商品簡介
A FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR
THE NO.1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
One country, four languages, 26 cantons, and 7.5 million people (but only 80% of them Swiss): there's nowhere else in Europe like it. Switzerland may be almost 400 km from the nearest drop of seawater, but it is an island at the center of Europe. Welcome to the landlocked island.
Swiss Watching is a fascinating journey around Europe s most individual and misunderstood country. From seeking Heidi and finding the best chocolate to reliving a bloody past and exploring an uncertain future, Diccon Bewes proves that there s more to Switzerland than banks and skis, francs and cheese. This book dispels the myths and unravels the true meaning of Swissness .
In a land of cultural contradictions, this is a picture of the real and normally unseen Switzerland, a place where the breathtaking scenery shaped a nation not just a tour itinerary, and where tradition is as important as innovation.
It s also the story of its people, who have more power than their politicians, but can t speak to one another in the same language and who own more guns per head than the people of Iraq. As for those national cliches, well, not all the cheese has holes, cuckoo clocks aren’t Swiss and the trains don’t always run exactly on time.
作者簡介
Diccon Bewes is an experienced travel writer who has lived in Switzerland for four years. An 18-month world trip set him up for a career in travel writing, via the scenic route of bookselling. After ten years at Lonely Planet and Holiday Which? magazine, he decamped to Switzerland, where he is currently manager of the Stauffacher English Bookshop in Bern. As well as grappling with German, re-learning to cross the road properly, and overcoming his innate desire to form an orderly queue, he has spent the last four years exploring the bits of the country he'd never heard of before and eating lots of chocolate.
