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Wir fliegen
Heidi zeichnet das junge Mädchen, das sie nie gewesen ist. Vor Jahren wollte sie Künstlerin werden, in Wien studieren an der Akademie, aber die Reise ging nur bis Innsbruck. Jetzt hat sie Mann und Kind, die sie nie gewollt hat. Erst durch Carmen, die hübsche Lehrtochter aus der Bäckerei, fängt sie wieder an zu träumen. – Bruno arbeitet seit dreißig gleichmäßigen Jahren als Portier in einem Hotel. Er war beim Arzt, ein schlimmes Ergebnis könnte ihn erwarten. Noch weiß er nichts endgültiges, es ist seine letzte Nacht vor dem Resultat. Aber es wird nichts sein, bestimmt nicht. Für einen Moment ist er ganz glücklich.
Es sind diese Momente, in denen sich etwas verändert im Leben, in denen etwas geschieht, man merkt es kaum. Momente, die der Zeit enthoben scheinen. Eine neue Welt tut sich auf, man erkennt die Sackgasse, in die man vor langer Zeit geraten ist. Und plötzlich herrscht ein anderes Licht.
In seinen neuen, wunderbaren Geschichten zeigt sich Peter Stamm als Meister im Erzählen unerwarteter Wendepunkte, des flüchtigen Glücks, mit dem man nicht mehr gerechnet hat. Denn kann man wünschen, was man nicht einmal sich selbst gegenüber zugibt? Und widerspricht der Wunsch, auserwählt zu sein, dem Wunsch nach Liebe?
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Following the publication of the widely acclaimed novel Seven Years comes a trove of stories from the Swiss master Peter Stamm. They all possess the traits that have built Stamm’s reputation: the directness of the prose, the deceptive surface simplicity of the narratives, and deep psychological insight into the existential dilemmas of contemporary life. Stamm does not waste a word, nor does he spare the reader’s feelings. These stories are a superb introduction to his work and a gift for all those who have come to regard his fiction as a precise rendering of the contemporary human psyche.
Es sind diese Momente, in denen sich etwas verändert im Leben, in denen etwas geschieht, man merkt es kaum. Momente, die der Zeit enthoben scheinen. Eine neue Welt tut sich auf, man erkennt die Sackgasse, in die man vor langer Zeit geraten ist. Und plötzlich herrscht ein anderes Licht.
In seinen neuen, wunderbaren Geschichten zeigt sich Peter Stamm als Meister im Erzählen unerwarteter Wendepunkte, des flüchtigen Glücks, mit dem man nicht mehr gerechnet hat. Denn kann man wünschen, was man nicht einmal sich selbst gegenüber zugibt? Und widerspricht der Wunsch, auserwählt zu sein, dem Wunsch nach Liebe?
-----------
Following the publication of the widely acclaimed novel Seven Years comes a trove of stories from the Swiss master Peter Stamm. They all possess the traits that have built Stamm’s reputation: the directness of the prose, the deceptive surface simplicity of the narratives, and deep psychological insight into the existential dilemmas of contemporary life. Stamm does not waste a word, nor does he spare the reader’s feelings. These stories are a superb introduction to his work and a gift for all those who have come to regard his fiction as a precise rendering of the contemporary human psyche.
175 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
31 people are currently reading
421 people want to read
About the author
Peter Stamm
65 books360 followersPeter Stamm grew up in Weinfelden in the canton of Thurgau the son of an accountant. After completing primary and secondary school he spent three years as an apprentice accountant and then 5 as an accountant. He then chose to go back to school at the University of Zurich taking courses in a variety of fields including English studies, Business informatics, Psychology, and Psychopathology. During this time he also worked as an intern at a psychiatric clinic. After living for a time in New York, Paris, and Scandinavia he settled down in 1990 as a writer and freelance journalist in Zurich. He wrote articles for, among others, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, the Tages-Anzeiger, Die Weltwoche, and the satirical newspaper Nebelspalter. Since 1997 he has belonged to the editorial staff of the quarterly literary magazine "Entwürfe für Literatur." He lives in Winterthur.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 59 reviews
December 14, 2025
This volume in English language actually comprises two collections of short stories by Peter Stamm "Wir Fliegen" and "Seerücken" that are quite different stylistically. The first one reads like a European version of early Raymond Carver. The similarity is striking: the economy of language, the low social strata of the characters, the abrupt endings, the general hopelessness of a human condition - this is exactly what Carver has mastered so well, this is what Stamm does even better at times in "We're flying".
The second collection "The Ridge" departs from the pattern and a search for a different approach is apparent. Stamm embarks on crossing the ridge with a different goal in mind - the stories are no longer universally depressing. There are instances of unexpected joy - too brief to be called happiness, too sudden to form expectations. The range of emotions and states of mind is wider. This is not always a success though, certain stories of the second collection do not touch this reader. But the brighter side is welcome, even when it is dismissed as an elaborate joke by the author himself as in "Sweet Dreams".
Michael Hofmann translated most of the works of Peter Stamm into English. It appears that this translation closely follows the spirit of the original but certain infrequent blunders, when you notice them, are quite annoying. Michael, please let someone proofread the texts!
The second collection "The Ridge" departs from the pattern and a search for a different approach is apparent. Stamm embarks on crossing the ridge with a different goal in mind - the stories are no longer universally depressing. There are instances of unexpected joy - too brief to be called happiness, too sudden to form expectations. The range of emotions and states of mind is wider. This is not always a success though, certain stories of the second collection do not touch this reader. But the brighter side is welcome, even when it is dismissed as an elaborate joke by the author himself as in "Sweet Dreams".
Michael Hofmann translated most of the works of Peter Stamm into English. It appears that this translation closely follows the spirit of the original but certain infrequent blunders, when you notice them, are quite annoying. Michael, please let someone proofread the texts!
