Zora del Buono honored with the Swiss German-speaking Book Prize

The writer Zora del Buono won the 2024 Swiss Book Prize on Sunday, which rewards German-speaking Swiss authors or those who live in Switzerland.

Photo: KEYSTONE/GEORGIOS KEFALAS

Zurich writer Zora del Buono received the 17th Swiss Book Prize on Sunday for her novel ‘Seinetwegen’ (‘Because of him’). In this work, she investigates the death of her father, who died in a car accident at the age of 33.

The author was eight months old when her father died at the wheel of his car in August 1963. The jury praised in a press release on Sunday a text ‘which concerns everyone although it deals with the death’ of Zora’s father del Buono.

The Italian-Swiss writer combines statistics, court documents and scenes from life in her novel ‘with disconcerting ease’, according to the jury. This text, ‘silent, unpretentious and imbued with an existential force’, speaks of guilt, loss and reconciliation, underline the five members of the jury.

‘Seinetwegen’ has not been translated into French. Created in 2008 and endowed with 30,000 francs, the Swiss Book Prize is an initiative of the LiteraturBasel association and the Swiss Association of Booksellers and Publishers (SBVV). Each year it rewards Books written in German by Swiss authors or who live in Switzerland.

/ATS