Switzy

by Emma Cline

A mesmerizing portrait of an aging man’s last pilgrimage, from the New York Times best selling author of The Girls and The Guest.

A private plane cuts through the winter night, somewhere over Greenland. David, a retired executive, sits back in his leather seat, playing solitaire on his phone. Click. Click. Drag. Click. The notebook in his jacket pocket is filled with familiar phrases, urgent reminders to himself, but he struggles to recognize his own handwriting.

A mystery, among many mysteries. The world, once so knowable, has been rendered inscrutable.

This is what David Cody, his assistant, asleep in the seat next to him, will shepherd him along the voyage. A stopover in London. Dinner with his adult daughter. A meeting in France with an old friend, estranged for decades.

His final destination is Zurich.

David glides through hotel rooms and airports and foreign cities, running out the clock on his mortal life. His grasp on the present slips away, and the past rushes the Sunday roasts of childhood. The stiff clothes meant only for church. A summer at a school friend’s house. The losses and missteps that punctuate a life.

As David’s arrival in Zurich looms, an exquisitely rendered portrait of an unraveling mind emerges, both darkly humorous and profoundly moving. Hypnotic and startlingly original, Switzy probes the depths of human consciousness, revealing what a man is left with when the accomplishments and compromises that have defined him, and the illusions he's relied on, vanish.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Contemporary, Adult, American, Novels, Death

352 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication September 8, 2026

About the author

Emma Cline is an American writer and novelist, originally from California. She published her first novel, "The Girls", in 2016, to positive reviews. The book was shortlisted for the John Leonard Award from the National Book Critics Circle and the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize.
Her stories have been published in The New Yorker, Tin House, Granta and The Paris Review.
In 2017 Cline was named one of Granta's Best Young American Novelists.

Reviews

[Marcus (Lit_Laugh_Luv) · Rating 3 out of 5]

[3.5 stars] An interesting pivot for Cline. I'll join the chorus of commentary saying that this is unexpected and feels like an intentional departure from her previous titles. With that said, I think Switzy borrows a lot of the successful storytelling techniques from The Guest — the plot once again takes place over a few days, and our protagonist's past is only offered to the reader in fleeting flashbacks.

Cline's stories are fascinating because they don't shy away from the expected; in all three of her novels, the ending is deliberately telegraphed from the beginning. Switzy is perhaps the most telegraphed of the three, yet I found myself unable to put it down. For a 350+ page book, it reads incredibly quickly.

As David grapples with his rapidly progressing Alzheimer's disease, there is a deliberate repetition and blurring of time that places the reader squarely in his perspective. There are reflections on mortality, estrangement, and the fact that we eventually all become strangers to the world we inhabit. I found myself wanting a deeper dissection of the latter theme — David makes several allusions to technology, cultural shifts, and the intangible strangeness that modernity presents — but these allusions are shy.

There's a lot Switzy does right, yet I can't help but feel some degree of disappointment that the premise is not particularly fresh. On a technical level, the prose is excellent, and it avoids the banalities that similar books often delve into (I don't need an asinine lecture on the ethics of medically assisted death). By the conclusion of the novel, David's story still feels half written, which I personally didn't mind, but I would anticipate will leave some readers dissatisfied.

I'm in two minds because I do think that Cline is a writer worthy of plenty of accolades, but I'm not sure if Switzy is her best showing. An enjoyable read (despite my laundry list of complaints, I still think a four-star rating is appropriate), but certainly more commercial than her previous releases. Thank you to the publisher for the ARC.
---
Emma Cline returning in 2026… oh it’s gonna be a good year... I rarely read about MEN, but I trust her wholeheartedly xx

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[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A stream of conscious narration of a man’s last journey.
David Hastings is a retired executive in his 70’s that has Alzheimers and he is traveling to Switzerland with his assistant to voluntarily end his life.
The author does such a fantastic job of portraying what the mind must do in an Alzheimer’s patient, makes you think she must have someone close to her with or having had the disease.
As this few days of his journey progresses, we learn more about him and the life he led.
This was a very immersing and affecting read.
4.5

Thank you to NetGalley and Random house for the free ebook in exchange for an honest review.

[Debbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pogo stick time!

Ah, finally, a book that sent me bouncing—and blabbing about how good it is! Oh I am so excited! The language is to die for! It opens with a demented man, David, and his assistant, Cody, on a plane to Switzerland.

David is always trying to grasp what is really going on. Often he is clueless or misinterprets what’s happening. And while he’s trying to hold on for dear life, snippets of long-ago memories come into his head. Through these memories, we get a real sense of what his life was like before he started slipping.

Why I loved it:

-Every word is carefully placed. And every word counts; not an extraneous word to be had. I was mesmerized! This writer means business, and she is a master of her craft! In awe, simply in awe.

-The style is sort of stream-of-consciousness and it has this cool rhythm, like jazz. You can always seduce me with language that dances like this. Cha cha cha!

-There’s word play. Oh heaven help me, I’m a goner! One of my favorites is sodium pinot-barbiedoll (meaning sodium Pentothal, of course)! David hears and says things that are not quite right, but close. Some very funny phrases to be had!

-The book is full of insights. I highlighted a lot. Yum!

-Wow did I ever feel like I was seeing the world through the eyes of someone with Alzheimer’s! Through David’s eyes, everything is off-kilter, wrong, strange, confusing.

-David’s interactions are fascinating and intense, especially with his daughter and a long-lost friend. I was at attention, savoring every word, wondering what would happen next. I was usually embarrassed for David, and I sweated out people’s uncomfortable reaction to him. People have such trouble trying to handle someone with dementia, and the author conveys this discomfort, this awkwardness, beautifully. Yum yum again.

-This story is told in third person. What?? How to get so deeply inside someone’s head if the story isn’t told in first person? It’s bizarre (and brilliant) that we get to see David’s world so clearly. David sees things through a glaze, as his memories fade in and out and his mind plays tricks on him, yet at the same time, objects stand out in high relief. Very trippy. Conversations seem vague and weird and often hushed. There’s some unreliable narrating going on, as David’s take on reality isn’t to be trusted. I love me an unreliable narrator!

-David is a rich, aloof person. I was surprised I was fond of him, since he wasn’t personable or relatable. A skilled author, that’s what’s going on here!

A few (of many) favorite quotes:

“… the day would come and he’d find that the contents of his brain had been excised with an ice cream scoop instead of these dainty little teaspoons, here and there.”

“He was sometimes a figure standing on the shore, watching himself float away, and sometimes he was on the ice floe, losing sight of land.”

“Amyloid plaque, the doctor said so often, often enough that David started hearing it as Amy Lloyd plaque. I hate you, Amy Lloyd, he thought idly.”

I loved Cline’s The Girls. This is a totally different kind of story, which shows the author’s range. I just read that this book is long-listed for the Booker Prize. It’s deserved—and exciting!

This is a sad book, but beautiful. I hardly ever recommend reading a blurb, but the Goodreads blurb is excellent and it does not give spoilers. Check it out.

This is how it’s done, folks. Kudos to Cline! Highly recommended!

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.

Expected publication date: September 8, 2026

[Maxwell]

Longlisted for the 2026 Booker Prize
Thank you to Random House for the early review copy. All thoughts & opinions are my own.

When you are young, everyone encourages you to think about and plan for your future. But once you've reached the end of your life, all you can help but think about is the past. What if, while nearing the end, you were unable to keep a firm grip on reality? That is the struggle the protagonist, David Hastings, has while on the final leg of his earthly journey.

His mind is fracturing, the past and present intermingling in confusing ways that dredge up old memories and infuse with his present struggles.

Regrets of working too much--and all for what?--combine with the guilt of past wrongs, his disconnect from his own daughter morphs with the only close connection he has, his assistant, Cody.

Emma Cline does such an excellent job putting the reader directly in the mind of David. The prose reflects these dissonant thoughts and moments, as he jumps from scene to scene and location to location, sometimes losing the connective tissue that makes a life feel linear, instead of a messy map of days with no bearing on one another.

