Temporarily out of stock
Big Swiss. That’s Greta’s nickname for her – she is tall, and she is from Switzerland. Greta can see her now: dressed top to toe in white, that adorable gap between her two front teeth, her penetrating blue eyes. She’s a head-turner: including the heads of infants and dogs.
Well that’s how Greta imagines seeing her; they haven’t actually ever met in person. Nor has Greta actually ever been to Switzerland.
Greta and Big Swiss are not in the same room, or even the same building. Greta is miles away, sitting at a desk in her own house, wearing only headphones, fingerless gloves, a kimono, and legwarmers, transcribing this disembodied voice.
What Greta doesn’t know is that she’s about to bump into Big Swiss in the local dog park. A new – and not entirely honest – relationship is going to be born.
A relationship that will transform both of their lives. . .
Format: Paperback
Pages: 336
Imprint: Faber & Faber
Publication date: 22/06/2023
Big Swiss
by Jen Beagin
Review by Rosa
Big Swiss is an amalgamation of pure chaos: none of the characters are particularly likeable (except the dog, piñon), very, very few of their decisions are good ones, and their humour verges on cringey at times. However, thanks to the introduction of two donkeys, 60,000 honeybees who Greta now lives with, and a crumbling Dutch farmhouse.
Beagin successfully entices the reader into Greta and Flavia's bizarre world and delivers a creative and confronting account of people coping with unexpected life transitions. Relying on wit and tragic upbringings to deflect true feeling, while also trying their best to heal their wounds and figure out why they do the messy things they do.
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