Interview conducted by Mariana Pictet, co-founder of Coolturalia.com. In partnership with the Club Diplomatique de Genève.
The Swiss are the high achievers of Europe, coming top of the rankings in everything from quality of life to prosperity and innovation. But who are the people behind this performance? Are they, as many outsiders assume, rich and boring? Are they virtuous peace brokers or criminally neutral? These are some of the questions that Clare O’Dea sought to answer in her book, The Naked Swiss: A Nation Behind 10 Myths (Bergli Books, 2018).
Originally from Dublin, Clare has been writing about Switzerland since she first arrived in the country twenty years ago, first as a freelance journalist and later as a staff writer for the international news service of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation. Through her work explaining Switzerland to the world, Clare has met a diverse range of Swiss characters, from the most powerful to the most marginalised. Recently, Clare has turned to fiction with the publication of her first novel, Voting Day (Fairlight, 2021). This time Swiss history was the inspiration, specifically the vote against female suffrage in 1959. Her next novel, coming out in 2025, will explore the issue of assisted suicide.
In English.
