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Who’s the muse? In a Deep Blue Hour, by Peter Stamm, reviewed

A documentary film-maker grows obsessed by a recurring character in a celebrated series of novels – much to their author’s mounting displeasure

Leyla Sanai
Peter Stamm.  Anita Affentranger
EXPLORE THE ISSUE 10 May 2025
issue 10 May 2025

The Swiss writer Peter Stamm’s fiction is often enigmatic – unreliable narrators, contradictory behaviour and characters who can’t admit to their emotions. In his latest novel, fortysomething Andrea is in Paris with her cameraman boyfriend Tom, attempting to make a documentary about a celebrated author 20 years older than herself.

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