Worldly Flesh, Or How Niklaus von Flüe Discovered America
Das Fleisch der Welt oder die Entdeckung Amerikas durch Niklaus von Flüe

schwarz cover
July 2017 / 267pp
Fiction

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Sample Translation here
by Alan Robinson

review

This is a fictional version of the extraordinary story of St. Niklaus von Flüe, Switzerland’s patron saint. Niklaus von Flüe was a fifteenth-century farmer who abandoned his wife and ten children to pursue his calling as a hermit, and apparently survived for nineteen years without eating. 

One day he knocks at his wife’s door and asks his eldest son, Hans, to accompany him on a pilgrimage to find a new hermitage. Hans accepts, even though this means that he has to abandon his own young family. The pilgrimage leads them north-west through Basel and on through France to reach the ocean which will lead them to a new, undiscovered land. On their travels they are joined by a cast of quirky characters whose personalities shine through in their many adventures, from the greedy but genuinely witty and practical hangman Vischer to the hermit Ulrich, who looks up to Niklaus but seems not to have a mind of his own. Hans loves his father dearly but expresses doubts about the pilgrimage and about his faith. 

This is a fabulous, picaresque adventure full of absurd and humorous situations which will entertain and delight readers.

about the author

Adam Schwarz was born in 1990 in Bülach. He studied philosophy and German literature in Basel and now lives in Leipzig. Schwarz works as a freelance journalist (Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Literarischer Monat, VICE) and is an editor for the literary magazine Narr. In 2015, his debut novel Die Revolution in den Bergen was published.

Previous work:
Die Revolution in den Bergen (2015)

rights information

Zytglogge Verlag (Switzerland)
Contact: Liv Etienne
info@zytglogge.ch
Tel: +41 612 789 577
www.zytglogge.ch

translation assistance

Pro Helvetia covers up to 100% of the effective translation costs for literary works by Swiss authors.

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