Silvio Blatter

Life

Silvio Blatter was born into a working-class family. He attended school at the "Bezirksschule"-level in his hometown. From 1962 to 1966, he attended the teacher’s seminar in Wettingen, canton Aargau. He worked as a primary school teacher for six years in Aarau, the capital of canton Aargau. In 1970, he worked in a metalworking company.

In 1972, Blatter began his college education at the University of Zurich in literature and language studies, matriculating after six semesters. In 1974, he was employed as a machinist in the plastics industry. The following year, he completed training for directors of audio plays at the Swiss Broadcast (Schweizer Radio DRS, part of SRG SSR idée suisse).

After long stays in Amsterdam and Husum, Blatter finally settled in Zürich as a freelance writer. Currently, he resides in Oberglatt (canton Zurich).

Work

Silvio Blatter mostly writes prose. In his early works, he described every-day life and the monotony of industrial work in a very haunting and detailed manner. The author became known due to his Freiamt-Trilogie ("Freiamt trilogy") comprising the following novels that were published in Blatter’s home region that is called "Freiamt" (a certain part of Aargau):

These thick books paint a wide picture of the Freiamt region and its inhabitants. They are realistic family novels. In "Das sanfte Gesetz" for example, Blatter portrays four generations of the fictional family Wolf, a family of entrepreneurs. They suffer tragedy. After a car crash, one family member needs leg amputation, another family member is shot by the police and the son loves his young stepmother, who gets pregnant and the reader doesn’t know by whom. In another volume of the trilogy, a little boy observes hand grenades stolen from a small Swiss army depot at a drill ground/shooting range.

Blatter’s narrative style is very realistic and modern. He mentions the boy playing Nintendo Game & Watch hand-held games and names of pop songs and singers (Herbert Grönemeyer, Level 42 and others). Even He-Man from Masters of the Universe plays a role. The child discusses religion with a nun and compares He-Man with Jesus, coming to the conclusion that Jesus, who was a "transformer," wouldn’t have a chance against his enemies, when he – after the Christian belief - becomes man in Judgment Day. Man’s body was weak because it was of flesh, so Jesus shall stay a roadside granite sculpture.

Despite the realistic style, some of Blatter’s books contain a slight trace of everyday magic that Blatter seemingly doesn’t want destroy. In "Das sanfte Gesetz," there is a totemist thinking of Nina, the mysterious nun and the great-grandfather talking to his donkeys, sending light beams into space. Blatter himself sometimes seems to describe life in esoteric terms.

During the 1990s, Blatter stopped writing, as he had taken up painting. Since 2000, writing and painting again have the same importance for him.

Memberships

Silvio Blatter is a member of the Swiss-German PEN Centre (from 1984 to 1986 he was its chairman) and of the club "Autorinnen und Autoren der Schweiz".

Awards and tributes

Books

The literal English translations of the book titles are given in brackets