Switzy
Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2026
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3.6 • 5 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
***LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2026***
'Brilliant, exceptional... it broke my heart. A miracle of a novel' SAMANTHA HARVEY
'A stunning achievement' JOHANNA THOMAS-CORR, SUNDAY TIMES
'An absolute masterpiece' INDIA KNIGHT
'Profoundly moving' CHRIS POWER, GUARDIAN
'Bold, vital storytelling' MARIE CLAIRE
'Sublime... completely gripping... a wonder' MARK HADDON
A mesmerising portrait of an ageing man's last pilgrimage and his fading mind, from the bestselling author of The Girls and The Guest
A private plane cuts through the winter night, somewhere over Greenland. David, a retired executive, sits back in his leather seat, playing solitaire on his phone. Click. Click. Drag. Click. In his pocket is a notebook filled with urgent reminders — but he can no longer read his own handwriting.
He’s travelling with his assistant. There will be a stopover in London, dinner with his adult daughter, a meeting in France with an old friend. His final destination: a clinic in Zurich.
As David glides through hotel rooms, airports and foreign cities, his grasp on the present slips away and the past rushes in.
With David’s arrival in Zurich looming, an exquisitely rendered portrait of an unravelling mind emerges. Hypnotic and moving, Switzy probes the depths of human consciousness, revealing what a man is left with when the accomplishments and compromises that have defined him, and the illusions he's relied on, vanish.
*A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK 2026: BBC, Guardian, Publishers Weekly, Lit Hub, Bookstr, Glossary, Paper Trails*
Customer Reviews
Ms Cline’s best so far
The author is an American novelist, short story writer and fave of the literati, whose debut novel The Girls (2016) received a slew of awards and nominations that went at least some way to justifying the big advance she received from her publisher. I liked it, but preferred her sophomore effort The Guest (2023). Both those novels featured a young female protagonist.
The protagonist in Switzy is a American man in his early seventies with a long and successful career in finance (CFO rather than CEO level), who has developed Alzheimer’s. Not surprisingly, this has affected his work adversely with the result that his firm has “eased him out”. He’s not short of a bob, so he has a full-time personal assistant, home care etc, but before he loses his marbles entirely, he decides to seek euthanasia at an exclusive clinic in Switzerland, hence the title. His employer lends him a private jet to get there. His 30-something male PA makes all the arrangements and travels with him. En route, he calls in to see his daughter, whom he hasn’t told about the Alzheimer’s or his exit plan, in London, and to apologise to an old school friend who now lives in France that he treated badly back in the day.
I knew Ms Cline was a talented writer but using a third-person narrative rather than first-person one for the ultimate unreliable narrator was an inspired choice. Based on my professional and personal experience with my grandmother, her portrayal of a person with deteriorating mental faculties for whom the past and the present have merged is pitch-perfect.
This was on the long-list for the Booker, but didn’t make the shortlist. I have no idea why. I have no idea why Jarvis Cocker is one of the judges either, so there’s that.
Bottom line
Something completely different for Ms Cline, and her best work IMO.