September 7, 2020
Öykülerin yolculukta okunsun diye üretildiğine yemin edebilirim ama kanıt sıkıntı. Ama öyle ya canım, hani uzun yolculuklarda kafanı toplayıp kendini veremez haliyle okuduğun kitabı hiç edersin? Heh onun önüne geçmek içinde eline ayıla bayıla okuduğun kurgu kitabın yerine bir öykü kitabı alırsın oh mis.
Ya da banka sırası beklemek zorundasındır, al öykü.
Arkadaşın buluşmaya yine gecikmiştir (Covid-19'dan önce rip to my youth aman zaten hiç bir zaman bekletilen olmadım bakmayın hava attığıma) heh al sana öykü GİBİ.
Gel gelelim, zamanın bol kahveni yapmışsın yaslanmışsın arkana okuyorsun kitabını fakat o da ne? Evet üç sayfa sonra tam içine girdiğin konu çat diye bitiyor çünkü bu bir öykü kitabıdır. Ne bileyim Boccaccio muydu kimdi, yakmışsın bizi be.
Stamm'in bu kitabına ise benden anca 2,5 çıkar. Bu kez gol değil üzgünüm.
Ya da banka sırası beklemek zorundasındır, al öykü.
Arkadaşın buluşmaya yine gecikmiştir (Covid-19'dan önce rip to my youth aman zaten hiç bir zaman bekletilen olmadım bakmayın hava attığıma) heh al sana öykü GİBİ.
Gel gelelim, zamanın bol kahveni yapmışsın yaslanmışsın arkana okuyorsun kitabını fakat o da ne? Evet üç sayfa sonra tam içine girdiğin konu çat diye bitiyor çünkü bu bir öykü kitabıdır. Ne bileyim Boccaccio muydu kimdi, yakmışsın bizi be.
Stamm'in bu kitabına ise benden anca 2,5 çıkar. Bu kez gol değil üzgünüm.
February 19, 2020
El tema principal de este libro es la soledad, sobre lo difícil que es encontrar personas que te entiendan y a las que entender; es decir, sobre la alienación del ser humano. Peter Stamm lo expresa así en uno de sus cuentos:
"Cuando estaba con otras personas, Lukas siempre tenía la sensación de que se le cerraban los poros, se sentía pequeño y era casi dolorosamente consciente de su cuerpo. Estaba encerrado en ese cuerpo, y sólo por eso se sentía un ser humano. Cuando estaba solo, se olvidaba de sí mismo, de que los únicos límites eran los de su percepción, el césped húmedo sobre el que andaba, las nubes que pasaban por el cielo, la franja azul en el horizonte, la linde del bosque en la otra orilla del río. En esos momentos, Lukas hubiese podido ser cualquier persona, o simplemente nadie."
Peter Stamm, suizo que escribe en alemán, posee una manera de escribir muy particular. Su prosa es precisa, aséptica, ligeramente fría; y, como el frío, poco a poco te va calando hasta lo más profundo. Es el sexto libro que leo de Stamm, y todos ellos tienen esta particularidad. El presente libro de relatos me ha recordado a algunas películas de Isabel Coixet, como pueden ser 'Mi vida sin mí' o 'Cosas que nunca te dije'. Pero, sobre todo, me ha recordado a 'Wonderland', una película coral de Michael Winterbottom (con una fantástica Gina McKee), donde la soledad de los individuos queda patente de una manera muy dolorosa, y a la vez esperanzadora.
Estos son los cuentos que forman esta novela:
- LA EXPECTATIVA (****). Daphne adora los sonidos que le llegan del piso de arriba: música, pisadas, cisternas que se vacían... Le hacen sentirse menos sola.
- CUERPOS EXTRAÑOS (***). Christoph se dedica a dar charlas sobre sus experiencias en la exploración de cuevas. Es en una de estas conferencias donde conocerá a una atípica pareja, Klemens y Sabine, amantes de los deportes de riesgo.
- TRES HERMANAS (****). A Heidi le gusta dibujar, pintar. Deseaba asistir a La Academia de Bellas Artes. Ahora es madre de un niño no deseado, y esposa de un hombre al que no ama.
- LA OFENSA (***). La protagonista de esta historia está enamorada de Luzia y no sabe cómo hacer para ser correspondida.
- EL RESULTADO (***). Bruno trabaja en la recepción de un hotel de lujo. Está esperando el resultado de una biopsia que le darán al día siguiente. Es un hombre viejo y cansado. Espera lo peor y no desea volver a casa esa noche.
- LOS VOLADORES (***). Angelika trabaja en una guardería. Todos los padres han venido ya a por sus hijos, menos los de Dominic, que no aparecen. A pesar de tener planes con su novio, decide no esperar más y llevarse al niño a su casa, dejando una nota a sus padres.
- VIDEOCITY (**). Para el protagonista de este cuento, todo transcurre como en los planos de una película.
- HOMBRES Y NIÑOS (***). Lukas, en un día lluvioso, decide colarse en la piscina municipal. No hay nadie y se pasea con impunidad, recordando algunos momentos allí vividos.
- LA CARTA (**). Tras la muerte de Manfred, su esposa Johanna se deshace de todas sus pertenencias. Entre ellas encontrará una perturbadora carta.
- EN LA VEJEZ (***). Un arquitecto decide regresar al pueblo en el que se crió. Allí conoció a la que fue su primera mujer, un matrimonio que no le trae muy buenos recuerdos.
- HIJOS DE DIOS (**). Michael, párroco de la comunidad, no sabe como enfrentarse a cierto dilema: Mandy, una joven, está embarazada, pero dice no haber mantenido nunca relaciones sexuales con hombres.
- A LOS CAMPOS HAY QUE ACUDIR... (**). Un pintor reflexiona sobre lo que significa pintar para él.
"Cuando estaba con otras personas, Lukas siempre tenía la sensación de que se le cerraban los poros, se sentía pequeño y era casi dolorosamente consciente de su cuerpo. Estaba encerrado en ese cuerpo, y sólo por eso se sentía un ser humano. Cuando estaba solo, se olvidaba de sí mismo, de que los únicos límites eran los de su percepción, el césped húmedo sobre el que andaba, las nubes que pasaban por el cielo, la franja azul en el horizonte, la linde del bosque en la otra orilla del río. En esos momentos, Lukas hubiese podido ser cualquier persona, o simplemente nadie."
