Martin Suter
b. 1948 · Swiss German-language novelist, playwright and screenwriter
Martin Suter (born in Zürich in 1948) is a Swiss author writing in German. He worked across novels, stage plays, screenplays and newspaper columns, and he is best known for crime-tinged fiction that views middle-class life and the world of money with a wry eye.
Before committing fully to writing, he worked in advertising as a copywriter and creative director. In 1991 he gave up that career to make his living from literature. From 1992 to 2004 he wrote a weekly column, Business Class, for the Weltwoche newspaper. It later moved to the Tages-Anzeiger and has been collected in several volumes. His fourteen novels mix everyday settings with improbable situations and characters who face morally uncertain choices.
His breakthrough came with Small World (1997), published by Diogenes Verlag. He has continued to publish novels, some of them featuring the character Allmen, and has written awarded plays and screenplays. He lives in Spain and Guatemala.
His legacy lies in bringing a sharp social critique into German-language popular fiction, and in seeing several of his books adapted for film.
Key works
- Small World (1997): the novel that made his name and was later filmed.
- Die dunkle Seite des Mondes (The Dark Side of the Moon, 2000): a novel whose title borrows from the well-known Pink Floyd album.
- Der Teufel von Mailand (A Deal with the Devil, 2006): published in English in 2007.
- Der Koch (The Chef, 2010): published in English in 2013.
- Der letzte Weynfeldt (The Last Weynfeldt, 2008): published in English in 2016.
Curiosities
From advertising to literature
Before writing full time, he worked as a copywriter and creative director in advertising. He left that career in 1991.
A long-running column
His column Business Class ran in the Weltwoche from 1992 to 2004 and later continued in the Tages-Anzeiger. The columns have been collected in several books.
Original Filopedia text based on Wikipedia (en) and Wikidata.