45 years
Martin Suter reveals the secret of the success of his long love
Martin Suter
© C. Hardt / Future Image / imago images
Love – it is the focus of so many novels in this world. Sometimes blazing, sometimes quiet, sometimes exuberant, sometimes still. Now the successful author Martin Suter takes up the great feelings again and also talks about the secret of his own long-term marriage.
The classic, simply designed covers from Diogenes Verlag have given Suter’s works a very specific charm for years. Between the covers of the books are mysterious and always enticing stories. And that in turn sounds like the quintessence of Suter’s writing. His stories often include something as enticing as love and good food, a thread like a melody and, above all, secrets about appearances and reality. “It’s very much the case with Melody,” says Suter.
Martin Suter’s new novel: Nostalgia for an old love
With the novel “Melody” his eleventh novel appears. This is what it’s about: Melody is a mysterious woman in the tales of an old man who has hired a lawyer to organize his estate. While he rummages through numerous files, documents and boxes, Dr. Stotz from his life. “Melody” is a book about the pitfalls of old age and the vanity of some people to beautify their biography a bit before they die. And it’s about eternal love – which a man cherishes with nostalgia.
Suter himself seems to have a better knack for love – at least his wife didn’t disappear just before the wedding. Suter has been with his wife Margrith for 45 years. Does he have a secret for a long love? “I’m still figuring that out,” Suter told the German Press Agency. “Life is actually too short to really get to know yourself, including yourself.” A response almost to be expected from an author who reveres the mystical.
Love means having to choose
The 75-year-old still has one piece of advice: you have to make a decision, even in love. “If you keep thinking, maybe I should do this, or maybe there’s a nicer house, a better island, a different woman – then you’re missing out,” he says. “Fortunately, I realized pretty early on that you’re missing out on billions of things every second, so one more or less doesn’t matter. Let’s make up your mind and try not to miss at least one thing, in the field of love and elsewhere.”
Choosing love and accepting missing out on other things isn’t a bad thing because, as Suter says, we humans miss out on millions of things just because we choose a different path. But then to walk it purposefully and with a clear head – that’s what matters in the end. Also in love.
The cover of Martin Suter’s new book “Melody”, published by Diogenes Verlag.
© Diogenes/dpa
Source used: dpa.de