He became known for his novel “Night Train to Lisbon”: The writer Peter Bieri, who published under the name Pascal Mercier, died at the age of 79. The Swiss also taught as a professor of philosophy.
The Swiss writer Peter Bieri, who became known under his alias Pascal Mercier, is dead. This was announced by Hanser Verlag. The 79-year-old is known for his novel “Night Train to Lisbon”. According to a spokeswoman, he died in Berlin, where he last lived. His last novel “Weight of Words” was published in 2020.
“We are losing a great thinker and novelist,” said publisher Jo Lendle. “Peter Bieri has shown in his own name and under his nom de plume all his life how thoughts and stories inspire each other: The philosopher learned from the narrator – and vice versa, his novels bring the great questions of humanity to life. His books remain. We are thank him for it.”
philosopher and language enthusiast
Bieri has been teaching philosophy at various German universities since the early 1980s, most recently at the Freie Universität Berlin until 2007. His research focused on analytical philosophy, philosophical psychology, epistemology and moral philosophy. Bieri was co-founder of the research focus “Cognition and Brain” of the German Research Foundation.
From 1995 Bieri appeared as a novelist under the pseudonym “Pascal Mercier”. He made it into the bestseller league with his third novel, “Nachtzug nach Lisbon”. Released in 2004, it was later adapted into a film by Bille August, starring Jeremy Irons.
Bieri was married to the painter Heike Bieri-Quentin and most recently lived in a small villa on the outskirts of Berlin. The language enthusiast Bieri, who had already learned Latin, Greek, French, English, Hebrew and Sanskrit, also studied Russian and Arabic when he retired.