Urs Widmer

Updated on Sep 26, 2024

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Name Urs Widmer		Role Novelist

Died April 2, 2014, Zurich, Switzerland Parents Anita Widmer, Walter Widmer Books Top dogs, My Mother's Lover, My Father's Book, Im Kongo, Mr Adamson Similar People A A Milne, E H Shepard, Sean O'Casey

J.S. Bach-Stiftung: Reflexion von Urs Widmer zur Kantate BWV 36

Urs Widmer (21 May 1938 – 2 April 2014) was a Swiss novelist, playwright, an essayist, and a short story writer.

Urs Widmer urswidmerstarbimaltervon75jahrenjpg

Widmer was born in Basel in 1938, and for many years lived in Zurich. Widmer studied German, French, and history at the universities of Basel and Montpellier. After completing his PhD, he worked briefly as an editor at Suhrkamp Verlag, but left the publishing house during the Lektoren-Aufstand ("Editors' Revolt") of 1968.

In 2014, Roman Bucheli, Literary Editor of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, said that Widmer:

Urs Widmer Interview Ich hole keine Banker vom Sockel das tun die

"is without doubt one of the most significant and versatile talents currently at work in the field of contemporary German-language literature as well as one of the most successful. His sales are invariably in the high five-figure bracket"

Urs Widmer Literatur Eine gewisse Sehnsucht badischezeitungde

Top dogs urs widmer

Works in English translation

My mother's lover ("Der Geliebte meiner Mutter"). Tr. Donal McLaughlin, London, Seagull Books [2011], ISBN 978-1-906-49796-5.

My father's book ("Das Buch des Vaters"). Tr. Donal McLaughlin, London, Seagull Books [2011], ISBN 978-0-857-42017-6.

On life, death, and this and that of the rest. The Frankfurt lectures on poetics ("Vom Leben, vom Tod und vom Übrigen auch dies und das"). Tr. Donal McLaughlin, London, Seagull Books [2013], ISBN 978-0-857-42100-5.

The blue soda siphon ("Der blaue Siphon"). Tr. Donal McLaughlin, London, Seagull Books [2014], ISBN 978-0-857-42211-8.

In the Congo ("Im Kongo"). Tr. Donal McLaughlin, London, Seagull Books [2015], ISBN 978-0-857-42315-3.

Mr Adamson ("Herr Adamson"). Tr. Donal McLaughlin, London, Seagull Books [2015], ISBN 978-0-857-42232-3.