Simultaneously, there's this subtle commentary about David, in his mid-70s, and his generation feeling extremely disoriented and disconnected from what the world has become. He seems to wonder and starts to believe, would it just be better for him to be gone from something he no longer recognizes? How do we reconcile our past experiences with the present circumstances, and is there any hope for a future we can barely begin to imagine?

It's a heartbreaking, but complex look at aging, life choices, and relationships that I think marks a distinct shift in Emma Cline's career, one that makes me eager to see where she goes from here.

[Liz Hein · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I could post a review that is just a video of my face and the gamut of expressions it made while reading this.

[Celine · Rating 4 out of 5]

You’ll be hearing from my therapist, Emma Cline.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

literally scarier than most horror novels!!!!
everyone dreads getting old and the deterioration of our bodies and minds; here, Cline puts us into the mind of someone experiencing this in real time. the writing is chilling and really difficult to read at times because of how visceral it is - we as the reader follow along in David’s mind as he starts forgetting words, numbers, and the shame of needing assistance in everyday tasks. it’s a real gut punch of a book that puts a lot of things into perspective, and it’s not meant to be a very ‘enjoyable’ read, so make sure you’re in the mood for this type of story, but the writing is so impressively immersive that made me full of dread while reading. Yay!

[Meike]

Now Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2026
Let's tackle the next entry!

[Anne H · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review to come, but this is one of the saddest and most unassumingly beautiful books I have ever read.

++++

Is there anything more terrifying than leaving a life knowing you not only won't be missed, but won't be known?

Our protagonist, David, is on a journey to revisit old friends and family before his memory completely fails him, and the whole of the book is simply us riding along with him while he remembers, revisits and forgets.

This book is not sad in a "A Little Life" kind of way, in which a character is created, made to be loved by the audience and tortured to break our hearts. This book is sad in a terrifying, deep dark passage of time, slippage of identity, face-to-face with mortality and loss of selfhood, crippling anxiety of being forever unknown kind of way. The saddest part of this book is that our narrator, a man whose identity is being lost to his failing neurons' ability to hold together, finds no one to miss him as he leaves his life. It is precisely because he is unremarkable, unlovable, and deeply flawed in a wholly uninteresting way, that makes this book so crushing to read.

I will say: this is a book to give time to. Not because it's challenging on a sentence level, but because we are on a journey with someone whose memory is falling out from underneath him, and we too will have to reread sentences, go back a page or two once in a while, retrace our steps, be okay with forgetting. I will also say that I highlighted more passages, sat longer with sentences, and felt a deep hollowing out of my whole sense of self more than with any book I can remember reading.

I can't wait for the world to read this book when it comes out in September. A huge thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the advance copy of my new favorite book to read when I want to feel crushed by the weight of mortality and memory.

[David]

A very impressive achievement.

For reasons that are both personal and professional, I am growing a bit weary of how often the topic of cognitive decline is woven into the storylines of so many new works of fiction. I do understand why. At this point there is virtually no one alive who has avoided having to deal with it in their own lives, whether directly or indirectly. However, and for similar reasons, it has been a long time since the subject has felt new or revelatory. And characters with dementia are often presented in ways that are a bit off-kilter. (I'm looking at you, The End of Everything and ).

Emma Cline has somehow managed to craft a narrative that convincingly unspools through the perspective of David, a man who has always been an unreliable narrator of his own life and is now well into the more advanced stages of senility. It's remarkably well done and the best portrayal of dementia I have yet encountered.

4.5 stars

[suzannah ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

took me a while to get into but by the end i felt like i’d been hit by a truck (affectionate)

[Mel || melodrama_musings · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first thought upon finishing Switzy was “I wonder if David Cronenberg has read this?” There’s a wry humour to book David’s inner monologue, a stream of fading consciousness that vacillates between a melancholic glibness and an almost childlike silliness as the world, and accordingly the protagonist’s place in it, slips away that I can’t help feeling film director David would resonate with. Cline confronts the inevitable final march towards imminent mortality with an uncomfortable directness not unlike that of body horror imagery. Cronenberg (particularly in more recent years) and Cline share a morbid fascination with what it means to exist and attempt to exert some manner of control as our bodies warp and transform into alien beings as we age and decay.

