That 19th century book, ¬ The Swiss Family Robinson, was about a Swiss family of immigrants. This book is about another Swiss family of immigrants, the Fiechter family.
¬ The Fiechter family had lived in Switzerland’s Emmental Valley for centuries. It was a place of some of the country’s most iconic landscape, also the homeland of the famous and often imitated “Swiss cheese.” Such is the land where this story begins—not really a story, for the intimate details of the character’s lives are hidden forever. And yet, there is a story behind the scenes, one of life lived, hardships endured, decisions lived out. ¬ This is the record of one family’s heritage—the Fiechter family of Durrenroth, an ancient village at the center of the Emmental.
¬ They’re the ones on the front cover.