Swiss writer and adventurer Annemarie Schwarzenbach died 70 years ago today, which means – if my extensive knowledge (read: brief Googling) of Swiss copyright law is correct – that her work now enters the public domain. Hopefully this will lead to greater availability of her books in English; that the anniversary of Schwarzenbach’s tragic, premature death is marked this year by the publication of Death in Persia (translated by Lucy Renner Jones) is a promising sign. It follows last year’s double treat of All the Roads are Open (translated by Isabel Fargo Cole) and Lyric Novella (also translated by Jones).
Schwarzenbach visited Persia a number of times throughout the 1930s; it was the scene of her lavender marriage (with a French diplomat, Claude Carac) and a number of liaisons, including a passionate encounter with the daughter of the Turkish ambassador. As well as her writings, she took numerous outstanding photographs of her Persian journeys.
Strange Flowers 
This is supposed to be delivered to me on Monday and if any of my neighbors snatch it while I’m at work I will have to move to Turkey to recover.
(Although now that I think about it they would probably toss it right back in front of the door once they realized what it was. Perhaps I need to stop with the caffeine today…)
I find a booby-trap is useful in these situations.
It will have to wait because dear, sweet Amazon.com just e-mailed me this dire bulletin: “New Delivery Estimate: December 19, 2012.” I had it pre-ordered for ages! (shakes fist at the entire e-commerce industry)
At least buying books is like eating potato chips (to me) and so the other bit of memoir I ordered will still be here sooner rather than later. You should be asking for commissions…
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