Dorothee Elmiger wins Swiss Book Prize

Dorothee Elmiger is a Swiss writer, translator and historian, born in Wetzikon, northern Switzerland, in 1985. Keystone-SDA

Dorothee Elmiger has won this year's Swiss Book Prize for her novel Die Holländerinnen (The Dutch Women).

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The Swiss Book Prize is the third award Dorothee Elmiger has received for her novel Die Holländerinnen. She was honoured with the German Book Prize on her 40th birthday on October 13, followed by the Bavarian Book Prize at the end of October. Elmiger is the first writer to achieve this triple honour.

Die Holländerinnen is a “sensual and moving text that puts us into a reading frenzy”, said the jury of the Swiss Book Prize on Sunday. “In her consistently composed novel, Dorothee Elmiger revolves around violence in various forms and makes disorientation physically tangible – a feeling that epitomises our present day,” it went on.

The award was presented as part of the BuchBasel International Literature Festival. The other nominees were Nelio Biedermann (“Lázár”), Meral Kureyshi (“Im Meer waren wir nie”), Jonas Lüscher (“Verzauberte Vorbestimmung”) and Melara Mvogdobo (“Grossmütter”).

Elmiger receives CHF30,000 for the award, while the other nominees receive CHF3,000 each. A total of 50 publishers submitted 94 books for this year’s Swiss Book Prize. The prize was established in 2008 by the LiteraturBasel association and the Swiss Booksellers and Publishers Association.

Translated from German by DeepL/sb

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