In Switzy, snippets of fractured, disordered memories are interspersed with moments from David’s final days. We are in his head as he struggles to reconcile his actions that precipitated a decades spanning estrangement with a childhood friend one moment, and the next we have a front row seat to bewildered first encounters with Sonny Angels (fair) and bemusement about the German word “ausfahrt” displayed on many a Swiss sign, reduced in his mind to “Assfart”. Ahh the mind of a man. Inside of us are two wolves etc. etc…

This is not a book that is concerned with resolutions, loose ends are frayed and left dangling, apropos for a life lived full of regrets and unfulfilled desires. Yet it is also not an entirely bleak one, providing some insight into the bureaucracy of death through the eyes of the most unreliable of narrators. While it doesn’t all entirely work for me - at times the prose felt overwrought and the story does linger longer than necessary to its detriment, by and large this was an ambitious and pleasantly surprising pivot from Cline, well deserving of its place on this year’s Booker long list.


***Many thanks to the publisher for providing an e-arc in exchange for my honest review***

[kathryn (le livre en rose) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5. Only time will tell when it comes to this book—will I remember it next week? In two weeks? A year from now? (Not a reference to the dementia premise but damn if the instinct didn’t come so naturally!! . . .)

Like Katie Kitamura’s AUDITION, SWITZY is a concept novel, a capital-D Dementia Novel. Unlike AUDITION, its concept is a little more submerged. SWITZY is, to my relief, more interested in David-with-Dementia than Demented David. There’s a difference between the two, chiefly that the latter would probably encourage all sorts of formal innovation that doesn’t need to exist in most novels. (Not naming names.) Cline does attempt a little bit of formal wackiness—the paragraphs that whine and wind around lots of empty space—but over time they become hypnotic and worrisome. Am I David? Do I have dementia?

I say this with no trace of irony: I am genuinely not sure.

Cline is one of modern litfic’s greatest observers of people—see GIRLS, GUEST, and so on—but SWITZY often acts as a vehicle for loose remarks about humanity, rather than standing as a cohesive novel. We know David; we feel for David; we fear we may become David. But the idea that a rapidly declining David would be astute enough to gather dozens of piercing adages about people and places and love and loss—it feels far too constructed. SWITZY is at its best when it confronts the looseness of everything, the idea that people come and leave and do not forgive, and thankfully for all of us Clineheads, the novel is pugnacious; it does not fear such confrontation.

[esmereadsalot · Rating 4 out of 5]

emma cline is an excellent writer but this was a tough read (complimentary?)

[Jaclyn]

Emma Cline completely reinvents herself as a writer with each book and you’d be hard pressed to find a through line in her work beyond good writing. Here she reflects on a life lived at end of life with an unreliable narrator with a flickering consciousness as dementia closes in. The claustrophobic way she holds the reader in his dimming and confused mind is briliant. Daisy Johnson says this is her best book and as an achievement in technique it is but I have loved them all. No writer has surprised me as much as Emma Cline has book to book. Thrilled she is now a Booker longlistee, she deserves it. I’ll try to find my reviews of all her books and post them to stories because backlist is beautiful. @penguinbooksaus

[Stacy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Switzy is a masterfully crafted and empathetic portrait of a man in the liminal space of his last days of life. This was a departure for Cline - I suspect there will be some fans of The Girls and the Guest who don’t like this one (where is the messy cool girl? Where is the hint of wish fulfillment? A longtime fan might ask these questions) but this is such a mature, poignant novel that had me holding my breath until its inevitable end, and I was thrilled to see Cline undertake such a story.

