Max Frisch

"Maailma on ennakkoluulojen raivotaudin vallassa", on sveitsiläinen kirjailija Max Frisch sanonut.Hän on myös kiteyttänyt, että "jokainen ihminen keksii ennemmin tai myöhemmin itse itselleen tarinan, jota hän luulee omaksi elämäkseen".Nämä molemmat maksiimit voisivat olla Gantenbein-romaanin mottoja. Frischin minuuden etsintä on ytimenä herkuttelevassa kerronnassa, jonka keskushahmona on sokeaksi tekeytyvä mies."Tässä romaanissaan Frisch on vapautunut ja päästänyt valloilleen huumorinsa, häijyn ironian, jolla hän pitää pilkkanaan meitä ja itseään, ihmistä ylimalkaan, ennakkoluulojamme, moraaliamme, sovinnaisuuttamme ja - ennen kaikkea - niin sanottua totuutta." (suomentaja Aarno Peromies)

Boken inneholder fortellingene Skisse av en ulykke, Statikk, Drømmen om apotekeren fra Locarno og Den andorranske jøden. Fortellingene handler blant annet om den forgjengelige kjærligheten og angsten for døden.

Fires are becoming something of a problem. But Biedermann has it all under control. He's a respected member of the community with a loving wife and a flourishing business, so surely nothing can get to him. The great philanthropist is happy to meet his civic duty by giving shelter to two new guests but when they start filling his attic with petrol drums, will he help them light the fuse? Max Frisch's parable about appeasement is given its first major UK revival since its Royal Court premiere in 1961, which was directed by Lindsay Anderson. The play is published as a programme text for the production that runs from 1 November - 15 December on the main stage at the Royal Court.

The novel tells the story of a middle-class UNESCO engineer called Walter Faber, who believes in rational, calculated world. Strange events undermine his security - an emergency landing in a Mexican desert against all odds, his friend Joachim hangs himself in the Mexican jungle, and he falls in love with a woman who dies of a concussion, he has an incestuous affair. Finally Faber becomes ill with stomach cancer, but it is too late for him to change his life.

Reissue of this Methuen classic to tie in with a major new productionThe republic of Andorra is invaded by totalitarian forces. The populace capitulates to the anti-Semitism of the aggressor and betrays Andri, the foundling son of the local schoolmaster. But Andri it seems, is not a Jew at all.Andorra explores the mechanism of racism with the story of a non-Jew brought up as a Jew, who falls victim to anti-Semitic hostility.

RIECHEN STATT REDEN Über und unter Wasser riechen Tiere besser als wir Menschen. Ameisen finden ihren Weg immer der "Nase nach". Schmetterlinge senden Duft-Botschaften. Der Kampf von Hummern und Krebsen wird durch Duftfahnen entschieden. Hunde sind uns sowieso um viele Riech-Nasenlängen voraus. WENN FISCHE UNTERGEHEN Wasser gibt mächtig Auftrieb: Selbst Schiffe aus Eisen schwimmen und die alten Ägypter haben auf dem Nil 350 Tonnen schwere Obelisken transportiert. Im Bodensee allerdings gehen jedes Jahr die "Sinkerbarsche" unter und fristen ihr weiteres Dasein auf dem Grund. Ihnen fehlt der nötige Auftrieb. DUELL UNTER WASSER Die Jagdmethoden im nassen Element sind vielfältig: Krebse setzen ihre Scheren als Wasserwerfen ein; Blumentiere schleudern Giftharpunen und Steinfische erzeugen eine reißende Strömung. Die Gejagten sind aber auch Meister der Tarnung und narren ihre Feinde.

In der 'Suhrkamp BasisBibliothek' erscheinen kommentierte literarische Hauptwerke als Arbeitstexte für Schule und Studium. Die Kommentare enthalten alle für das Verständnis der Werke erforderlichen Informationen: Entstehungs- und Textgeschichte, Wort- und Sacherläuterungen, Selbstaussagen des Autors, Rezeptionsgeschichte, Forschungsüberblick und Literaturhinweise. Zu jedem Band sind auch eine CD-ROM und ein Audio Book erhältlich.

Walter Faber is an emotionally detached engineer forced by a string of coincidences to embark on a journey through his past. The basis for director Volker Schlsndorff's movie Voyager. Translated by Michael Bullock. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

Walter Faber is an emotionally detached engineer forced by a string of coincidences to embark on a journey through his past. The basis for director Volker Schlsndorff's movie Voyager. Translated by Michael Bullock. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

The unabridged version of a haunting story of a man in prison. His wife, brother, and mistress recognize him and call him by his name, Anatol Ludwig Stiller. But he rejects them, repeatedly insisting that he's not Stiller. Could he possibly be right-or is he deliberately trying to shake off his old identity and assume a new one? Translated by Michael Bullock. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

Three contentious and enduring plays about the clash of the individual and society Fire Raisers (1958) tells the tale of a respectable bourgeois whose house is one day visited by three strangers. It "is successful on every level; the story is as gripping as an adventure story; each line is fraught with several meanings: as an allegory it is unique" (Edna O'Brien); Andorra is based on the author's own experience of anti-semitism in Switzerland and is about Andri, a young man who is believed to be a Jew and who is persecuted by his community as a result; Triptych is a portrait of a writer grappling with his own mortality. The flexible and contemporary translations by Michael Bullock (The Fire Raisers, Andorra) and Geoffrey Skelton (Triptych) are here complemented by an introduction by Peter Loeffler.

Includes the full German text, accompanied by German-English vocabulary. Notes and a detailed introduction in English put the work in its social and historical context.