Fleur Jaeggy

Fleur Jaeggy (born 31 July 1940) is a Swiss author who writes in Italian. The Times Literary Supplement named her novel Proleterka a Best Book of the Year upon its publication in the United States, and her Sweet Days of Discipline won the Premio Bagutta and the Premio Speciale Rapallo. She was awarded the 2024 Gottfried Keller Prize and the 2025 Swiss Grand Prix de la Littérature. As of 2021, six of her books have been translated into English. Her work has been translated into more than twenty languages.

Life

Jaeggy was born in Zürich in 1940, and grew up speaking German, French and Italian. After completing her studies in Switzerland, she went to live in Rome, where she met Ingeborg Bachmann and Thomas Bernhard. In 1968, she went to Milan to work for the publisher Adelphi Edizioni and married Roberto Calasso. The Times Literary Supplement designated her novel Proleterka the best book of 2003. She is also a translator into Italian of Marcel Schwob and Thomas de Quincey. She won the 2024 Gottfried Keller Prize and the 2025 Swiss Grand Prix de la Littérature.

Selected bibliography Fiction Il dito in bocca (Adelphi, 1968). L'angelo custode (Adelphi, 1971). Le statue d'acqua (Adelphi, 1980). The Water Statues, trans. Gini Alhadeff (New Directions, 2021). I beati anni del castigo (Adelphi, 1989). Sweet Days of Discipline, trans. Tim Parks (Heinemann/New Directions, 1993; And Other Stories, 2018; ). La paura del cielo (Adelphi, 1994). Last Vanities, trans. Tim Parks (New Directions, 1998; ). Proleterka (Adelphi, 2001). S. S. Proleterka, trans. Alastair McEwen (New Directions, 2003; And Other Stories, 2019; ). Vite congetturali (Adelphi, 2009). These Possible Lives, trans. Minna Zallman Proctor (New Directions, 2017; ). Sono il fratello di XX (Adelphi, 2014). I Am the Brother of XX, trans. Gini Alhadeff (New Directions/And Other Stories, 2017; ).

Translations into Italian Marcel Schwob, Vite immaginarie (Adelphi, 1972). Thomas de Quincey, Gli ultimi giorni di Immanuel Kant (Adelphi, 1983).