In lesser hands, David might have been reduced to a stereotype: the wealthy businessman who regrets not spending enough time with his family, but Cline has such a knack for rendering interior life, and this was her showcasing these talents to a new level. And while I personally love a novel in fragments (and envy the way she pulled it off), the narrative was strongest when showcasing David’s relationships to those around him: the gulf between him and his loved ones, the things left unsaid because of shame, dementia, or both, and the heartbreak of desiring connection but lacking the means to connect. I suspected while reading that my perception of the novel’s success would lie in if she landed the narrative plane, and I believe she did. The ending left me sitting still, contemplating the precariousness of a human life.

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe 4.5?

Is it just my Google being weird or Gemini AI’s automatic summary spoils the book juuust a little? (I think it pulled data from the Booker website) I saw the AI summary while researching this book but just noticed the synopsis doesn’t give away as much 😅

So one’s reading experience might differ from mine if you’re lucky enough to not have it ruined by AI (what a world we live in!)

SWITZY was a brutal and frustrating read and I don’t think I’ll forget this book.

With fragmented and aimless prose, Cline deftly portrays the mind of David — a retired executive struggling with his memory. One is forced to reconcile with the slippery past, the murky present, and the dark future all through David. In this sense, he’s the ultimate unreliable narrator, where the constant self doubt and censorship creates a suffocating atmosphere. What’s frustrating to read yet brilliantly done, is the unknowability of it all. For how can you be certain, when you can’t even be sure of yourself?

There’s also an angle about how one’s agency is tied to their consciousness, and the question of how strong that causation/correlation is when you’re rich. Cline explores this through the privileged life of David, but I wish there were also another layer to investigate this question for people in a lower tax bracket. For the first 10 pages, I did feel that I’m too poor to appreciate SWITZY.

I didn’t think after A WOMAN MAKES A PLAN, opening a story with a private jet is the best choice. But apparently the Booker judges really appreciate this examination of “the trappings of the elite”. Personally, I find that the least interesting aspect of the book 😅

There are aspects where I can see SWITZY being a polarizing book. For one, there are moments of extreme dark humor due to David’s condition. And while that did give the story dealing with such heavy topics a little reprieve (and I did laugh), there’s always a question of ethics in using a disease as a plot/narrative device.

SWITZY took me through an emotional rollercoaster and left me sobbing, wondering if I should feel relieved instead. It is an unsettling read that will have the readers ponder about their own personhood and consciousness, and the choices they might make when everything starts slowly slipping away.

[Stacy (Gotham City Librarian) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought The Guest was essentially pretty alright, but I was far more impressed by this one. It’s extremely complex and well written, and I’m blown away that Cline can write so convincingly from the perspective of an aging, chronically ill businessman who is rapidly losing control of his mental faculties.

Very good portrayal through the prose and sentence structure of fevered, jumbled thinking. You see the main character David losing his short-term memories in real time, becoming confused by his own decisions and experiencing rapid shifts in mood. Fragments of memories come back here and there to help complete the picture of this person and the people he attempts to interact with on the trip, to varied results.

At first, I admittedly struggled to feel sympathy for David, because as vivid and convincing as everything was he also came across as a privileged and unlikable person. I’m thinking this was by design, since a story about a character who is dying is much more complex for the reader if that character is hard to relate to. As I read further, however, I got more of a glimpse into David’s humanity and my opinion softened.

Many reviewers talk about how bleak this book is, and I definitely understand that take. It’s already not an easy collection of subjects, and David’s life turns out to be a lot less sparkling than one would assume. The more I learned about his past, the worse it felt. And he’s barely holding it together. From the beginning of the book to the end, it feels like everything accelerates.

I liked how Cline presented an isolated few days in the life of this person in such a way that I immediately wanted to know more, and she gradually presented new information only as it was necessary, keeping things mysterious as long as possible. (Even now, I still have so many questions about Cody. Such a fascinating character and absolutely the MVP of this novel.)

There were many themes explored here as well, but to go into them would give too much away. David turned out to be, in my opinion, a deeply unhappy and tragic person and Cline echoed parts of his life in the people within his orbit very skillfully. I highly recommend this read to anyone who enjoys good literary fiction but is prepared for very heavy and somber subject matter.

