As if Nothing Were (+SVIZRA 7)

Book 7 of Strangers Press' chapbook series, +SVIZRA.

Against the backdrop of the changing seasons, Rut Plouda deftly interweaves descriptions of the daily routine on her remote Alpine farm with the pain of her disabled son’s early death but also the redemptive joy of his short life.

In this deeply moving and personal story, Plouda watches from the window as, despite everything, nature continues to renew. Like running the farm, her grief gradually becomes an everyday reality and life, like the coming and going of the swallows and the turning of the acer leaves, goes on.

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+SVIZRA is a series of eight playfully designed chapbooks published as an exciting showcase of contemporary writing from the four official languages of Switzerland: German, French, Italian and Romansh. It takes its name from the Romansh name for ‘Switzerland’ and is the result of our latest collaboration with an international group of authors, translators, publishers, designers and editors.

In publishing them, along with other sets on the way, we are continuing our mission to broaden the appreciation and breadth in the UK of contemporary European writing in particular and international literature in general against a still rising political tide of mutual suspicion, intolerance and aggression.

In giving equal visibility and weight to each of the four languages, +SVIZRA offers a range of Swiss writing never before seen in English from a diverse group of some of the best authors living and working in Switzerland today, including National Literature Prize winning Anna Ruchat, Iraqi exile Usama Al-Shahmani, and Romansh author, Rut Plouda.