She laid her head on his shoulder and stroked his neck. “How long can you stay?” she asked.
“Three months. I’ve got a sabbatical.”
Startled, she pulled her head away. “What? For so long? I won’t be in Paris all that time.”
“Doesn’t matter. I’ll stay in Alsace. I’ve ordered two donkeys.”
“No,” she said, “have you gone out of your mind? What are you going to do with two donkeys?”
“Go for walks with them.”
About the Author
Hansjörg Schneider, born in Aarau, Switzerland, in 1938, has worked as a teacher and journalist, and is one of the most performed playwrights in the German language. He is best known for his Inspector Hunkeler crime novels. Schneider has received numerous awards, among them the prestigious Friedrich Glauser Prize for The Basel Killings. He lives and writes in Basel.
Copyright
BITTER LEMON PRESS
First published in the United Kingdom in 2021 by
Bitter Lemon Press, 47 Wilmington Square, London WC1X 0ET
www.bitterlemonpress.com
First published in German as Hunkeler macht Sachen by Ammann Verlag, Zurich, 2004
The translation of this work was supported by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia
Copyright © 2010 Diogenes Verlag AG, Zurich
English translation © Mike Mitchell, 2021
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without written permission of the publisher
The poem “Poesie” by Manfred Gilgien is quoted from: Manfred Gilgien, Strassen-Tango. Copyright © 2005 by Verlag Nachtmaschine, Basel The poem “Salz” by Rainer Brambach is quoted from: Rainer Brambach, Gesammelte Gedichte. Copyright © 2003 by Diogenes Verlag AG, Zurich
The moral rights of the author and the translator have been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988
All the characters and events described in this novel are imaginary and any similarity with real people or events is purely coincidental.
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
PB ISBN 978–1–913394–547
eB USC ISBN 978–1–913394–554
eB ROW ISBN 978–1–913394–561
Typeset by Tetragon
Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY
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