Cow / Beat Sterchi ; translated from the German by Michael Hofmann.

By:

Sterchi, Beat, 1949- [author.]

Contributor(s):

Hofmann, Michael, 1957 August 25- [translator.]

Material type: Text

TextDescription: 408 pages ; 23 cmISBN:

9781786699213
1786699214

Subject(s):

Summary: An extraordinary Swiss-German novel about a magnificent cow and the Spanish immigrant worker who looks after her. The Cow is the story of a Spanish agricultural labourer, Ambrosio, who goes to Switzerland as a Gastarbeiter. He is bound for Innenwald, a village in the Swiss highlands, and the novel begins as he is about to spend a summer working for Farmer Knuchel. It ends in the abattoir of the neighbouring city, at the end of the seven hard years of labour that have destroyed him. There he sees Blosch, the once magnificent lead cow on Knuchel's farm, now a sad, condemned creature in the abattoir. The Cow was acclaimed as a contemporary classic on first publication. Now more than ever it must be read as a book of archaic power about man, his work and his food and, most importantly, as a damning indictment of the relationship between man and the animal world.

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Average rating: 4.0 (1 votes)

Holdings
Item type	Current library	Collection	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode	Item holds
Fiction	Hāwera LibraryPlus Fiction	Fiction	STER (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Available		i2175822

Total holds: 0

"Originally published in German as Blösch in 1983. This English translation first published in 1988."

An extraordinary Swiss-German novel about a magnificent cow and the Spanish immigrant worker who looks after her. The Cow is the story of a Spanish agricultural labourer, Ambrosio, who goes to Switzerland as a Gastarbeiter. He is bound for Innenwald, a village in the Swiss highlands, and the novel begins as he is about to spend a summer working for Farmer Knuchel. It ends in the abattoir of the neighbouring city, at the end of the seven hard years of labour that have destroyed him. There he sees Blosch, the once magnificent lead cow on Knuchel's farm, now a sad, condemned creature in the abattoir. The Cow was acclaimed as a contemporary classic on first publication. Now more than ever it must be read as a book of archaic power about man, his work and his food and, most importantly, as a damning indictment of the relationship between man and the animal world.

Translated from the German.

Comment by Mary

Loved this book though at times it brought me close to tears. Well written, very detailed and extremely graphic the story moves from a small dairy farm to the abattoir. It's a must read, especially for anyone living in dairy farming country.

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