Was the final sentence of this book a reference to the cover image of “The Guest,” or is that just a huge coincidence?

Thank you to Netgalley and to the Publisher for this early copy in exchange for an honest review! All opinions are my own.

4.5 stars.

Biggest TW: Chronic illness, *Suicide, Slurs, Bullying

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really hard but great read about a man who is in cognitive decline and goes to Switzerland to medically end his own life. It’s so different than anything else Cline has written (at least The Girls and The Guest) and I really enjoyed it. It’s so disorienting and hard to be in David’s head - his memory is so slight, and he has mood swings / panics about things that are not relevant or should not be meaningful, but to him they are.

We follow him as he thinks about his boyhood, focusing especially on an intimate and close relationship with a high school roommate, Tom, who he travels to see in the later part of the novel. He visits his daughter and grandson, which was my favorite part of the book - his curiosity and astonishment when he sees a sonny angel for the first time is the funniest thing I have ever read.

David is not fun to be with, I actually think he’s a wealthy POS. But it is almost a comforting experience living out his final days with him.

I’m so glad I got my hands on an ARC of this, I love Cline’s work so so much.

[Richard Derus]

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2026 BOOKER PRIZE Shortlist will be announced on September 22.

[alexa · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a rough reading experience. I felt like I was grimacing the entire time. Gosh. Really quite depressing.

I can’t stop thinking about this novel. I didn’t love the writing style, but it really is just sticking with me too much to not rate it at least a 4.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House for the arc!

[Karen Barber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Switzy is an unflinching exploration of one man’s final days. David is our main character, heading to Switzerland so that he can die with dignity. Accompanied by his assistant, Cody, we follow David as he travels to Zurich and tries to make some final trips before his passing.
What quickly becomes clear is how much David is struggling. He forgets where he is. He forgets words. He records key information in a notebook that is carried round with him. There is no respite for us as we follow David through these moments.
As the journey progresses we learn a little about the man David was, and the memories he has of how he became this person. I was struck by the loneliness this characters experiences, though he clearly has family and others who have lived alongside him. We can never really know what anyone else thinks or feels, and as we approach death we will all see things differently.
This hit hard at times.
Thanks to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this before publication.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

David has been diagnosed with dementia. He has decided to seek medically assisted suicide in Switzerland before his illness becomes too severe to be able to consent meaningfully. The novel follows David over his last few days, as he attempts to get closure on his life.

I have enjoyed Emma Cline’s previous novels very much, but still was unprepared for the leap forward she has taken with Switzy. The close third-person narration allows the reader to experience David’s dementia, and the story is told with great compassion. It seems clear that David is a complicated person who has wronged people in his life, yet the reader experiences his confusion and pain and wants things to end well for him. This is a powerful novel, written with confidence. I’m not at all surprised that it has been longlisted for the 2026 Booker Prize.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for allowing me to read an ARC of this title.

[Zoë · Rating 5 out of 5]

voor als je alzheimer beter wil begrijpen? hoe ze dit voor elkaar heeft gekregen, wil ik niet weten, research? iemand in de omgeving? ben hier nog wel even van aan het bijkomen…

[Matt Bender · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’d like to think I’d be interested in more than bodily functions and wrapping up a few loose ends when it’s time for me to die, but it’s hard to say. Switzy is a dark compelling account of the last few days on earth for David, who is on his way to Switzerland for assisted suicide. It is ambitious and, for me, completely unexpected from Emma Cline.

Switzy takes us into the mind of a person who is quickly losing his sense of consciousness (at least of the present) as he bungles his way toward death. “Old Town: pretty much what his brain was these days. A place where the past was ascendant. It was more interesting, more alive. His actual self was just a tourist in his old life at this point, the present moment pressed into service only as a portal to the past.”

Although no one probably expected her new book to be about an aging, rich retired hedge fund guy, it is still recognizably Cline. There is the closely observed cynicism about wealth (the novel opens on a private jet), a mysterious narrator (we slowly get an incomplete backstory about David), who is highly motivated (although there is plenty of too to speculate why).

