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The Solothurner Filmtage and SRF1 are showing the documentary “Interplay – when Peter Stamm writes”.
Daniel ArnetEditor of Sunday Blick magazine
The Swiss Peter Stamm (59) is a bestselling author with around 1.5 million books sold. A documentary film will be released for his 60th birthday – and a new regular novel in which a director couple makes a film about an author: like in a hall of mirrors!
Peter Stamm, on your 60th birthday on January 18th your new, ninth novel «In a dark blue hour» will be published. A present from the publisher?
In fact, the book was supposed to come out later. But then Swiss television announced that it would be showing a film about me for my birthday – so the publisher brought the date forward.
How will you celebrate the day?
I’m sure I’ll have a nice meal with my family in the evening. And ten days later there is a party with friends.
And a glass of Ricard, which your new fictional character, Richard Wechsler, likes to drink?
Lots of people like that. I didn’t like the anise drink at first either, but like Wechsler I got to know it in Paris.
Peter Stamm
With his novels and short stories, Peter Stamm (59) is one of the most successful Swiss writers. He received the Swiss Book Prize in 2018 for the novel “The Gentle Indifference of the World”. Growing up in Weinfelden TG with three siblings, he did a commercial apprenticeship, got his high school diploma and started studying. Stamm lives with his partner and two sons in Winterthur ZH.
With his novels and short stories, Peter Stamm (59) is one of the most successful Swiss writers. He received the Swiss Book Prize in 2018 for the novel “The Gentle Indifference of the World”. Growing up in Weinfelden TG with three siblings, he did a commercial apprenticeship, got his high school diploma and started studying. Stamm lives with his partner and two sons in Winterthur ZH.
Wechsler bears some biographical traits of yours. And the painted man with the shirt sleeves rolled up on the book cover looks like you.
In fact, that’s me, portrayed by the German artist Anke Doberauer.
The content of the game between fiction and truth drives you further, because the novel is about a documentary about Wechsler …
… which ultimately fails …
… and “Interplay – when Peter Stamm writes” is the name of the documentary film that the Solothurn Film Festival is now showing. What was first?
The movie idea! The directors Arne Kohlweyer (41) and Georg Isenmann (44) told me they wanted to make a film like I am writing a book. Then I said, “So I’m going to write a book about two people making a film about one author.”
So do the book and film belong together?
You can consume both separately: the book without knowing the film and the film without reading the book. Because the film is also about writing in general and the way I work.
The filmmakers in the book wonder if Wechsler keeps writing about a failed childhood love. Was that a motivation for your writing?
Wechsler once said that you need great emotions to drive you to write. And love is one of the best feelings to work with. Hatred would be less productive.
US author Bret Easton Ellis (58) also explores his own youth in his forthcoming novel “The Shards”. Coincidence, or is something in the air?
With the current Nobel Prize winner Annie Ernaux (82), the autofictional is the topic of the hour. Also with Kim de l’Horizon (30). So far I have refused this self-reflection.
But now join in!
Because it was such a playful starting point, I was more relaxed than usual. That’s why the book turned out to be funnier than my previous ones. I didn’t take everything so seriously. It was a game that we operated.
Yes, it is reminiscent of Max Frisch’s play “Biography: A Game”.
I agree. But when everyone only writes about their real life, you ask yourself where this is going. It’s an interesting development, but I don’t think it will last long.
But the readership always wants to know how much truth there is in the novel – although the first-person narrator and the author are not the same, they look for parallels.
That’s why I always asked the counter question at readings: “What would happen if I were the I in the novel? Would it make the book better or worse?”
No, but maybe more truthful. Is that what readers are looking for in times of fake news?
Perhaps. Or maybe it has something to do with the fact that we’re being overwhelmed with Netflix fictional crap. From this arises the need for truthfulness.
In the novel you describe the dilemma: «Reality doesn’t write stories. You can’t live in fiction, but you can’t die either.” Is this your attempt to combine reality and fiction?
Yes, but in almost all my books there is such a fictional and real level. That has always been my theme.
Have you found out about the subject over the years?
The most fruitful issues are those that have no solution.
This year is not just your milestone birthday, it is also exactly a quarter of a century ago that your first novel «Agnes» was published.
I really should give myself a gold watch (laughs).
How has your work changed in the last 25 years?
I’ve definitely gotten more confident. I would not have written such a playful novel as “In a dark blue hour” when I was 35. Today I trust myself more.
And the next 25 years?
Keep writing!
Maybe even a screenplay? Now you were up close and personal with the film.
I once wrote a screenplay for «Agnes» that was never made into a film. But I didn’t think that was great either, because a lot of people had a say – I like being the king of my projects.
Peter Stamm, “In a dark blue hour”, S. Fischer; in bookstores from January 18th
“Interplay – when Peter Stamm writes” will be shown on January 19th and 21st at the Solothurn Film Festival and on January 22nd at 12 noon on SRF 1