Swiss authors offer critical take on humanitarian aid

The daughter of a former civil servant with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Neuchâtel writer Fanny Wobmann takes a critical look at humanitarian aid sent to Africa. Her approach reflects a broader trend among Swiss authors. One winter day Fanny Wobmann inherits a stretch of forest. The six hectares which she shares with her two sisters are situated on the slopes below La Chaux-de-Fonds, the town where she was born 40 years ago. “Suddenly I was the co-owner of a piece of nature. This was awe-inspiring, beautiful and unsettling,” she writes on the first page of her book Les arbres quand ils tombent (As the trees fall). Her father, a lumberjack, had bought this green terrain, then bequeathed it to his daughters. It was a precious gift for Wobmann who is very fond of nature. While roaming in this inherited forest, Wobmann is suddenly confronted with the notion of “borders” – those of a territory that now belongs to her. From there, her story forks and leaves La ...