This novel, with autobiographical elements, is the companion book to Der Geliebte der Mutter (My Mother’s Lover). In My Father’s Book, Widmer describes life from the perspective of his father, a teacher, translator and literature lover. In the part of Switzerland where the father, Karl, grows up, it is tradition for each individual to write down the story of his life and bequeath it to his children. However, what the father has written disappears, leaving the first-person narrator and Karl’s son to start retelling the story after his father’s death.

Link to Onleihe

German original title