Offshoots – Writing from Geneva, Living along Lac Léman, The Summer Guest, 99.9 Ways to Travel Switzerland, The Gilded Chalet.
In the recent Living in the Know audio “advent calendar” podcast, Catherine and Lisa suggested 24 gift ideas including several books that are set in Switzerland or have been written by authors living in this country.
Below are the four book suggestions, plus the Living in Nyon book called “Living along Lac Léman” – note this book is nearing the end of its print run! The Payot bookshop in Nyon (in La Combe shopping centre) has several copies left if you are looking for a last-minute, local gift. The book is a selection of columns published in English in La Côte newspaper and is a light-hearted look at living along Lac Léman.
Offshoots 14 – Writing from Geneva – Fragile States
The biennial literary journal of the Geneva Writers’ Group, a group of writers with over 250 members. Includes poetry, fiction and non-fiction. The book’s photographs were taken by Alistair Scott from Gland. Copies can be bought in Payot Rive-Gauche in Geneva and Books Books Books in Lausanne.
The Summer Guest by Alison Anderson
During the long, hot summer of 1888, an extraordinary friendship blossoms between Anton Chekhov and Zinaida Lintvaryova, a young doctor. Recently blinded by illness, Zinaida has retreated to her family’s estate in the lush countryside of Eastern Ukraine, where she is keeping a diary to record her memories of her earlier life. But when the Chekhov family arrives to spend the summer at a dacha on the estate, and she meets the middle son Anton Pavlovich, her quiet existence is transformed by the connection they share. What begins as a journal kept simply to pass the time becomes an intimate, introspective narrative of Zinaida’s singular relationship with this doctor and writer of growing fame.
Alison Anderson spent many years in California and she now lives in a village in Swiss Romande. She is a novelist and she also works as a literary translator.
99.9 Ways to Travel Switzerland like a local by Chantal Panozzo
This book is one part travel book and one part culture guide. Inspiration for unusual places to stay, to visit or experience!
The Gilded Chalet by Padraig Rooney
From Rousseau to Nabokov, le Carré to Conan Doyle, Hesse to Highsmith to Hemingway, Switzerland has always provided a refuge for writers attracted to it as an escape from world wars, oppression, tuberculosis or marriage. Part detective work part treasure chest, The Gilded Chalet takes the reader on a grand tour of the birth-place of many loved stories.