Urs Mannhart

Bergsteigen im Flachland

«In front of them a burly man with red hair suddenly clambered out of a prehistoric-looking Mercedes and came marching straight up to them; in a face all covered with freckles, his eyes were deep-set under thick brows and beaming as if he were encountering friends of long years’ standing.»

Thomas Steinhövel is a freelance reporter, who travels much of the time. His trips take him to Milan and Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan; to northern Norway and southern Spain; to Kosovo, Serbia and to the International Court in the Hague. Wherever he goes, he works hard on the details of his latest story, getting to know people who’ve been involved in the war in the Balkans. Steinhövel, then, has many a tale to tell, both fair and foul; Urs Mannhart skilfully weaves together the many different storylines in this complex novel.
«Mountaineering in the Lowlands» is a title, which refers in the first instance to a series of photos of mountaineers in full kit on their way through a lowland area. It’s Summer and what these men are wearing is something they don’t need where they are. The same thing happens to many of the characters in Mannhart’s novel: they have the wrong weapons in the wrong place. Even the 35-year old Steinhövel, who criss-crosses Europe and falls hopelessly in love with a Finnish woman, seems from time to time to be in the wrong place. He wants, above all, to research his stories properly, to write soundly-based reports; but the conditions he has to work under are visibly deteriorating. Meanwhile, his editor at the newspaper wants nothing more than entertaining copy, and not too long, either. Steinhövel rejects this, and writes intense, searing stories from a land that spares no-one.

Recommended for translation by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia:
www.12swissbooks.ch

Translation of title: Mountaineering in the Lowlands

Secession Verlag, Zürich 2014

ISBN: 978-3-905951-32-5