Peter Stamm, suizo que escribe en alemán, posee una manera de escribir muy particular. Su prosa es precisa, aséptica, ligeramente fría; y, como el frío, poco a poco te va calando hasta lo más profundo. Es el sexto libro que leo de Stamm, y todos ellos tienen esta particularidad. El presente libro de relatos me ha recordado a algunas películas de Isabel Coixet, como pueden ser 'Mi vida sin mí' o 'Cosas que nunca te dije'. Pero, sobre todo, me ha recordado a 'Wonderland', una película coral de Michael Winterbottom (con una fantástica Gina McKee), donde la soledad de los individuos queda patente de una manera muy dolorosa, y a la vez esperanzadora.
Estos son los cuentos que forman esta novela:
- LA EXPECTATIVA (****). Daphne adora los sonidos que le llegan del piso de arriba: música, pisadas, cisternas que se vacían... Le hacen sentirse menos sola.
- CUERPOS EXTRAÑOS (***). Christoph se dedica a dar charlas sobre sus experiencias en la exploración de cuevas. Es en una de estas conferencias donde conocerá a una atípica pareja, Klemens y Sabine, amantes de los deportes de riesgo.
- TRES HERMANAS (****). A Heidi le gusta dibujar, pintar. Deseaba asistir a La Academia de Bellas Artes. Ahora es madre de un niño no deseado, y esposa de un hombre al que no ama.
- LA OFENSA (***). La protagonista de esta historia está enamorada de Luzia y no sabe cómo hacer para ser correspondida.
- EL RESULTADO (***). Bruno trabaja en la recepción de un hotel de lujo. Está esperando el resultado de una biopsia que le darán al día siguiente. Es un hombre viejo y cansado. Espera lo peor y no desea volver a casa esa noche.
- LOS VOLADORES (***). Angelika trabaja en una guardería. Todos los padres han venido ya a por sus hijos, menos los de Dominic, que no aparecen. A pesar de tener planes con su novio, decide no esperar más y llevarse al niño a su casa, dejando una nota a sus padres.
- VIDEOCITY (**). Para el protagonista de este cuento, todo transcurre como en los planos de una película.
- HOMBRES Y NIÑOS (***). Lukas, en un día lluvioso, decide colarse en la piscina municipal. No hay nadie y se pasea con impunidad, recordando algunos momentos allí vividos.
- LA CARTA (**). Tras la muerte de Manfred, su esposa Johanna se deshace de todas sus pertenencias. Entre ellas encontrará una perturbadora carta.
- EN LA VEJEZ (***). Un arquitecto decide regresar al pueblo en el que se crió. Allí conoció a la que fue su primera mujer, un matrimonio que no le trae muy buenos recuerdos.
- HIJOS DE DIOS (**). Michael, párroco de la comunidad, no sabe como enfrentarse a cierto dilema: Mandy, una joven, está embarazada, pero dice no haber mantenido nunca relaciones sexuales con hombres.
- A LOS CAMPOS HAY QUE ACUDIR... (**). Un pintor reflexiona sobre lo que significa pintar para él.
November 14, 2019
peter stamm'in öyküleri daha çok isviçre dağ köyleriyle ilgili. hayat, insanlar, özellikle de yabanilik, bağnazlık ve dindarlık üzerine... hani sanki türkiye taşrası :)
katolik köylüler birçok öyküde var.
aldatılan karı kocalar, bitmiş ilişkiler, gizli eşcinsellikler de genellikle kasabaya bağlı bir biçimde işleniyor. bu şekilde stamm sanki o kasabaları kahraman yapmış gibi. mekanı çok betimlemeden içinde insanlar ve davranışlarla hissettiriyor resmen.
en çok tanrı'nın çocukları öyküsünü sevdim. ana karakterleri bir papaz ve kimseyle yatmadığı halde hamile kaldığını iddia eden bir köylü kız. sıcacık bir öykü.
katolik köylüler birçok öyküde var.
aldatılan karı kocalar, bitmiş ilişkiler, gizli eşcinsellikler de genellikle kasabaya bağlı bir biçimde işleniyor. bu şekilde stamm sanki o kasabaları kahraman yapmış gibi. mekanı çok betimlemeden içinde insanlar ve davranışlarla hissettiriyor resmen.
en çok tanrı'nın çocukları öyküsünü sevdim. ana karakterleri bir papaz ve kimseyle yatmadığı halde hamile kaldığını iddia eden bir köylü kız. sıcacık bir öykü.
August 27, 2012
Pine Trees and Snow
This is a fine collection of stories. They are dark and often leave you hanging yet for all that they’re satisfying in large part because they’re so well done. They’re heavily laden with teachers and educational settings but disgruntled students aren’t the focus…the teachers are in the forefront. This book is about adults and for adults. Stamm explores obsession, dissatisfaction, inappropriate behavior sometimes bordering on being dangerous, and fatalism just to name a few of his themes. Sexuality loops throughout these stories though it’s mostly a cover for a longing to be loved. Though he often mentions the beautiful Swiss landscape it’s not a focus. There are two stories that especially stick in my mind. One is about a writer who seeks an out of the way place to work; another is about a pastor who desires to take his faith and life to another level. Neither of these characters are disappointed and we readers aren’t either. There’s a prevalent sense of tragedy lurking in Stamm’s stories but it never quite manifests or at least not in the way we anticipate.
As I mentioned Stamm is a Swiss writer. This is the first I’ve read of him or even heard of him. The translation by Michael Hoffmann flows which I assume is an amalgam of Stamm’s and Hoffman’s skills. These stories are not perfect but they’re very entertaining and sometimes enlightening.
This review is based on an e-galley provided by the publisher.
