On Thin Ice - by Peter Stamm (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

In these 9 exquisite, moving stories from "one of Europe's most exciting writers" (New York Times Book Review), people struggle to connect in a cold, uneasy world.

Looking to escape his past, a Swiss ski instructor relocates to a German resort, where he develops an ambiguous bond with an older woman.

An unusual new job unsettles a failed actress, as her character's tragic story bleeds into her own life.

When their son's obsession with Mars One drives him to self-isolate on a makeshift mission, a couple find themselves torn between respecting his wishes and protecting him.

Slipping deftly inside the minds of his characters, Peter Stamm eloquently portrays the loneliness of modern life and the muddle of human relationships.

Review Quotes

Praise for Peter Stamm:

"Stamm's prose (beautifully translated by Michael Hofmann) is plain but not so simple...A subtle but deadly style." --Zadie Smith

"Peter Stamm is an extraordinary author who can make the ordinary absolutely electrifying...Hard to recommend too highly." --Tim Parks

"A master writer...His prose...is as sharply illuminating as a surgical light." --The Economist

About the Author

Peter Stamm is the author of the novels The Archive of Feelings, The Sweet Indifference of the World, To the Back of Beyond, All Days Are Night, Seven Years, On a Day Like This, Unformed Landscape, Agnes, and In a Deep Blue Hour, and the short-story collections It's Getting Dark, We're Flying, and In Strange Gardens and Other Stories. His award-winning books have been translated into more than forty languages. For his entire body of work and his accomplishments in fiction, he was short-listed for the Man Booker International Prize in 2013, and in 2014 he won the prestigious Friedrich Hölderlin Prize. He lives in Switzerland.

Michael Hofmann has translated the work of Gottfried Benn, Hans Fallada, Franz Kafka, Joseph Roth, and many others. In 2012 he was awarded the Thornton Wilder Prize for Translation by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His One Lark, One Horse: Poems was published in 2019, Where Have You Been? Selected Essays in 2014, and Selected Poems in 2009. He lives in Florida and London.