Urs Faes
Forfatter af Twelve Nights
Om forfatteren
Værker af Urs Faes
Satte nøgleord på
Almen Viden
- Juridisk navn
- Faes, Urs
- Fødselsdato
- 1947-02-13
- Køn
- male
- Nationalitet
- Switzerland
- Fødested
- Aarau, Aargau, Schweiz
- Bopæl
- Wettingen, Aargau, Switzerland
Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
San Feliciano, Umbria, Italy - Erhverv
- author
Medlemmer
Anmeldelser
Lister
Hæderspriser
Statistikker
- Værker
- 15
- Medlemmer
- 102
- Popularitet
- #187,251
- Vurdering
- 3.8
- Anmeldelser
- 6
- ISBN
- 30
- Sprog
- 4
As far as “plot” is concerned, there’s not much to Urs Faes’ slim novella beyond the bare bones reproduced above. However, Twelve Nights acquires a resonance well beyond the number of its pages, by tapping into folklore, myth and Biblical imagery. The rivalry between the siblings and the theme of the “stolen birthright” has echoes of the stories of Jacob and Esau, Cain and Abel, the parable of the Prodigal Son. In the inn where Sebastian is staying, the men of the village congregate around the fire, telling tales of “ghosts stirring in the ravine”. Sebastian recalls his mother burning herbs to keep “dark forces” at bay. The evil spirits which roam in the days between Christmas and Epiphany threatening “disorder and peril…abysses gaping open” turn into a metaphor for the pain which humans can inflict on each other. It seems that everywhere Sebastian looks shimmers with a magical sheen imparted by legend:
Outside, through the window, the snow was falling once more, in dense flakes on this early evening; a creeping dusk blurred the contours, turning the trees into wizened forms, the stream to a taffeta-grey ribbon, the farmhouses to shadowy distorting mirrors. The street could no longer be seen in the leaden gloom, which was tinged blue towards the forest, black down the ravine. Childhoodland, filled with scents and stories, legends like that of the forest spirit Holländer Michel, figures looming out of the darkness of the trees, the meadows and marshlands, shallow waters and moon-pale quarry ponds…
This is a deeply atmospheric read: eerie with almost Gothic overtones, and yet warm with hope. Jamie Lee Searle’s translation from the German is poetic and evocative of the natural winter wonderland which serves as a backdrop to this fable-like tale.
https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/2020/10/Twelve-Nights-by-Urs-Faes.html… (mere)