Fiction
March 2021
Krumholz
Roman
by Flavio Steimann
A masterful novel about a girl and her murderer – based on a true story from Switzerland just before the First World War. In May 1914, a young woman was found murdered in a wood near Krumbach, in Switzerland. The murderer, a homeless man living in the woods, was the last person executed by the guillotine in the canton of Lucerne. Inspired by this true case, Flavio Steimann tells the story of Agatha and Zenz: Her mother died while giving birth to Agatha. Her father, grief-stricken, sets his broken-down farm on fire some years later and hangs himself, but only after bringing the deaf child to a safe place in the woods. Agatha‘s world is a silent one, making her an even more careful observer. She grows up in an institution “for the poor and the lunatic”, surrounded by mean nuns, where she learns embroidery and sewing and later finds work in a cloth factory. Her first blooming is put to an end abruptly as Agatha is diagnosed with tuberculosis and sent to the countryside for a cure. Every day she goes into the forest with her embroidery frame – until one day, she doesn‘t come back. Zenz also comes from the poorest of backgrounds. Beaten and neglected, he makes a living by lying and stealing from early age. A better life seems within reach as he is taken to artistic circles Paris by a painter friend. But finally he has to turn back to Switzerland, where he lives in the woods, homeless. One day, he sees Agatha there … In his artfully composed novel, Flavio Steimann intertwines the fate of two people who could not escape their destiny.
