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The green silk shawl
At the start of the 19th century, in the Val
Bregaglia in southern Switzerland, life is hard
for the young widow Alma and her little
daughter Lisabetta. When Lisabetta grows up,
she does not want to live like her mother and so
she moves to the Engadin, which has just been
discovered by tourism. After a few happy
years, however, she too is destined to care for
her family on her own...
In this very real and touching family saga, Marcella Maier tells the
story of her family over four generations.
Bregaglia in southern Switzerland, life is hard
for the young widow Alma and her little
daughter Lisabetta. When Lisabetta grows up,
she does not want to live like her mother and so
she moves to the Engadin, which has just been
discovered by tourism. After a few happy
years, however, she too is destined to care for
her family on her own...
In this very real and touching family saga, Marcella Maier tells the
story of her family over four generations.
228 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
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November 25, 2018The author describes this book as oral history - it is not quite, it is a stage further than that. The story of a direct line of four generations of the author's female ancestors takes us back to the era of Napoleon, when hungry soldiers swept through the Swiss cantons eating all they could find before disappearing back to the places where more conventional history was made.
Strictly speaking, at least to my narrow mind, for this to be an oral history then Maier would have needed to have recorded the stories told to her by her mother and grandmother exactly as they had been told by them. Here the accounts have been worked up into something slightly more literary - so the events covered by the first 38 pages are: the widow Alma sheltered an Italian priest who left her his spinning wheel and the green silk shawl of the title . After his departure Alma struggles to feed herself and her daughter through the winter. Through the good offices of the local shop keeper she finds work as a servant to Signora Anna. One can imagine the original stories, but here they have been shaped into a consistent narrative, so rather than a series of pictures of a life told in no particular order there is a story, with dialogue, and description.
This was interesting to me because a couple of times I have had a go at writing down the various stories that my Grandmother told me about her life and her father and grandparents, but I'd rapidly get stuck. There is both a rawness and a fineness of style to the often told ancestral anecdote that doesn't translate easily to paper, so I enjoyed seeing how Maier achieved this. For instance in the early days her ancestors seem to have largely lived on chestnuts, on high and holy days fried up with speck, which is best described to those unfamiliar with it as super bacon or possibly even turbo bacon, and what ever else they could forage in the countryside. Maier works this into the first part of the story by having Alma notice the plants growing in the spring, thinking about what she will be able to harvest in a few weeks while carrying her daughter en route to an interview with Signora Anna.
The family in their early days were Romansh speakers, but over the generations drift into German speaking areas and German speaking marriages. There's not much in the way of Romansh words captured in the text but the multi-lingual family background plainly helped them to survive - opening up better employment possibilities such as they were.
Over the generations there is the development of tourism in near-by St.Moritz, at first an incomprehensible concept - tourists are strange people who don't need to collect chestnuts to survive after all, but who provide a sense of a world wider than a mountain valley.
Certain things carry over generations - the tendency of husbands to die at an early age. Late marriage as an economic necessity. Pregnancy as a threat to people on limited incomes.
Economic development is not all plain sailing though - one husband is an early promoter of electricity - borrows money from another new institution (the bank), builds a power station only to find that no one wants to buy electricity. Deeply indebted he runs off to Italy, catches Malaria and eventually dies (admitted only after returning to Switzerland, incurring more debt in setting up an electric boat-bus service). The family increasingly are involved in the growth industry of tourism only to face ruin in the First World War - I could not help but think of Independent people here - and then again in the Second World War. But before all that one of the rare sons born into the family is sent off to train as a pastry chef and confectioner in Rouen from where he goes on to practice that trade in Florence (he does make sure that in passing he collects himself a Swiss wife though).
I was surprised though at the complete absence of livestock, the family was plainly too precarious in the early days to afford to keep even a goat or two and the swift transition to the emergent service industries, and also at the (admittedly possibly concealed out of modesty) absence of pregnancy before marriage.
On the whole though an optimistic account of four or five generations of Swiss family life, full of the centrality of grandmothers to the survival of a family. And what is a family other than a set of shared stories?
