The Archive of Feelings A Novel

Given a second chance with an old love, a coolly detached archivist questions the life he could have had, and whether it’s not too late to live it.

A poignant, ingeniously constructed new novel from “one of Europe’s most exciting writers” (New York Times Book Review).

Forty years ago—almost a lifetime—he confessed his love to a classmate and close friend, Franziska. Now, living in his late mother’s house with the obsolete archive of the newspaper he once worked for, he looks back on days spent poring over files and clippings, increasingly withdrawn from the world. His occasional relationships never amounted to anything, and the memory of Franziska—who became pop singer Fabienne—continues to haunt him as she appears in the media.

When the two cross paths again, the possibility of a different life feels achingly real. But should he risk the comfort of his ordered existence for a romance that might never match what he imagined?

A subtle, mesmerizing portrait of late-blooming passion, The Archive of Feelings showcases Peter Stamm at his best.

Peter Stamm is the author of the novels The Sweet Indifference of the World, To the Back of Beyond, All Days Are Night, Seven Years, On a Day Like This, Unformed Landscape, and Agnes, and the short-story collections We’re Flying, In Strange Gardens and Other Stories, and It’s Getting Dark. His award-winning books have been translated into more than thirty languages. For his entire body of work and his accomplishments in fiction, he was short-listed for the Man Booker International Prize in 2013, and in 2014 he won the prestigious Friedrich Hölderlin Prize. He lives in Switzerland.

Michael Hofmann has translated the work of Gottfried Benn, Hans Fallada, Franz Kafka, Joseph Roth, and many others. In 2012 he was awarded the Thornton Wilder Prize for Translation by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His One Lark, One Horse: Poems was published in 2019, Where Have You Been? Selected Essays in 2014, and Selected Poems in 2009. He lives in Florida and London.