Big Swiss by Jen Beagin

323 pages, Paperback

Published: December 7, 2023 by Faber & Faber

Lit Fic/ Library loan

So this was one of those books that was good without me knowing why. I felt at first like why am I even reading this, but at the same time I could not stop. I needed to continue. The writing is so good, the story is so strange.

Greta is a transcriber. She has fallen in love with a female voice, and then she meets the voice. Lies begin and an intense affair. All told is this strange dark humorous way.

I do not really want to say more because the book just needs to be read and felt. It might not be the book for everyone, but sometimes I just need a weird story. And it was a great one

Big Swiss. That's Greta's nickname for her - she is tall, and she is from Switzerland. Greta can see her now: dressed top to toe in white, that adorable gap between her two front teeth, her penetrating blue eyes. She's a head-turner: including the heads of infants and dogs.

Well that's how Greta imagines seeing her; they haven't actually ever met in person. Nor has Greta actually ever been to Switzerland.

Greta and Big Swiss are not in the same room, or even the same building. Greta is miles away, sitting at a desk in her own house, wearing only headphones, fingerless gloves, a kimono, and legwarmers, transcribing this disembodied voice.

What Greta doesn't know is that she's about to bump into Big Swiss in the local dog park. A new - and not entirely honest - relationship is going to be born.

A relationship that will transform both of their lives. . .