Strictly speaking, at least to my narrow mind, for this to be an oral history then Maier would have needed to have recorded the stories told to her by her mother and grandmother exactly as they had been told by them. Here the accounts have been worked up into something slightly more literary - so the events covered by the first 38 pages are: the widow Alma sheltered an Italian priest who left her his spinning wheel and the green silk shawl of the title . After his departure Alma struggles to feed herself and her daughter through the winter. Through the good offices of the local shop keeper she finds work as a servant to Signora Anna. One can imagine the original stories, but here they have been shaped into a consistent narrative, so rather than a series of pictures of a life told in no particular order there is a story, with dialogue, and description.
This was interesting to me because a couple of times I have had a go at writing down the various stories that my Grandmother told me about her life and her father and grandparents, but I'd rapidly get stuck. There is both a rawness and a fineness of style to the often told ancestral anecdote that doesn't translate easily to paper, so I enjoyed seeing how Maier achieved this. For instance in the early days her ancestors seem to have largely lived on chestnuts, on high and holy days fried up with speck, which is best described to those unfamiliar with it as super bacon or possibly even turbo bacon, and what ever else they could forage in the countryside. Maier works this into the first part of the story by having Alma notice the plants growing in the spring, thinking about what she will be able to harvest in a few weeks while carrying her daughter en route to an interview with Signora Anna.
The family in their early days were Romansh speakers, but over the generations drift into German speaking areas and German speaking marriages. There's not much in the way of Romansh words captured in the text but the multi-lingual family background plainly helped them to survive - opening up better employment possibilities such as they were.
Over the generations there is the development of tourism in near-by St.Moritz, at first an incomprehensible concept - tourists are strange people who don't need to collect chestnuts to survive after all, but who provide a sense of a world wider than a mountain valley.
Certain things carry over generations - the tendency of husbands to die at an early age. Late marriage as an economic necessity. Pregnancy as a threat to people on limited incomes.
Economic development is not all plain sailing though - one husband is an early promoter of electricity - borrows money from another new institution (the bank), builds a power station only to find that no one wants to buy electricity. Deeply indebted he runs off to Italy, catches Malaria and eventually dies (admitted only after returning to Switzerland, incurring more debt in setting up an electric boat-bus service). The family increasingly are involved in the growth industry of tourism only to face ruin in the First World War - I could not help but think of Independent people here - and then again in the Second World War. But before all that one of the rare sons born into the family is sent off to train as a pastry chef and confectioner in Rouen from where he goes on to practice that trade in Florence (he does make sure that in passing he collects himself a Swiss wife though).
I was surprised though at the complete absence of livestock, the family was plainly too precarious in the early days to afford to keep even a goat or two and the swift transition to the emergent service industries, and also at the (admittedly possibly concealed out of modesty) absence of pregnancy before marriage.
On the whole though an optimistic account of four or five generations of Swiss family life, full of the centrality of grandmothers to the survival of a family. And what is a family other than a set of shared stories?
June 10, 2015
Für eine "Unterländerin" wie mich, war das Buch sehr interessant. Ich selber arbeite in Sils-Maria in einem Hotel und finde die Entwicklung der Familie in der ganzen Geschichte sehr gut beschrieben. Vorallem ist es interessant, wenn Orte im Buch erwähnt werden und man weiss, wo sie sind. Sehr gutes Buch über Familie und das Oberengadin!
February 11, 2019
This wasn't a bad book, but it could have been so much better. While the story was interesting, about 4 generations of women growing up near St. Moritz, Switzerland, the story lacked any distinct voice. It is merely a transcription of what people did with a few brilliant literary paragraphs thrown in between events. It seems like something written more as a personal family history, or for the historical society of the Engadin. As a result, I couldn't feel the author's passion or the story's relevance to the times. I also feel the translation was not very well done because the vocabulary was not rich or interesting, there were at least 5 grammatically incorrect sentences, and the translator used "a lot" so often it was noticeable, rather than finding descriptive, colorful words that mean the same thing. A lot of problems, or a plethora of problems? A lot of people, or hoards of people? The writing could have been much richer. Also, the plot was rather weak, and I really wondered why the green silk shawl didn't get more of a part in the story. It seems to have just been passed along from generation to generation without playing much of a role in their lives. I enjoyed the characters, who were all strong, interesting women and I liked the way the book was organized.