This is a fine collection of stories. They are dark and often leave you hanging yet for all that they’re satisfying in large part because they’re so well done. They’re heavily laden with teachers and educational settings but disgruntled students aren’t the focus…the teachers are in the forefront. This book is about adults and for adults. Stamm explores obsession, dissatisfaction, inappropriate behavior sometimes bordering on being dangerous, and fatalism just to name a few of his themes. Sexuality loops throughout these stories though it’s mostly a cover for a longing to be loved. Though he often mentions the beautiful Swiss landscape it’s not a focus. There are two stories that especially stick in my mind. One is about a writer who seeks an out of the way place to work; another is about a pastor who desires to take his faith and life to another level. Neither of these characters are disappointed and we readers aren’t either. There’s a prevalent sense of tragedy lurking in Stamm’s stories but it never quite manifests or at least not in the way we anticipate.
As I mentioned Stamm is a Swiss writer. This is the first I’ve read of him or even heard of him. The translation by Michael Hoffmann flows which I assume is an amalgam of Stamm’s and Hoffman’s skills. These stories are not perfect but they’re very entertaining and sometimes enlightening.
This review is based on an e-galley provided by the publisher.
February 24, 2021
Tập truyện ngắn nguyên gốc là gồm 2 tập truyện "We're flying" và "The Ridge" gộp lại, với những câu chuyện rất ngắn, có truyện chưa tới 2 trang giấy, Peter Stamm một lần nữa thể hiện tài năng của mình trong việc miêu tả sự tầm thường của đời sống, viết về những vấn đề rất cá nhân ở một đất nước luôn được xem là hạnh phúc nhất thế giới - Thụy Sĩ - nhưng những mẩu chuyện lại rất đậm tính toàn cầu mà trong đó thế lưỡng nan của việc làm người được ông lật đi lật lại qua những câu chuyện của mình.
Peter Stamm luôn chính xác trong việc sử dụng từ ngữ và chi tiết, mà trong đó những thay đổi cực kỳ nhỏ nhặt trong cuộc đời các nhân vật được ông nắm bắt, những vết rạn nứt tí xíu trong những mối quan hệ cũng chẳng lọt ra khỏi mắt của ông, mà từ đó những nhân vật của công đã thay đổi vĩnh viễn, nhưng họ vẫn sống trong sự tù túng, buồn bã của những ước mơ tan vỡ, của những nỗi chán chường về thế giới, sự thất vọng vì khả năng có hạn của bản thân... Tất cả những điều đó được viết với giọng văn lãnh đạm thờ ơ mà ta có cảm giác Peter Stamm không phí hoài bất cứ một từ ngữ nào, với cách viết tưởng chừng lạnh lùng ấy là ẩn chứa sâu bên trong nó là sự tinh tế và lòng trắc ẩn về cuộc đời, mà chúng ta, ai cũng có những vấn đề riêng cần giải quyết, cuộc chiến riêng phải chiến đấu, những lầm lỗi mà ta cần được thứ tha, những nỗi khát khao về dục tính để khỏa lấp đi tình yêu...
Nhưng thú thật, đọc sách của Peter Stamm luôn mang lại cho tôi cảm giác khó chịu, mà những câu chuyện của ông không khiến tôi quá say mê nhưng luôn đọng lại trong tâm trí tôi một cách dai dẳng, và cái cách nó ở lại cũng chẳng có gì dễ chịu, nó khiến lòng ta cứ mãi tìm kiếm điều gì đó để khỏa lấp sự bất mãn với cuộc đời tầm thường, ôi, và ta đâu còn biết phải làm gì ngoài việc phải tha thứ cho nó mà thôi
Peter Stamm luôn chính xác trong việc sử dụng từ ngữ và chi tiết, mà trong đó những thay đổi cực kỳ nhỏ nhặt trong cuộc đời các nhân vật được ông nắm bắt, những vết rạn nứt tí xíu trong những mối quan hệ cũng chẳng lọt ra khỏi mắt của ông, mà từ đó những nhân vật của công đã thay đổi vĩnh viễn, nhưng họ vẫn sống trong sự tù túng, buồn bã của những ước mơ tan vỡ, của những nỗi chán chường về thế giới, sự thất vọng vì khả năng có hạn của bản thân... Tất cả những điều đó được viết với giọng văn lãnh đạm thờ ơ mà ta có cảm giác Peter Stamm không phí hoài bất cứ một từ ngữ nào, với cách viết tưởng chừng lạnh lùng ấy là ẩn chứa sâu bên trong nó là sự tinh tế và lòng trắc ẩn về cuộc đời, mà chúng ta, ai cũng có những vấn đề riêng cần giải quyết, cuộc chiến riêng phải chiến đấu, những lầm lỗi mà ta cần được thứ tha, những nỗi khát khao về dục tính để khỏa lấp đi tình yêu...
Nhưng thú thật, đọc sách của Peter Stamm luôn mang lại cho tôi cảm giác khó chịu, mà những câu chuyện của ông không khiến tôi quá say mê nhưng luôn đọng lại trong tâm trí tôi một cách dai dẳng, và cái cách nó ở lại cũng chẳng có gì dễ chịu, nó khiến lòng ta cứ mãi tìm kiếm điều gì đó để khỏa lấp sự bất mãn với cuộc đời tầm thường, ôi, và ta đâu còn biết phải làm gì ngoài việc phải tha thứ cho nó mà thôi
April 4, 2014
We’re Flying by Peter Stamm is wonderful news for all lovers of short stories. With 5 novels and 3 collections of stories behind him, Stamm counts amid the most haunting and successful voices of today’s international literature.
We’re Flying offers a wonderful occasion to enjoy the wide range of his many literary talents. This volume gathers two collections –We’re Flying and The Ridge (originally published in Germany in respectively 2008 and 2011) – and it showcases the remarkable evocative power of Stamm, as well as his fertile imagination.
