Gantenbein

A playfully postmodern novel exploring questions of identity from a major Swiss writer.

A man walks out of a bar and is later found dead at the wheel of his car. On the basis of a few overheard remarks and his own observations, the narrator of the novel imagines the story of this stranger—or, rather, two alternative stories based on two identities the narrator has invented for him, one under the name of Enderlin, the other under the name Gantenbein.

Originally written by the master of Swiss literature Max Frisch in 1964, this English translation by Michael Bullock first appeared in 1965 and is now being reissued in paperback for a new generation of readers. A masterpiece of postmodern fiction, Frisch’s novel engages with the eternal questions that press upon us: Are we who we say we are? Do we invent ourselves? Or are we who others say we are?

Click here to listen to Max Frisch’s lecture on ‘The Writer and His Partners’, delivered at City College of New York, 1981.