April 10, 2016
Ein ruhiges, angenehmes Buch. Wie eine Geschichte die einem die Oma an einem Schneetag vorm Kamin erzählt, über ihre Großmutter und Mutter, ihre Kindheit, ihr Leben bevor es Elektrizität gab. Es plätschert dahin, ohne langweilig zu werden. Die Frauen sind sympathisch, man leidet und freut sich mit ihnen. Man bekommt Lust auf Berge und einen Urlaub in der Schweiz.
April 10, 2019
Eine wunderbare Geschichte.
April 4, 2019
I so enjoyed reading The Green Silk Shawl, and its impressions have lasted: the people, and the landscape, seem friends to me now. Iris Hunter's translation made it easy to gulp down this very moving and fascinating account of life over several generations of women in Switzerland. I knew nothing about life in this part of the world, much less about the lives of its women during this span of time, and it strikes me forcibly how much we all owe to the labour, resilience, and strength of women like Alma, Lisbetta, Maria, Nina, and Marcella. It's understated, subtle, and honest. The emotions come through in a steady accumulation of the narrative, and in the bright details: sucking on dried chestnuts, fighting a blizzard because not going to work can't be contemplated... I'm sharing this book with the women in my life, especially, because it's so rare to read about the domestic lives of women holding families together, and to come away with such a feeling of strength -- and gratitude.
May 25, 2019
I so much enjoyed reading about the lives of this family from an area of Switzerland of which I know little. It was the relationships of the women in the family that was so involving, the mothers and the daughters and the grandmothers, their marriages, and how tough their lives were, how hard they all had to work to keep a roof over their heads. It was interesting to read how life in the Engadin changed, especially in the early years of the last century with the outbreak of the First World War and the spread of modernity, which brought an increase in the possibilities of travel and the related growth of tourism, opening up new job opportunities. The account was anchored in the natural world with notes of the seasons and the varieties of trees and plants found in the area giving an idea of the changing landscape. I liked particularly the sense of time passing and the sense of the familial connection continuing down the generations and how they loved and supported each other. It was a touching read.
March 30, 2019
Having read the original a few years ago, I was most pleased to see the chance to savour Swiss life again in English.
Ms Hunter has done a marvellous job, capturing the typically understated style of the original. The insight into life as it was in earlier times, the difficulties the people, in particular the women, faced, their stoicism, their resourcefulness, all superbly conveyed.
Good enough to be made into a film. A must for everyone who has an interest in recent European history.
Ms Hunter has done a marvellous job, capturing the typically understated style of the original. The insight into life as it was in earlier times, the difficulties the people, in particular the women, faced, their stoicism, their resourcefulness, all superbly conveyed.
Good enough to be made into a film. A must for everyone who has an interest in recent European history.
June 14, 2019
This is a fascinating, original and absorbing book. It is a total joy to read, introducing you to a family of amazing women, a way of life that has long disappeared and the development of a modern advanced country, all told through the lives of those women. What is amazing is that it is all the result of stories passed down through the generations. Would that all families had that level of knowledge of their forbears. Definitely one to go on the reading list - preferably at the top!
May 9, 2020
Since I translated this book from the German, I'd like to take this review off the system.... needless to say I adore the German original and hope that my translation is doing Marcella Maier justice.
August 16, 2025
It’s hard to imagine that so many Swiss were dirt poor for centuries, right up through WW2. It wasn’t always all bankers, high society, and prosperity. Many lived from hand to mouth and often died early. They worked morning, noon, and night, their greatest fears being a lack of work, abject poverty, and hunger.
This book gives some good insights into the tough life in the Swiss Bergell and Engadine regions from the late 1700’s up until about 1950. The author shares her family’s history as it was passed down from mother to daughter, generation after generation. Her ancestors moved from Bondo to Soglio to Sils Maria, then Silvaplana, Celerina and St Moritz. They go from spinning wool and tending others to running modest boarding houses. Over and over, the burden of survival and raising the children winds up resting on the shoulders of the resilient, but exhausted women. Each generation in this story manages to scrape together a bit more security, but even after 150 years of this, the families still had to work hard and support each other to get by.
I’ve spent a fair amount of time in the Engadine and Bergell, but was never really aware of how life was there in the past. This book was an eye opener. Soglio is one of my favorite places on Earth and Sils Maria is also close to my heart. Now I’ll appreciate the region and its people even more.