Born in Switzerland, Peter Stamm leaves with his family only a few miles from the village where he spent his childhood. In his new collection, most of the narratives take place against this calm background. The writer’s inquiring mind penetrates the peaceful appearances of his native land to reveal the lost ambitions, inner tempests, and intrinsic loneliness of its inhabitants.
A mature spinster fantasies on her upstairs neighbor and suddenly realizes how intimately she has come to know this man through the sounds of his daily life.
A young woman abruptly gives up her chances at pursuing a career in the arts to settle down in a monotonous existence by the side of a colorless husband.
A young priest, desperately awaiting a sign from God, discovers fatherhood in the most biblical way.
In each story, something happens almost silently that modifies the protagonists’ existence for ever. And Stamm masters perfectly this pseudo-trivial esthetic. You will find no trace of grandiloquent laments, no sparkling tragedy in these pages. Stamm’s writing is bare and devoid of any affects. Ardent supporter of “less is more”, Peter Stamm focus on the smallest details and the tinniest cracks that derail the lives of his characters. This explains why it doesn’t come out as a surprise that he turns the painter Camille Corot into the hero of one of his tale:
“You paint what you see with a maximum of precision, but you don’t care about the precision of the depiction. You try to capture the feeling, the inexact feeling, as exactly as you can. What counts is decisiveness.”
We can legitimately wonder whether Stamm is describing Corot’s art or his own in these words. Like Corot, he avoids at all cost to be in empathy with his models, he observes them from a distance: “Your regard is cold but not unfeeling. The coldness of the regard is an absolute precondition. You mustn’t be moved when you want to see clearly. To see something with cold look means to be nothing but eye. Otherwise it’s not possible to feel your way into a landscape or a person.”
In January 2010, while hosted by France Culture, a national French radio, Peter Stamm claimed: “My interest in literature lies in its capacity to create a whole different universe. I am not drawn to language experiments, nor to a concept of superior, beautiful, “literary” language. Not at all. I am all for the world invented by literature, and the ability it offers to live in different worlds simultaneously just by reading.”
The opening lines of In the Forest immerse the reader in the woods, and Peter Stamm’s tour de force is to make us feel in a couple of sentences how strongly the call of the wild affects the heroin.
“The hunter must get into position very early in the morning. By the time Anja is awake, he’s already there. He keeps very still, and is so far away that she can only just make him out, but even so, she has a sense of knowing him and being close to him. All day, she thinks about him.”
Peter Stamm heard about Anja’s story in the news section of his local newspaper. While everyone was focus on the horrific situation she was possibly trying to escape from, he imagined a completely different scenario: “No one could understand that she wasn’t running from something but toward something.” While the author finds inspiration everywhere, from the street to the newspapers, his sensibility translates into unique narratives that go straight under the readers’ skin.
In Summer Folk, an academic retires in a deserted hotel to finish a text for a forthcoming conference. Upon his arrival, he is welcome by an evanescent woman and understands that he is the only client of the place. Despite the many evidences (no electricity, no hot water, no service of any kind) indicating that the place is abandoned, the professor persists and stays, convinces that he is receiving something from his mysterious hostess. In a dreamlike atmosphere, we pursue the protagonist’s illusions until the final wake-up.
We’re Flying is nothing less than an invitation to flee from our lives, from ourselves, from whatever is it that defines us, to embrace the world and take a chance to experience it differently. It would be sheer folly to decline such a delight!
We’re Flying offers a wonderful occasion to enjoy the wide range of his many literary talents. This volume gathers two collections –We’re Flying and The Ridge (originally published in Germany in respectively 2008 and 2011) – and it showcases the remarkable evocative power of Stamm, as well as his fertile imagination.
Born in Switzerland, Peter Stamm leaves with his family only a few miles from the village where he spent his childhood. In his new collection, most of the narratives take place against this calm background. The writer’s inquiring mind penetrates the peaceful appearances of his native land to reveal the lost ambitions, inner tempests, and intrinsic loneliness of its inhabitants.
A mature spinster fantasies on her upstairs neighbor and suddenly realizes how intimately she has come to know this man through the sounds of his daily life.
A young woman abruptly gives up her chances at pursuing a career in the arts to settle down in a monotonous existence by the side of a colorless husband.
A young priest, desperately awaiting a sign from God, discovers fatherhood in the most biblical way.
In each story, something happens almost silently that modifies the protagonists’ existence for ever. And Stamm masters perfectly this pseudo-trivial esthetic. You will find no trace of grandiloquent laments, no sparkling tragedy in these pages. Stamm’s writing is bare and devoid of any affects. Ardent supporter of “less is more”, Peter Stamm focus on the smallest details and the tinniest cracks that derail the lives of his characters. This explains why it doesn’t come out as a surprise that he turns the painter Camille Corot into the hero of one of his tale:
“You paint what you see with a maximum of precision, but you don’t care about the precision of the depiction. You try to capture the feeling, the inexact feeling, as exactly as you can. What counts is decisiveness.”
We can legitimately wonder whether Stamm is describing Corot’s art or his own in these words. Like Corot, he avoids at all cost to be in empathy with his models, he observes them from a distance: “Your regard is cold but not unfeeling. The coldness of the regard is an absolute precondition. You mustn’t be moved when you want to see clearly. To see something with cold look means to be nothing but eye. Otherwise it’s not possible to feel your way into a landscape or a person.”
In January 2010, while hosted by France Culture, a national French radio, Peter Stamm claimed: “My interest in literature lies in its capacity to create a whole different universe. I am not drawn to language experiments, nor to a concept of superior, beautiful, “literary” language. Not at all. I am all for the world invented by literature, and the ability it offers to live in different worlds simultaneously just by reading.”
The opening lines of In the Forest immerse the reader in the woods, and Peter Stamm’s tour de force is to make us feel in a couple of sentences how strongly the call of the wild affects the heroin.
“The hunter must get into position very early in the morning. By the time Anja is awake, he’s already there. He keeps very still, and is so far away that she can only just make him out, but even so, she has a sense of knowing him and being close to him. All day, she thinks about him.”
