literature
Suter and Stuckrad-Barre are writing a book together again
Last year, von Stuckrad-Barre published the novel “Still awake?”, which was seen as a roman à clef about the media group Axel Springer. photo
© Hannes P. Albert/dpa
Two best-selling authors team up again and work on a book together. What Martin Suter and Benjamin from Stuckrad-Barre are up to.
Von Stuckrad-Barre (49) explained the topics being discussed: “Everything that concerns us at the moment. Today, for example, we talked for three hours about flowers. The day before yesterday about lies.” Suter (76) added: “Simply about life, which has changed after the first volume. We have both written new novels. And the fact that my wife died during this time naturally makes the conversations a little more fundamental here and there . But we still talk about banalities.” Suter’s wife, fashion designer Margrith Nay Suter, died in 2023 at the age of 72. The couple had been together for around 45 years.
Already a joint book: “Everyone has become so serious”
The two writers, who have both already produced a wide range of works, published the volume of conversations “Everyone has become so serious” in 2020. In it they talked about swimming trunks, glitter and sour meat. The new book is scheduled to be published in October.
The Swiss writer Suter, who recently published the novel “Allmen and Herr Weynfeldt”, said of the discussions: “We have been talking again and again since the last volume.” The last conversation in Volume 1 was in summer 2020. The writers have continued to speak to each other since then.
Von Stuckrad-Barre (“Panikherz”, “Soloalbum”) explained: “We see each other every few months in very different places, next month for example in Marrakech, and we will record new conversations there too.” The whole thing goes like this: The two authors meet, record conversations, write them down and edit them.
Von Stuckrad-Barre caused a stir in the media industry
Von Stuckrad-Barre caused a stir in the media industry last year. He published his novel “Still awake?”, which had previously been treated as a roman à clef about the media group Axel Springer.
When asked if they were friends, Suter said: “Yes.” And from Stuckrad-Barre: “Absolutely.” Suter: “We also call each other “Dear Friend”, and not ironically. In difficult times, Benjamin was one of the few with whom I could talk normally about everything.”