On a side note, the titular green silk shawl is a bit of a red herring and has no real import in the story, other than that it gets handed down. Certainly made for a nice book cover, though ;-).
This book gives some good insights into the tough life in the Swiss Bergell and Engadine regions from the late 1700’s up until about 1950. The author shares her family’s history as it was passed down from mother to daughter, generation after generation. Her ancestors moved from Bondo to Soglio to Sils Maria, then Silvaplana, Celerina and St Moritz. They go from spinning wool and tending others to running modest boarding houses. Over and over, the burden of survival and raising the children winds up resting on the shoulders of the resilient, but exhausted women. Each generation in this story manages to scrape together a bit more security, but even after 150 years of this, the families still had to work hard and support each other to get by.
I’ve spent a fair amount of time in the Engadine and Bergell, but was never really aware of how life was there in the past. This book was an eye opener. Soglio is one of my favorite places on Earth and Sils Maria is also close to my heart. Now I’ll appreciate the region and its people even more.
On a side note, the titular green silk shawl is a bit of a red herring and has no real import in the story, other than that it gets handed down. Certainly made for a nice book cover, though ;-).
June 2, 2023
I truly enjoyed to read about this family saga that begins in the 19th century's Val Bregaglia, a valley southern Switzerland that borders Italy. Marcella Maier tells the story of her family over 200 years and four generations. The women are the real protagonists here. They work hard, they raise children, and drive the family up. Quite literally, as the family moves in the Engadine, the Swiss valley just above Val Bregaglia, which was blessed by natural beauty and discovered by tourism in early 1920s. The book brings you back to the unimaginably hard past life of the high mountains, where winters are deadly affairs, doctors are scarce, and comforts non existent. Through many ordeals - and happy moments - the humble women of this family are an example of dedication and human determination. Marcella, the author and the last generation in the book, in 1972 was the first woman to be elected to the Council of St Moritz (in a country where women couldn't vote until that year) and in 1981 she was elected to the Grand Council of her Canton (Graubunden). She was highly respected for her clear political view, her social engagement, and her ability to mobilize others for her causes. So much respect and inspiration from this story.
December 6, 2025
This book is a very sweet recounting of sixth generation of strong willed, resilient women. While reading it, I couldn’t help but feel grateful that the writer was sharing the most intimate and challenging experiences her family went through. I felt very emotional at some of the details shared because I could sense the veracity of the characters in the face of harsh winters, grief, and wars. The description of the villages reached my imagination and filled me with warmth. The women in this book are inspirational and their memory deserves to be honored in a book.
November 11, 2019
It is easy to become engrossed in this book: its descriptions of life in the Engadin across generations provide an incite to lives lived in extraordinary times. The details of the evolution of places we all think we know, such as St Moritz, are a revelation. Iris Hunter’s translation provides a clarity that makes this book come alive in a language other than the original, for which I am grateful; I would never have experienced the pleasure of this book otherwise.
January 3, 2021
Ein friedliches Buch, welches einem einen interessanten und lehrreichen Einblick in das Leben starker und mutiger Frauen im Oberengadin im späten 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhundert verschafft. Zu einer Zeit, wo der Gedanke an Elektrizität noch unheimlich war und das Wasser draussen vom Brunnen geholt werden musste.
November 20, 2020
Sehr lesenswert für an Regionalgeschichte und Familiengeschichten interessierte Leser und Leserinnen. Ich habe es auf Englisch gelesen, eine gute Übersetzung mit interessanten Hinweisen auf lokale Begriffe und deren historischen Hintergründe.
May 2, 2020
Eine warme, sehr gut geschriebene, herzergreifende Familiengeschichte.
July 11, 2022
Sehr spannend
September 18, 2023
Wunderschön!
March 31, 2025
Eindrückliche historische Geschichte. Schön zu lesen vor allem wenn man das Engadin kennt.
July 20, 2023
Ein wunderbares buch. Ich habe mich so sehr in die welt von damals zurück versetzt gefühlt. Es erinnerte mich an heidi, an meine kindheit, an eine vergangenheit, die ich nie hatte und so gerne hätte.
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