Fleur Jaeggy (born 31 July 1940) is a Swiss author who writes in Italian. ''The'' ''Times Literary Supplement'' named ''Proleterka'' as a Best Book of the Year upon its US publication, and her ''Sweet Days of Discipline'' won the

Premio Bagutta The Bagutta Prize is an Italian literature, literary prize that is awarded annually to Italian writers. The prize originated among patrons of Milan's ''Bagutta Ristorante''. The writer Riccardo Bacchelli discovered the restaurant and soon he regul ...

and the Premio Speciale Rapallo. As of 2021, six of her books have been translated into English.

Life

She was born in

Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...

. After completing her studies in Switzerland, Jaeggy went to live in Rome, where she met

Ingeborg Bachmann Ingeborg Bachmann (25 June 1926 – 17 October 1973) was an Austrian poet and author. Biography Bachmann was born in Klagenfurt, in the Austrian state of Carinthia, the daughter of Olga (née Haas) and Matthias Bachmann, a schoolteacher. Her fa ...

and

Thomas Bernhard Nicolaas Thomas Bernhard (; 9 February 1931 – 12 February 1989) was an Austrian novelist, playwright and poet who explored death, social injustice, and human misery in controversial literature that was deeply pessimistic about modern civilizati ...

. In 1968 she went to

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

to work for the publisher ''Adelphi Edizioni'' and married

Roberto Calasso Roberto Calasso (30 May 1941 – 28 July 2021) was an Italian writer and publisher. Apart from his mother tongue, Calasso was fluent in French, English, Spanish, German, Latin and ancient Greek. He also studied Sanskrit. He has been called "a l ...

. Her first masterpiece was the novel ''I beati anni del castigo'' (1989). The ''

Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication ...

'' designated her novel ''Proleterka'' the best book of 2003. She is also a translator into Italian of

Marcel Schwob Mayer André Marcel Schwob, known as Marcel Schwob (23 August 1867 – 26 February 1905), was a French symbolist writer best known for his short stories and his literary influence on authors such as Jorge Luis Borges, Alfonso Reyes, Roberto Bola� ...

and

Thomas de Quincey Thomas Penson De Quincey (; 15 August 17858 December 1859) was an English writer, essayist, and literary critic, best known for his ''Confessions of an English Opium-Eater'' (1821). Many scholars suggest that in publishing this work De Quince ...

. She worked with the Italian musician

Franco Battiato Francesco "Franco" Battiato (; 23 March 1945 – 18 May 2021) was an Italian musician, singer, composer, filmmaker and, under the pseudonym Süphan Barzani, also a painter. Battiato's songs contain esoteric, philosophical and religious themes, a ...

, under the pseudonym of Carlotta Wieck.

Selected bibliography

Fiction

*''Il dito in bocca'' ( Adelphi, 1968). *''L'angelo custode'' (Adelphi, 1971). *''Le statue d'acqua'' (Adelphi, 1980). ''The Water Statues'', trans. Gini Alhadeff ( New Directions, 2021). *''I beati anni del castigo'' (Adelphi, 1989). ''Sweet Days of Discipline'', trans. Tim Parks (Heinemann/New Directions, 1993;

And Other Stories And Other Stories is an independent British book publisher founded in 2009, notable for being the first UK publisher of literary fiction to make direct, advance subscriptions a major part of its business model as well as for its use of foreign l ...

, 2018; ). *''La paura del cielo'' (Adelphi, 1994). ''Last Vanities'', trans. Tim Parks (New Directions, 1998; ). *''Proleterka'' (Adelphi, 2001). ''S. S. Proleterka'', trans. Alastair McEwen (New Directions, 2003;

, 2019; ). *''Vite congetturali'' (Adelphi, 2009). ''These Possible Lives'', trans. Minna Zallman Proctor (New Directions, 2017; ). *''Sono il fratello di XX'' (Adelphi, 2014). ''I Am the Brother of XX'', trans. Gini Alhadeff (New Directions/And Other Stories, 2017; ).

Translations into Italian

, ''Vite immaginarie'' (Adelphi, 1972). *

, ''Gli ultimi giorni di Immanuel Kant'' (Adelphi, 1983).

References

External links

Fleur Jaeggy on ItaliaLibri
*
Wollen, Audrey, "The Circuitous Sublime"
(Review of ''Sweet Days of Discipline'', ''The Water Statues'', and ''I Am the Brother of XX''.) 1940 births Italian women writers Italian writers Living people Swiss writers Writers from Zürich Swiss women writers {{Switzerland-writer-stub