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Fabio Andina and Miek Zwamborn, two poetical writers, approach the question of existence in harmony with nature. For Andina, this is about simplicity as a characteristic of truth and about persisting with the essential. For Zwamborn, it concerns the labyrinthine, the mysterious and possibility of disappearing.
Tage mit Felice by Fabio Andina tells the story of an old recluse in the mountains of Ticino as well as his life in darkness, light, stillness, heat and cold. It is a basic life that for him means happiness and contentment. At the same time, the novel gives a portrait of a mountain village community that shares the usual deprivations just as much as the intrusion of the technical age.
Wir sehen uns am Ende der Welt by Miek Zwamborn is also set in the Swiss mountains. The narrator sets out on an unusual expedition through wonderful mountain- and memory landscapes in search of a friend who has vanished. Alongside the therapeutic effect of hiking, the mountain that she wanders across shifts into the focus of the storyline. Geological research goes hand in hand with exposing layers of the individual personality.
What constitutes nature hikes that help reveal existential insights? What experiences do we encounter with ourselves in untamed nature? What is a simple life? What hints are given in books that we count as nature writing and that allow us an outside view of our existence?

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Fabio Andina, b. 1972, is a Swiss writer. He studied film theory and screenwriting in San Francisco; he currently lives in Ticino. Published in German: Tage mit Felice, 2020. “What have the days done with the narrator? We don’t find out. And what about us? What is essential? Enough to eat, a warm dwelling, some company, a book?” Katja Lückert, Deutschlandfunk

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Miek Zwamborn, b. 1974, is a Dutch writer, translator and artist. She worked as a lock keeper; she walks in the mountains and currently lives on the Isle of Mull, Scotland. Recently published in German: Algen (ed. Judith Schalansky), 2018. “In her impressive novel ‘Wir sehen uns am Ende der Welt’, Miek Zwamborn successfully creates touching and very precise pictures of a search for clues in which everything is connected with everything else and even the smallest changes are significant.” Martin Zingg, Neue Zürcher Zeitung