Shadowland: Swiss Identity and Urs Faes’s Ombra

Published as the discussion of stolen wealth and Switzerland’s complicity in the events and aftermath of the Holocaust had begun in earnest, Urs Faes’s 1997 novel Ombra is read here as an intricate critique of Switzerland’s long-held identification as a neutral power. This article argues that the three intertwined narratives featuring ekphrastic explorations of fifteenth-century paintings by Piero della Francesca bring attention to the duality of Switzerland’s complicated contemporary identity.