Switzy
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Vintage Publishing
Published:10th Sep '26
Should be back in stock very soon
This hardback is available in another edition too:
- Paperback£10.99(9781529987607)
LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2026
'A miracle of a novel' SAMANTHA HARVEY
'A stunning achievement'SUNDAY TIMES
'An absolute masterpiece' INDIA KNIGHT
'Profoundly moving' CHRIS POWER, GUARDIAN
'Unflinchingly bold' MATT HAIG
'Sublime' MARK HADDON
A mesmerising portrait of an ageing man's last pilgrimage and his fading mind, from the bestselling author of The Girls and The Guest
A private plane cuts through the winter night, somewhere over Greenland. David, a retired executive, sits back in his leather seat, playing solitaire on his phone. Click. Click. Drag. Click. In his pocket is a notebook filled with urgent reminders — but he can no longer read his own handwriting.
He’s travelling with his assistant. There will be a stopover in London, dinner with his adult daughter, a meeting in France with an old friend. His final destination: a clinic in Zurich.
As David glides through hotel rooms, airports and foreign cities, his grasp on the present slips away and the past rushes in.
With David’s arrival in Zurich looming, an exquisitely rendered portrait of an unravelling mind emerges. Hypnotic and moving, Switzy probes the depths of human consciousness, revealing what a man is left with when the accomplishments and compromises that have defined him, and the illusions he's relied on, vanish.
A perfect novel, one that goes to the places only novels can go -- Samantha Harvey
A magnificent high-wire book that turns a personal crisis into a reckoning with modern life... a stunning achievement -- Johanna Thomas-Corr * Sunday Times *
A terrific novel - deep, challenging, but as accessible and compulsive as a thriller -- CLARE CHAMBERS
Stunning, deeply affecting... an absolute masterpiece of a book, which will live in my head - and yours, I expect - for a very long time -- India Knight
'Very impressive — unflinchingly bold, very clever, surprisingly funny and life affirming because her brilliant writing pencil-sharpens the mind' -- Matt Haig
This superb Booker-nominated novel follows an ailing, unreliable narrator as he seeks to end his life before he is lost to dementia -- Olivia Ovenden * Observer *
Utterly compelling... the very purest modern tragedy, with a deep vein of satire on late capitalism... quite sublime -- Giles Coren * The Times *
Profoundly moving... the last pages of Switzy, which mingle horror, beauty, absurdity, and a sense of profound finality, will probably stay with me for ever -- Chris Power * Guardian BOOK OF THE DAY *
I was really blown away. Cline gives the disappearance of consciousness enormous gravity and tenderness. An incredibly controlled novel about losing control * Madeline Cash *
Switzy is bold, vital storytelling that demonstrates a writer at the top of her craft * Marie Claire *
An astoundingly original depiction of an interior life... both startlingly moving and keenly funny... Cline's best novel yet -- Natalie Portman * Literary Review *
Her best book yet. Completely extraordinary -- DAISY JOHNSON
Very thought-provoking... arm yourself with a box of tissues... the best book I've read so far this year * Tatler *
A masterful tragedy… Emotionally affecting and expertly woven * New York Magazine *
A devastating portrait of a seventysomething man’s final pilgrimage, Cline breaks new ground, plumbing existential questions about mortality, memory and the impossibility of ever truly knowing one another -- Adrienne Westenfeld * Financial Times *
ISBN: 9781784746643
Dimensions: 225mm x 148mm x 33mm
Weight: 654g
352 pages