Twenty-five books to understand Switzerland

“Switzerland does not exist.” Ben’s sentence hits the mark. Impossible, to say this country with 26 cantons and half-cantons, where lakes, rivers, bisses, metropolises, hamlets, mountains, summits, mountain pastures, tunnels, glaciers, palm trees, vines or firs coexist, to brandish a single image, to quote a single book, to launch a date where a place that would sum up everything, from Geneva to Chiasso via Zurich, from the Celts to banking secrecy via the Sonderbund. And we wouldn’t even know in what language – French, Italian, Romansh (and which one?), German or dialects – to present this improbable concentrate of Helvétie … Looking for a book to say Switzerland, we are tempted to paraphrase Ben: “La Swiss literature does not exist. ”

However, the country writes, tells itself, observes itself, is declined. To try to seize it, it is a pity to give up the books. In their diversity, fables and fictions can help the curious to form even a moving idea. Through the choice of books that we offer you here, the country will appear plural, uncertain, sometimes mountainous, sometimes urban, sometimes Lake Geneva, sometimes German, but nevertheless familiar. We will recognize ourselves, as a Swiss, in such and such a page. We may learn a little, as Swiss or non-Swiss, about this multiple country.

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