The first major biography of Friedrich Dürrenmatt. The making of a star: from Dürrenmatt's origins as a protestant minister's son in rural Switzerland to his international breakthrough with the comedy ›The Visit‹ and the crime novel ›The Pledge‹ in 1956/58. Peter Rüedi's biography of Dürrenmatt's formative years is based on numerous long interviews with Dürrenmatt himself, with his family, friends and colleagues and also on a comprehensive evaluation of Dürrenmatt's abundant literary legacy. It shows us a Dürrenmatt who scarcely resembled his cliché image as a genius to whom success came easily, but who was also a dogged and often desperate wielder of plays and stories having to overcome many crises and failures.