Culture | On thin ice

Peter Stamm, looking just beneath the surface

The Swiss novelist is an aficionado of ordinary people and things unsaid

An expert in omission

ONE warm day in July, Peter Stamm was hiking with your correspondent high in the Swiss Alps. Just below a peak called the Silberen, he came to a stretch of dirty snow clinging to the mountain despite the summer heat. Mr Stamm went first, stepping gingerly. Halfway across his left foot began to sink, then his right. Suddenly his whole body plunged through the surface until just his head and shoulders were visible. It was only when he had clambered out that he realised how lucky he had been: his feet had caught on the rocky shaft of a deep sinkhole hidden beneath. “That was so stupid,” he said, shaking the snow from his trousers.

This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Mountain man”

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