Everything about Cline’s writing feels intentional, and one of her best choices was how she depicts David’s relationship with Cody who, despite being a former junior trader for David, has become his confidant and caretaker. Cline plays for their dynamic laughs because David just does not seem to give a fuck about Cody, ever. But that relationship also reveals how self-centered and cruel David must have been more than the brief glimpses we get into his relationship with his daughter and friends.

I thought this was her best and most interesting novel so far. It is also her most literary work. I think she’s the best stylist writing today and she’s added a bit more of James Joyce inspired tools to her repertoire than I’ve detected before—both in terms of pacing and allusions, like this one:

My phone?
Pat, pat. David performed the Sign of the Cross:
In the name of the coat pocket, the coat pocket, and the pants pockets. Amen.
Nothing.

David spends the entire novel trying to place a value on his life and doesn’t seem to find much more in it.

[Mandy Stew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Φανταστείτε λοιπόν αυτό. Είμαι στο χωριό μου για την κηδεία του παππού μου, τον οποίο έχω περάσει τους τελευταίους μήνες να βλέπω να χάνει όλο και περισσότερο τον εαυτό του μέσα στην άνοια. Έχει υπάρξει μια δύσκολη εμπειρία, φαντάζομαι περισσότερο για εκείνον, που με έχει αφήσει τις περισσότερες φορές να αναρωτιέμαι πώς γίνεται να έχει περάσει ένας άνθρωπος ολόκληρη τη ζωή του προσπαθώντας, μόνο και μόνο για να φτάσει σε ένα σημείο στο οποίο ανήμπορος και εντελώς ανυπεράσπιστος απέναντι στο ίδιο του το μυαλό θα χάσει τον έλεγχο ακόμη και των πιο βασικών επιθυμιών και αναγκών του. Αναρωτιόμουν και πόσο μπορεί να κρατήσει αυτό. Ήταν, τέλος πάντων, αναμενόμενο να φύγει αλλά ταυτόχρονα δύσκολο και στενάχωρο, όπως είναι πάντα.
Και ξεκινάω, εγώ είμαι στο χωριό, να διαβάζω αυτό το βιβλίο, που πρωταγωνιστή έχει τον εβδομηνταχρονο Ντειβιντ, έναν μοναχικό άντρα που πέρασε κάτι παρόμοιο με τον παππού μου και αποφάσισε να ταξιδέψει στην Ελβετία και να βάλει τέλος στη ζωή του δια της νόμιμης οδού.
Προφανώς ο τρόπος που αποτυπώνει το χάος της ασθένειας είναι εντελώς ξεχωριστός και προφανώς είναι πραγματικά ένα φεστιβάλ μιζέριας κατά τη διάρκεια του οποίου συνεχώς νιώθεις την αμηχανία και την απύθμενη στεναχώρια που σου προκαλεί η έλλειψη αυτοδιάθεσης. Ένα πράγμα για το οποίο δε θα συγχωρήσω την συγγραφέα είναι το γεγονός πως μου είναι πολύ δύσκολο πλέον να σκεφτώ πως ο άνθρωπος που έχει άνοια δεν καταλαβαίνει τι ακριβώς πηγαίνει στραβά, δεν ξέρει ότι σου λέει κάτι για δεκατη φορά κλπ. Ο Ντειβιντ δε θα μπορούσε να είναι κοντά στον παππού μου εννοείται, γιατί ήταν ένας πλούσιος CFO που ήρθε αντιμέτωπος με τις αδυναμίες του μέσα από τη δουλειά του, αλλά έχει περάσει περίπου μια ώρα που το τελείωσα και επιστρέφω ξανά στις σκέψεις που έκανα όλους αυτούς τους μήνες, τι να σκεφτόταν ο παππούς μου για τη ζωή του στις ελάχιστες στιγμές που ήταν ο εαυτός του; Συνήθως με ρωτούσε αν έχω φάει μεσημεριανό, ένα από τα μόνιμα άγχη του. Άλλες φορές προσευχόταν για τη γιαγιά μου της οποίας ο θάνατος του κόστισε πολύ.
Και επίσης σκεφτόμουν όσο ήμουν στο χωριό: έχει έρθει ο παππούς εδώ; Ήξερε τι είναι η κουιασα; Έχει μπει στο σπήλαιο της μονής; Θα τον ένοιαζε να το κάνει; Ρώτησα την θεία μου και μου είπε για τον εαυτό της πως ήξερε την Κουιασα, φοβάται τη σπηλιά, έφυγε από τα Πράμαντα όταν ήταν 18 και ότι μισεί το κωλοχωρι, προτιμάει το καυσαέριο της Αθήνας. Δηλαδή τσάμπα ο ρομαντισμός μου!
Τέλος πάντων, τώρα εγώ έχω στεναχωρηθεί και κλαίω λίγο, οι γείτονες από πάνω μαλώνουν τα παιδιά τους πολύ δυνατά, οι συνάδελφοι μου έχουν πάει για μπίρα ή πηγαίνουν προς τα κει και θα με περιμένουν και η ζωή τραβάει την ανηφόρα κλπ.
Θα τα πούμε κάποια άλλη μέρα, αγαπητό ημερολόγιο;;

