Zurich author Zora del Buono lost her father in a traffic accident. She processes this play in the novel “Seinetwegen” – and is now receiving the Swiss Book Prize.
Zora del Buono’s life began with drama: she was only eight months old when her father died in a car accident. She processed this in such an impressive way in the book “Seinetwegen” that she has now been awarded the Swiss Book Prize. The award ceremony took place on Sunday evening in Theater Basel. The prize money is 30,000 francs.
Del Buono is one of Switzerland’s most famous authors. She first worked as an architect before taking up writing. Her most famous works: the family saga “The Marschallin”, the novella “Gotthard” about the construction of the Gotthard Tunnel – and now the autopoetic memoir “Seinetwegen”.
The book prize jury explains why they chose the 61-year-old from Zurich: “With surprising ease, she weaves statistics, court documents and scenes from her life into this dense investigative novel.” The book is “a quiet, incomprehensible text full of existential force”.
Important topics
This is where this “force of detachment” comes from: del Buono confronts his own history. But it is not based on personal experience, but draws on universal themes such as loss, guilt, forgiveness and destiny.