Zora del Buono: Because of him

Zora del Buono was eight months old when her father died in a car accident in 1963. The dead father was the great void in the family. Mother and daughter hardly spoke about him. When the mother mentioned him, the daughter would abruptly end the conversation with a racing heart. She could not bear her mother's pain. Now, at sixty, she wonders: What has become of E. T., the then 28-year-old who caused the accident? How has he lived the last sixty years with this guilt? Because of him, the novel is one of research: The narrator sets out to find E. T. to confront him with her family's story. Her search leads her into dark places where she finds answers that raise new questions. What does it do to her that she suddenly knows more about him, the man who killed her father, than about her father himself? And how can one heal when a void will always remain? Because of him, the novel was awarded the Swiss Book Prize 2024 and was on the longlist for the German Book Prize 2024. Additionally, Zora del Buono's novel topped the SWR Best List and the SRF Best List in September 2024. The reading will take place in the Panorama Hall at the Parkhotel Heilbronn and will be moderated by Dr. Anton Knittel, the director of the literature house. The event is supported by the Swiss cultural foundation Pro Helvetia. Zora del Buono, born in 1962 in Zurich, studied architecture at ETH Zurich and worked for five years as a construction manager in post-reunification Berlin. She is a founding member and cultural editor of the magazine mare.