime resident of Basel, Mariann Bühler, was until recently known primarily as a busy literary mediator and event organizer. In 2014, she founded the “Sofa Readings” series at the Basel Literature House, a series that is now a presence throughout the country and was awarded a “Special Mediation” prize as part of the 2025 Swiss Literature awards. The sofa readings take place in private and semi-public spaces, living rooms or gardens become stages for readings. “The intimate and relaxed atmosphere encourages direct interaction between the authors and the public,” the jury statement said in praise. This is reminiscent of a certain literary festival held in the Valais mountains.
After seven years of work, Mariann Bühler published her first novel in 2024: Verschiebung im Gestein (Shift in the Rock). The book is set in a Swiss mountain village and recounts in exquisitely precise language the three disparate yet connected stories of characters within whom something changes slowly but surely and who, caught between persistence and internal upheaval, must face the question of how their lives should continue. A “modern ‘Heimatroman’ that avoids rustic kitsch” (Kathrin Signer bz basel), Mariann Bühler’s debut novel has made the shortlist for Swiss Book Prize. “The author has created an empathetic, vivid, and complex book about everyday eruptions, close to the characters, full of existential power, well structure, dense and light,” wrote Manuela Waeber in the jury statement.

Verschiebung im Gestein. Novel. Atlantis 2024

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