A first novel is not necessarily a literary beginning. For Sonja Sophie Kreis, the debut marks a new form within a practice that began long ago: born on Lake Constance in 1963, the author is a visual artist, teaches art and art history, and has already published short fiction. Now “Das große Eis” (The Great Ice) is on the shortlist for the Swiss Book Prize. Here, the word discovery describes above all a shift in public perception.
The award will be presented at 11am on 15 November 2026 at Theater Basel. Until then, Kreis appears in a context that places her book alongside the novels of Lukas Bärfuss, Hayat Erdoğan, Yael Inokai and Sarah Elena Müller. For a few weeks, the nomination brings different literary careers together into a shared story. In Kreis’s case, the history preceding it should not disappear from view.
Between image and narrative
Kreis lives in Zurich. Her artistic practice has taken her to Venice, Skagaströnd in Iceland and Ilulissat in Greenland, among other places. On her website, she describes “Das große Eis” as autobiographically inspired. This points to its starting point; it is not permission to equate the characters with the author.
These fields of practice already came together in “Kein Schnee in Venedig”, published by pudelundpinscher in April 2019. The story contains images; Kreis designed the cover herself. The publisher documents repeated stays in Venice and work on the text since 2013. In this career, writing emerges not as a sudden departure from visual art, but as another way of shaping perception.
In the new novel, too, a picture marks the beginning of a journey. Following their parents’ death, Anna wants to take her brother Alex a painting from the family home. He lives in Greenland; the siblings have not seen each other for forty years. As Anna waits for him, memory leads back to Lake Constance and to a German mother who married and moved to Switzerland in the 1950s, where she encountered rejection.
The premise connects geographical distance with estrangement within a family. Greenland and the German–Swiss border region form two settings, linked by memory. The book prize jury singles out the vivid imagery and precision of the language. What is notable about its statement is that it does not separate family history from contemporary history: even a life seemingly spared by war continues to carry its consequences.
Attention takes tangible forms
“Das große Eis” was published by Rowohlt Berlin on 14 August and runs to 256 pages. The publisher’s website now displays the nomination immediately below the title. There are events, too: a reading in Cologne was explicitly advertised as a nominees’ reading; the prize organiser announced a nine-stop tour of Germany and Switzerland for the finalists.
The additional exposure can also be identified in the book trade. Orell Füssli brings the five books together on a prize webpage and links to online conversations with presenter Nino Gadient, including one with Kreis. The company is also a gold sponsor of the prize. Lüthy’s buchhaus.ch likewise has a dedicated shortlist page. These are tangible ways into the debut: a shared showcase, an invitation to conversation, an occasion for an event.
These opportunities do not, however, establish commercial success. They show where the book is being highlighted, not how many additional people are buying or reading it. This distinction is worth making, particularly ahead of the decision. The nomination opens up further spaces for Kreis’s literature; it does not retrospectively explain how it came into being. What comes into view is an author whose work began long before the competition.
Original reviewed by the editors · 31 October 2026
