The Alp
SynopsisPlot
The four main (unnamed) characters are a dairyman, his farmhand, a cowherd, and a swineherd who all live and work in close proximity--but this is no "Heidi." Theirs is an existence marked by dangerous work, solitude, cruelty, alcoholism, and sheer stubbornness; but the author's handling of these situations and lives is characterized at all times by affection, surreal humor, and a brilliant ear for the sounds of the setting.
Story
About this book
Arno Camenisch's The Alp takes place over a single summer on a high mountain pasture in Switzerland. Four unnamed men share the season's labor: a dairyman, his farmhand, a cowherd, and a swineherd. They live and work side by side in tight quarters, tending animals and processing milk in conditions that are physically demanding and often isolating. The novel is the first part of what became Camenisch's alpine trilogy.
Despite the pastoral setting, this is not a sentimental portrait of mountain life. The characters deal with hazardous work, loneliness, heavy drinking, cruelty, and a deep-rooted stubbornness that keeps them going through each day. Camenisch writes about these realities with warmth and with a strain of humor that tips frequently into the surreal. His prose pays close attention to sound, capturing the particular noises of the landscape and the rhythms of speech in this remote world.
Camenisch, who grew up in the canton of Graubünden, writes in both Romansh and German. The Alp draws on that bilingual background, and the compressed, episodic structure of the book reflects the repetitive pace of a summer spent working at altitude.
