Literature Gina Bucher's novel "Schattengänger" is reminiscent of "Fenster zum Hof"
Non-fiction author Gina Bucher has written her first novel - about loneliness. In "Schattengänger", she impresses with her precise observations of society. Using different perspectives, she manages to keep the suspense going until the end
17.04.2025, 11:45
SDA
We know that Jo Graber works at the city council, at the building authority. We also know that the man regularly visits his mother in the home. That he goes to the doctor himself because he has an eye condition. And that he always turns on his television at around 10 p.m., when the news is on. The last piece of information comes from a gentleman called Remigio, just one of many residents who live in the same estate as Jo Graber.
Author Gina Bucher, born in 1978 and raised in Lucerne, has woven a dense web of different lives in her debut novel. The setting for these many stories is a nameless district with blocks of flats in different colors. Jo Graber, the man no one really knows, but everyone knows he exists, is the center of this universe. Or maybe not.
Because Bucher provides the information about Jo Graber in snippets, the neighbors tell the story, for example Remigio, Jo Graber's doctor or his work colleague. With their thoughts, they paint a picture of the stranger who, outrageously, turns up at the barbecue; at the same time, they reveal details from their own lives.
Fiction instead of documentary
We don't know: Was Robin, a girl from the estate, really visiting Jo Graber? Who invited him to the party, even though he was not wanted by most of them? Does he have children, is he a grandfather, does he not want to go on vacation? And then: why and where did he disappear to?
Gina Bucher has made a name for herself with her thoroughly researched and excitingly narrated non-fiction books. Most recently, in 2018, she published stories about failure ("Der Fehler, der mein Leben veränderte") and about love: "Ich trug ein grünes Kleid, der Rest war Schicksal" (2016).
With "Schattengänger", she tackles the subject of loneliness. Not an easy undertaking. The author tells the news agency Keystone-SDA: "I quickly realized that although I could approach the subject in a documentary way, I had to write about it fictionally. Otherwise it would have been a deeply sad book."
Observed in detail
But that's not what it is. Instead, it is an exciting story about loneliness in a super-individualized society in which friendships often have a hard time. Gina Bucher studied film studies, among other things. This experience comes through in the novel in a gentle but impressive way - it is rare to read such clear and detailed observations. And yes, reading it inevitably brings to mind Hitchcock's "The Window to the Courtyard", the thriller in which a man observes his neighbors in the courtyard.
Gina Bucher is at her strongest when she describes her actions: "I log in and click my way through several forms. To book after-school care during the vacation weeks, reschedule ballet, make vaccination appointments and pass on the last doctor's bill to the health insurance company," are the thoughts of Dagy, a mother in the neighborhood. She is not the only one for whom Gina Bucher describes down to the smallest detail how everyday things look or activities are carried out.
This may sometimes seem a little simplistic, but it can also be seen as an art form: "I eat a lot of potato chips when I'm not standing at the window smoking pot," we learn, for example, about Kris, who secretly watches shadow walker Jo on his walks at night. "A nerd, my ex-girlfriend liked to sigh, smoking weed, potato chips and gaming." In these few sentences, we also learn something about Kris' past (and Jo Graber's present).
Memories of Covid
For the author, writing fiction was also a liberation. "I was able to detach myself from other people's - true - stories. Absurdly, that also turned out to be difficult: In fiction, I have to be much more precise in my storytelling in order to be credible. But that was never a problem with real stories: no matter how bizarre they were - as long as they were 'true', they would be believed."
People sitting at home looking at (and sometimes judging) their surroundings, the situation is reminiscent of the pandemic, of lockdowns in which people were forced to move around in a smaller radius. It is astonishing that Gina Bucher had started work on "Schattengänger" before this. She had been carrying the idea of writing about loneliness around with her for a long time. The fact that everything came to a standstill for a while "blocked me for a moment", but then suited her well. The pandemic is not an issue in the novel itself. But withdrawal and the isolation and loneliness that may come with it very much are.*
*This text by Nina Kobelt, Keystone-SDA, was realized with the help of the Gottlieb and Hans Vogt Foundation.