Peter Stamm heard about Anja’s story in the news section of his local newspaper. While everyone was focus on the horrific situation she was possibly trying to escape from, he imagined a completely different scenario: “No one could understand that she wasn’t running from something but toward something.” While the author finds inspiration everywhere, from the street to the newspapers, his sensibility translates into unique narratives that go straight under the readers’ skin.
In Summer Folk, an academic retires in a deserted hotel to finish a text for a forthcoming conference. Upon his arrival, he is welcome by an evanescent woman and understands that he is the only client of the place. Despite the many evidences (no electricity, no hot water, no service of any kind) indicating that the place is abandoned, the professor persists and stays, convinces that he is receiving something from his mysterious hostess. In a dreamlike atmosphere, we pursue the protagonist’s illusions until the final wake-up.
We’re Flying is nothing less than an invitation to flee from our lives, from ourselves, from whatever is it that defines us, to embrace the world and take a chance to experience it differently. It would be sheer folly to decline such a delight!
August 16, 2018
Einige Geschichten fand ich großartig, andere haben mich sehr traurig gemacht. Einige waren neuartig, andere habe ich gefühlt schon oft gelesen. Viele der Protagonisten waren mir zu träge, zu gleichgültig, haben zu schnell aufgegeben für ein Leben zu kämpfen, eine Freiheit, die sie verdient hätten.
Trotzdem war es das Leseerlebnis wert. "Fremdkörper" und "In die Felder muss man gehen..." gefielen mir sehr. :)
Trotzdem war es das Leseerlebnis wert. "Fremdkörper" und "In die Felder muss man gehen..." gefielen mir sehr. :)
December 11, 2019
Eine eher durchwachsene Mischung
Besonders gut gefielen mir: In die Felder muss man gehen..., Videocity, Die Erwartung und Wir fliegen
Andere Erzählungen wie zum Beispiel der Befund haben ihr eigentliches Potenzial verschenkt.
Besonders gut gefielen mir: In die Felder muss man gehen..., Videocity, Die Erwartung und Wir fliegen
Andere Erzählungen wie zum Beispiel der Befund haben ihr eigentliches Potenzial verschenkt.
January 8, 2024
Peter Stamm’ı romanlarıyla tanıyan ve oldukça seven biri olarak öykülerini ee kaçırmak istemedim. Ancak; romanda sesi daha gür bir yazar olduğunu düşündüm öykülerini okuduktan sonra.
Uçuyoruz’daki öyküler, büyük sözler etmeden büyük olmayan yerlerde yaşayan karakterleri merkezine alıyor. İçte kalan duygularıyla, bitirilemeyen sevgileriyle, gizli heyecanları ve bir nebze de korkularıyla kendini gösteren karakterler..
.
Kitapta en sevdiğim öyküler ise: Sonuç, Uçuyoruz ve Tanrı’nın Çocukları.
.
Ogün Duman çevirisiyle~
Uçuyoruz’daki öyküler, büyük sözler etmeden büyük olmayan yerlerde yaşayan karakterleri merkezine alıyor. İçte kalan duygularıyla, bitirilemeyen sevgileriyle, gizli heyecanları ve bir nebze de korkularıyla kendini gösteren karakterler..
.
Kitapta en sevdiğim öyküler ise: Sonuç, Uçuyoruz ve Tanrı’nın Çocukları.
.
Ogün Duman çevirisiyle~
September 1, 2013
I’m enthused by this book. I don’t normally get on too well with short stories, being a fully paid-up narrative junkie. I like to get lost in books, and it’s difficult to get lost in ten pages. I had a feeling, however, that Peter Stamm would work well in the short form, having read his novel Seven Years. I was quite impressed by his crisp, deadpan, faintly creepy style and his unusual take on human psychology and sexuality, but I wasn’t sure that it worked across the course of an entire novel (I have a feeling he isn’t tremendously interested in plot).
Having read We’re Flying, it does seem to me that the short story may be what Stamm was born to write. This is a relatively full collection—twenty-two stories—and they are reasonably diverse, in terms of length, structure, and technique. Some—inevitably—work better than others, in my view. The more formally experimental stories (the ‘I am a Camera’-mode ‘Videocity’ and the second-person ‘Go Our into the Fields’ and ‘Coney Island’) to my mind were less convincing than the more conventionally-narrated, first or third person ones. A few stories were just a little too minimalist for me, as well—sketches, rather than stories (‘The Result’, ‘Holy Sacrament’), though there were still plenty of things in them to like.
What I really loved here were the stories where Stamm’s impeccable writing and oblique vision came together with a—rather unexpected—wry humor and (sometimes) a faint surrealism to produce something genuinely memorable. The three stories that stood out for me were ‘The Expectations’, ‘Children of God’, and ‘Summer Folk’. At its best, this is beautifully calibrated work.
I looked up Stamm’s Wikipedia entry after reading this book, partly out a curiosity about his background (architects crop up a fair amount in his work and I wondered whether he had trained as one at any point). It contains the magnificent sentence: “He [Stamm] then chose to go back to school at the University of Zurich, taking courses in a variety of fields including English Studies, Business Informatics, Psychology, and Psychopathology’. Fantastic! You can see them all in his work.
Having read We’re Flying, it does seem to me that the short story may be what Stamm was born to write. This is a relatively full collection—twenty-two stories—and they are reasonably diverse, in terms of length, structure, and technique. Some—inevitably—work better than others, in my view. The more formally experimental stories (the ‘I am a Camera’-mode ‘Videocity’ and the second-person ‘Go Our into the Fields’ and ‘Coney Island’) to my mind were less convincing than the more conventionally-narrated, first or third person ones. A few stories were just a little too minimalist for me, as well—sketches, rather than stories (‘The Result’, ‘Holy Sacrament’), though there were still plenty of things in them to like.
