Jonas Lüscher (born 22 October 1976 in Schlieren, Switzerland)Republik.ch , 21 January 2019 is a Swiss writer, including of essays and novels, living in Germany.
Early life Lüscher grew up in Bern, where he later trained between 1994 and 1998 at the Muristalden Evangelical Teacher Training School (Evangelisches Lehrerseminar Muristalden) to qualify as a primary school teacher.
Career He spent a few years as a script editor and screenwriter for the Munich film industry. He then undertook studies at the Munich School of Philosophy from 2005 to 2009, earning a master's degree in 2009. At the same time, he was working as a freelance editor.
From 2009 to 2001, Lüscher researched ethics in science at the TTN Institute (Institut Technik-Theologie-Naturwissenschaften) at LMU Munich.
In 2011, Lüscher moved to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich or ETH). There, he embarked on a dissertation under the supervision of philosopher Michael Hampe on the work of Richard Rorty. In 2012–13, Lüscher was awarded a grant by the Swiss government enabling him to spend nine months as a visiting researcher in the Comparative Literature Department at Stanford University in California. At the end of 2014, Lüscher left ETH without completing his dissertation.
Lüscher is a member of the PEN Centre Germany, and began living in Munich in 2001.
His first novel, Frühling der Barbaren (Barbarian Spring, translated by Peter Lewis) was nominated in 2013 for both the Swiss Book Prize and the German Book Prize.
In August 2025 his latest novel Verzauberte Vorbestimmung (Enchanted Destiny) was placed on the longlist of the German Book Prize.
Selected works Jetzt. Libretto for the opera by Mathis Nitschke, original production at the Opéra National de Montpellier, 30 November 2012. Frühling der Barbaren. Novella. C.H. Beck, Munich 2013. translated by Peter Lewis as Barbarian Spring, Haus Publishing, London 2014. Kraft. Novel. C.H. Beck, Munich 2017. , longlisted for the 2017 German Book Prize. Translated by Tess Lewis as Kraft, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2020.
Awards 2013: Franz-Hessel-Preis for Frühling der Barbaren 2013: Literary Award of Kanton Bern 2013: Bayerischer Kunstförderpreis 2016: Hans Fallada Prize for Frühling der Barbaren 2017: Schweizer Buchpreis (Swiss Book Award) for Kraft 2022: Max Frisch Prize 2025: Rheingau Literatur Preis for Verzauberte Vorbestimmung"Rheingau Literatur Preis 2025 für Jonas Lüscher". wdr.de, 24 April 2025 (in German). Retrieved 24 April 2025. 2025: Wilhelm Raabe Literature Prize for Verzauberte Vorbestimmung"Wilhelm Raabe-Literaturpreis für Jonas Lüscher". wdr.de, 9 September 2025 (in German). Retrieved 9 September 2025.
Literature Stefan Hofer-Krucker Valderrama: Die perpetuierte Katastrophe. Globalisierung und ihre Schattenseiten in Jonas Lüschers "Frühling der Barbaren". Mit einigen literaturdidaktischen Anmerkungen. In: Almut Hille, Sabine Jambon, Marita Meyer (Eds.): Globalisierung – Natur – Zukunft erzählen. Aktuelle deutschsprachige Literatur für die Internationale Germanistik und das Fach Deutsch als Fremdsprache. , Munich 2015, pp. 39–57.
Yvonne Hütter: Ethics and Aesthetics in Jonas Lüscher’s "Barbarian Spring". In: Primerjalna književnost, No. 40.2, 2017, pp. 149–163.
References
External links
Literature by and about Jonas Lüscher in the Catalogue of the German National Library Jonas Lüscher at C.H. Beck Jonas Lüscher at literaturhaus:basel