Berghütte / Galel by Fanny Desarzens

A lovely novella and the 2022 debut by francophone Swiss author Fanny Desarzens (1993). I read the German translation, titled Berghütte (mountain cabin), Galel (the name of one of the characters) is the French title. Three men, with few words between them, share a deep friendship which unfolds every summer against the backdrop of the mountains. Their winter lives in the valleys down below are not worth a mention, even though they know where the others live and work during these months. Only up above the treeline, underneath the peaks and in the wide silences between them, is where they feel alive and free. Until something happens to one of them, which forces them to seek each other out down below too, as uncomfortable and strange as it may feel. I came across this title in Zürich on my way to a weekend in the mountains with friends myself. I read it through the Kobo Plus subscription. The silence and calm of the mountains has always appealed to me, since I first visited the Alps as a…