What I really loved here were the stories where Stamm’s impeccable writing and oblique vision came together with a—rather unexpected—wry humor and (sometimes) a faint surrealism to produce something genuinely memorable. The three stories that stood out for me were ‘The Expectations’, ‘Children of God’, and ‘Summer Folk’. At its best, this is beautifully calibrated work.
I looked up Stamm’s Wikipedia entry after reading this book, partly out a curiosity about his background (architects crop up a fair amount in his work and I wondered whether he had trained as one at any point). It contains the magnificent sentence: “He [Stamm] then chose to go back to school at the University of Zurich, taking courses in a variety of fields including English Studies, Business Informatics, Psychology, and Psychopathology’. Fantastic! You can see them all in his work.
November 12, 2012
some unevenness, or a least blase treatments of infidelity and going crazy, but then others ("seven sleepers") that contain the whole world in 20 some pages. in two parts that i don't really understand the difference, but part one "we're flying" and part two "the ridge". a classic for canon.
May 15, 2025
3.7 stars
Read
May 10, 2013"While revealing the limits of our existence, knowledge, and language, the stories are simultaneously haunting and uplifting. A master storyteller, Stamm succeeds in stripping away layers of superficiality to uncover the complicated daily psychological struggle of the average person." - Gregory H. Wolf, North Central College
This book was reviewed in the May 2013 issue of World Literature Today. Read the full review by visiting our site: http://bit.ly/1480iFZ
This book was reviewed in the May 2013 issue of World Literature Today. Read the full review by visiting our site: http://bit.ly/1480iFZ
August 21, 2012
We're Flying is out in English. Marvelous short story collection.
March 2, 2013
Well written, Peter Stamm is obviously a talented writer. However, I found most of the story lines in this collection uninteresting bordering on pointless.............maybe that's the point.(??)
January 11, 2017
A collection of visceral but non-sentimental stories.
November 30, 2024
After reading 'It's Getting Dark', I decided to read another Peter Stamm book. I read this one, 'We're Flying'. This is also a short story collection. It is a combination of two short story collections which originally appeared in German. So it is double the size of a typical Peter Stamm book.
I'll just write about the stories I liked the most.
'The Hurt' is about a young man who goes to stay with his grandparents in the mountains during one summer and the experience he has and what happens when he returns back a few years later and tries to reconnect with people he met before and how much things have changed. The moral of the story is that we can't go back to the past, however much nostalgic we feel about it, because people have changed, the world has changed.
'The Letter' is about a woman who is grieving over her husband and then suddenly while going through his things, she discovers a secret about him and it turns her world upside down. Makes us realize how much we don't know about the closest people in our lives.
'Years Later' is another story where a man tries reconnecting with his past. It doesn't go well. In the end, he feels that maybe he was the villain in the story, atleast one of the villains. Can't go back to the past. Never. There is an old saying in my place, Never search for the origin of a river, or the origin story of a saint. You won't like what you discover.
'Summer Folk' was my most favourite story from the book. It is about a writer who goes to a quiet place to find solitude so that he can write. The resort where he finds a room, there is no one there. The woman who manages the place looks mysterious. What happens there forms the rest of the story. Loved the ending, very beautiful.
'Seven Sleepers' is about a young man who is a vegetable farmer and what happens when he falls in love. It was my second most favourite story in the book.
'The Suitcase' is about a man whose wife is serious and ends up in the emergency room and how he handles the situation.
I enjoyed reading 'We're Flying'. I still think that Peter Stamm is a better novelist than a short story writer, but many of the stories in this book were still enjoyable.
Sharing some of my favourite parts from the book.
From 'Go out into the Fields'
"You don’t paint them to show them off. You don’t exhibit your sketches. When your friends call on you in your studio, they want to see the big pieces you will exhibit, the landscapes with mythological or biblical scenes. They pass judgments that are baffling to you. You ignore them. You’d rather do it wrong in your way than do it right according to the prescription of those twenty people. They all know better, give you advice, as if you didn’t know that you can’t pull off the big things, and why you can’t. The biblical figures, the mythological figures, basically they don’t interest you. Your true love is for the sketches, the little mood pieces. If you could manage to depict the moment in just the way you sensed it, so that the boy in Trouville would recognize his village. That he might see the beauty of the village, the beauty of the moment. But who cares about such things?"
From 'In the Forest'
"You have to learn to live without expectations, that’s the only way of getting by. Patience by itself isn’t enough, because in fact nothing happens. In the forest there is no future and no past, everything there is either instantaneous or takes place over periods that cannot be measured in mere years. Sometimes Anja imagines what it was like when the whole country was covered with forest. Then she climbs up the lookout tower, peers down at the city, and sees nothing but trees. She sees the trees in the parks and gardens and along the streets, envoys from a past or future time, and everything in between loses its brashness and its significance. Even the old town, the houses that are many hundreds of years old, seem no less provisional to her than her shelter of branches and canvas. Eventually the ice will return and efface everything that people have built and made. Glaciers will lie over the land for thousands of years, rivers of ice miles deep, and what they will finally leave behind will be a new landscape; there will be new rivers and valleys, the moraines will form chains of hills, enormous piles of rubble that will soon be colonized by the first pioneer plants. Trees will grow on the humus, a thin forest to begin with, then ever thicker. Wild animals will come over the mountains in the south : insects, birds, deer and antelope, and with them their predators, foxes and wolves and lynxes and the first man. And then it will all be as though nothing had happened."
Have you read 'We're Flying'? Which is your favourite Peter Stamm book?
I'll just write about the stories I liked the most.
'The Hurt' is about a young man who goes to stay with his grandparents in the mountains during one summer and the experience he has and what happens when he returns back a few years later and tries to reconnect with people he met before and how much things have changed. The moral of the story is that we can't go back to the past, however much nostalgic we feel about it, because people have changed, the world has changed.
'The Letter' is about a woman who is grieving over her husband and then suddenly while going through his things, she discovers a secret about him and it turns her world upside down. Makes us realize how much we don't know about the closest people in our lives.
