With ‘Three Boys,’ Daniel de Roulet Joins a Revolt That Never Ends

Daniel de Roulet’s “Three Boys” presents itself as both a disguised autobiography and a manifesto of subversion. Through three fictional friends, the novel surveys Switzerland’s social and political struggles since the end of World War II, with didactic returns to the country’s history.

Max, Fabio and Wolfgang are born in Davos in 1943, in a place nicknamed “the Backwater,” one year before de Roulet himself. Max is the hotelier’s son. His family speaks French and English, and attends the Protestant church on Sundays. Fabio’s father works as the hotel porter, speaking Swiss German with an Italian accent, while his grandmother attends Mass. Wolfgang’s father is a municipal employee who secretly votes for the Swiss Party of Labour.

The three boys attend public school and become close friends. Differences in class, origin and religious belief do not prevent a lasting friendship that continues into the present. Yet their bond also brings a growing awareness of privilege. During holidays, one boy travels to the seaside estate of his grandparents, another milks a cow on a farm in Italy, and the third weeds a garden in Davos.

These contrasting childhoods give the novel its social and political lens. “Three Boys” uses the friends’ lives to revisit the country’s struggles while dividing the author’s own story among three figures. The result is a literary project framed around the hope of changing the world.