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️ Switzy exposes readers to David’s raw consciousness. A stumbling, fragile hold on memory, life, and self as he hurtles toward the end. The writing takes a chapter or two to ease into because of its fractured nature, but once you get used to the structure, you realize you’re experiencing a jumbled mind from the inside. David is lamenting and reflecting on his life, piecing together memories and images as he moves toward its fast coming conclusion.

While it was often difficult to follow, Emma Cline’s writing has a way of hitting you with revelations and one-liners that are sneakily beautiful and revealing of David’s feelings. There’s something haunting about the memories and images he carries with him on his journey to the end, especially as they blur together with his present reality.

I often make connections to other media I’ve consumed while reading and Switzy brought to mind Ari Aster’s Beau Is Afraid. While this novel is far less bizarre, I found both to be fractured, surreal journeys through a life. Strange, disorienting, and at times difficult to understand, but revealing something deeper beneath the chaos.

Switzy definitely isn’t a straightforward read, but if you’re willing to settle into its fractured structure and let yourself get lost in David’s mind, there’s a lot to uncover.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the advance copy!

[Liz · Rating 2 out of 5]

A well written version of what I imagine dementia feels like to a sufferer of it, based on my experiences of family members with it. The backstory is slowly revealed through David’s memories suddenly being triggered by a random thought.

However, the lack of speech marks annoys me. Are authors being pretentious? Or thinking it makes their work one of literary? I fully quote from another reviewer, as this encapsulates my view: ‘The biggest issue was the complete lack of speech marks. I know it’s an intentional stylistic choice, but I genuinely don’t understand the appeal. It made every conversation harder to follow, constantly pulling me out of the story instead of drawing me into it. For me, it’s one of the most counterproductive writing choices an author can make. If I’m spending time working out who’s speaking, I’m not fully immersed in the story.’ Exactly! What’s the point of making a stylistic choice that stops readers becoming engrossed in your work?
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

My day job used to be working with older people experiencing cognitive decline, and a man once said to me “I feel like I’m disappearing.”

That’s a memory which came to me whilst reading this book.

Anyway, this was heartbreaking. I loved it. A billion stars.

Thank you to NetGalley for a preview copy of this book.

[Aanchel Shah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this because it was nominated for the Booker Prize, but I feel like I am alone in not really… liking it? I kept thinking I had already read this premise somewhere so it didn’t feel original, but I can’t remember where it was from, so maybe I am imagining it, lol

Pretty slow paced — was difficult to get through. The last 10% or so of the book was definitely the best part, but even then, I would not really recommend it to most people. It doesn’t feel like I took away anything from reading this, except perhaps the joy and pain of selective memory …? Which is already a pretty common sense thing so idk

This book does have very very high reviews so maybe I misread and misunderstood everything and it’s on me