'Years Later' is another story where a man tries reconnecting with his past. It doesn't go well. In the end, he feels that maybe he was the villain in the story, atleast one of the villains. Can't go back to the past. Never. There is an old saying in my place, Never search for the origin of a river, or the origin story of a saint. You won't like what you discover.
'Summer Folk' was my most favourite story from the book. It is about a writer who goes to a quiet place to find solitude so that he can write. The resort where he finds a room, there is no one there. The woman who manages the place looks mysterious. What happens there forms the rest of the story. Loved the ending, very beautiful.
'Seven Sleepers' is about a young man who is a vegetable farmer and what happens when he falls in love. It was my second most favourite story in the book.
'The Suitcase' is about a man whose wife is serious and ends up in the emergency room and how he handles the situation.
I enjoyed reading 'We're Flying'. I still think that Peter Stamm is a better novelist than a short story writer, but many of the stories in this book were still enjoyable.
Sharing some of my favourite parts from the book.
From 'Go out into the Fields'
"You don’t paint them to show them off. You don’t exhibit your sketches. When your friends call on you in your studio, they want to see the big pieces you will exhibit, the landscapes with mythological or biblical scenes. They pass judgments that are baffling to you. You ignore them. You’d rather do it wrong in your way than do it right according to the prescription of those twenty people. They all know better, give you advice, as if you didn’t know that you can’t pull off the big things, and why you can’t. The biblical figures, the mythological figures, basically they don’t interest you. Your true love is for the sketches, the little mood pieces. If you could manage to depict the moment in just the way you sensed it, so that the boy in Trouville would recognize his village. That he might see the beauty of the village, the beauty of the moment. But who cares about such things?"
From 'In the Forest'
"You have to learn to live without expectations, that’s the only way of getting by. Patience by itself isn’t enough, because in fact nothing happens. In the forest there is no future and no past, everything there is either instantaneous or takes place over periods that cannot be measured in mere years. Sometimes Anja imagines what it was like when the whole country was covered with forest. Then she climbs up the lookout tower, peers down at the city, and sees nothing but trees. She sees the trees in the parks and gardens and along the streets, envoys from a past or future time, and everything in between loses its brashness and its significance. Even the old town, the houses that are many hundreds of years old, seem no less provisional to her than her shelter of branches and canvas. Eventually the ice will return and efface everything that people have built and made. Glaciers will lie over the land for thousands of years, rivers of ice miles deep, and what they will finally leave behind will be a new landscape; there will be new rivers and valleys, the moraines will form chains of hills, enormous piles of rubble that will soon be colonized by the first pioneer plants. Trees will grow on the humus, a thin forest to begin with, then ever thicker. Wild animals will come over the mountains in the south : insects, birds, deer and antelope, and with them their predators, foxes and wolves and lynxes and the first man. And then it will all be as though nothing had happened."
Have you read 'We're Flying'? Which is your favourite Peter Stamm book?
February 26, 2018
I'm very impressed by this short story collection Peter Stamm has put together, it's quite a big short story collection packing in 22 stories but every story completely holds its own. The writing is simplistic but has a certain rhythm to it, that took me a while to get into, but it does pack a very emotional punch. From a story about a woman who alone lived in the woods when she was a child to a husband packing a suitcase for his wife who is in the hospital, I was invested in every single story. Very surprised and delighted to have found this gem.
"Once you tried to draw Anna from memory, your dear, sweet Anna. But as soon as you had the pencil in your hand, her face blurred. Your recollection was just a feeling. A feeling has no nose, no cheeks, no mouth."
"Once you tried to draw Anna from memory, your dear, sweet Anna. But as soon as you had the pencil in your hand, her face blurred. Your recollection was just a feeling. A feeling has no nose, no cheeks, no mouth."
March 24, 2018
I think in many stories of the book has plenty Psychoanalytic elements. Some stories are really enormous, but some stories are disgusting. I like the translation of the book. I think the narrative style of the author is between Arnon Grunberg and Stieg Larsson. In fact, I can not give for an evaluation of the book between three and four stars, I used my preference for four stars. Take a look at this book as you identify books to be read in the future, even if they are not at the top of your reading list.
March 15, 2018
I’m sorry to say a lot of these stories just passed me by. I missed out on the haunting qualities I was hoping for after reading reviews, and instead found it a collection of detached, sparse observations and not much else. Very few of the stories stayed with me after reading. I’m sure there’s lots to enjoy here for the right audience, though. Stamm writes a very distant, unfeeling prose largely free of judgement or conclusion, but still capable of a strange intimacy.
June 14, 2021
I read him, after the writer Jensen Beach spoke about him, as an incredible short story writer. I can say he is. Through spare prose, he delves deep into the interiorities of each characters: their motivations, fears, desires, psychological underpinnings; leading them to eventualities where their feelings and experiences are not spared. I am eager to read Peter Stamm again.
January 8, 2018
Deceptively simple short stories that are often little more than sketches. However this is not to say that I wasn't impressed by them. Generally I found them interesting, unsettling and thought-provoking.
December 25, 2021
There is a lot of getting naked in this book,
Of feeling down or empty
And a lot of unexpectedly abrupt endings.
I can’t say I recommend it. I had a really hard time finishing it and would not have invested the energy if it were not a book inspected for a challenge that ends next week.
Of feeling down or empty
And a lot of unexpectedly abrupt endings.
I can’t say I recommend it. I had a really hard time finishing it and would not have invested the energy if it were not a book inspected for a challenge that ends next week.
June 27, 2017
I have become an avowed Peter Stamm fan. In May, I read Agnes, Seven Years, We're Flying, and then Unformed Landscape. All were terrific. Spare and insightful.
September 5, 2017
Really good collection of short stories.
February 13, 2018
His prose is very direct, very sparse. He creates a certain tension in every story, in every character.
June 11, 2022
Glimpses of peculiar moments in mundane lives. Somehow comforting but not as simple as the writing style suggests.
January 2, 2023
*2.25
Displaying 1 - 30 of 59 reviews