Anna Bischofberger (alias Stern) wins Schweizer Buchpreis

Surprise at the Schweizer Buchpreis award 2020: 30-year-old author Anna Bischofberger (alias Stern) wins with her novel "Das alles hier, jetzt". In the jury's statement, it says: "Anna Stern has given one of the oldest themes in literature a completely new form. "Das alles hier, jetzt." is about the death of a loved one, and the author tells her story with great experimental power and at the same time with a high degree of sensual intensity. The past is called back almost evocatively and the reader is involved in the process of remembering. The narrative process is highly original. Not only does the text manage without any gender fixation of the characters throughout, it is also a novel in two tracks: on the left-hand pages of the book the present of mourning, on the right the remembered past of a shared childhood and youth - until everything is heading towards a brilliant road movie finale."

"das alles hier, jetzt." is Anna Stern's fourth novel and one of five titles nominated by the jury in September from among 83 novels and essays submitted by Swiss authors. Among the favourites were Charles Lewinsky and Dorothee Elmiger.

Anna Bischofberger had already written her Bachelor's thesis as a literary story. Her work in the social sciences and humanities entitled "Der Gutachter" was supervised by Miriam Hefti (Literaturhaus Zurich) and Gertrude Hirsch Hadorn (ETH Zurich). An extended version of the thesis was published as a novel by Elster & Salis in 2016