Miscellaneous Solothurn Literature Prize 2025 goes to Alain Claude Sulzer

SDA

3.2.2025 - 10:58

Basel author Alain Claude Sulzer is awarded the Solothurn Prize for Literature. (archive picture)
Basel author Alain Claude Sulzer is awarded the Solothurn Prize for Literature. (archive picture)
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Author Alain Claude Sulzer has been awarded the Solothurn Prize for Literature 2025. Born in Basel in 1953, the author lives in Basel, Berlin and Alsace and achieved his international breakthrough in 2004 with the novel "A Perfect Waiter".

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Whether Sulzer is immersing himself in a 19th century story or in post-war society, he is always able to create credible atmospheric landscapes and bring readers closer to the protagonists, who could "easily be overlooked as secondary characters in the story", the jury explained its decision in a statement on Monday. Sulzer has created a literary oeuvre spanning four decades, which includes around a dozen novels as well as shorter prose,

Like "Anna's Mask" (2001) and "Private Lessons" (2007), "A Perfect Waiter" has been translated into numerous languages. According to the press release, he was awarded the "Prix Médicis étranger" in Paris in 2008. In the same year, his novel "Zur falschen Zeit" was published by the newly founded Berlin publishing house Galiani, which also published the novels "Aus den Fugen" (2012) and "Postskriptum" (2015). His latest publication is "Fast wie ein Bruder" (2024).

According to the press release, the Solothurn Literature Prize is awarded for works that stand out for their "literary quality, artistic individuality and relevance of content". In Sulzer's works, the artist, his life and art are the latent or manifest theme of his novels. Violent realities, from sexual assault to structural mechanisms of oppression, are also found in his works. He soberly and carefully brings the repressed back to light.

The prize money is 15,000 Swiss francs. The prize will be awarded on June 1 as part of the Solothurn Literature Days.