Editions Eclectica

SAGITTA Collection was founded with the objective of publishing texts — with no restriction on subject area — that will provide readers with new tools to help them come to grips with a world in constant mutation. Beyond the maelstrom of contradictory information, authors are committed to impart, in layman’s terms, the fruit of their research, making it accessible to the general public and leading to a better understanding of humankind in the 21st-century in all its plurality. Thus opening up new horizons for the reader…

Title: Nazism, Terrorism and Serial Killers.
Evil Unmasked.
Author: Philippe Cotter
Translator: Helen Mistry
Pages: 112
Format: 14 X 20 cm
5.5118” x 7.874” (width x height)
RRP: CHF 29.- (22.50 €)
ISBN: 978-2-940371-02-0

BOOKS in French

Title: Info popcorn.
Enquête au coeur des médias suisses.
Authors: Christian Campiche, Richard Aschinger
Illustration: Stephane Peray (Stephff)
Pages: 178
Illustrations: 15 cartoon drawings
Format: 14 X 20 cm
5.5118” x 7.874” (width x height)
RRP: CHF 38.- (30 €)
ISBN: 978-2-940371-18-1

Newspapers are a dying breed. Scores of journalists are being made redundant. In Switzerland, as in other countries, free newspapers rule. The media are shunning in-depth analysis in favour of escapism or panic-inducing trivia. Does this represent a danger for democracy? Two experienced investigative journalists, one from German-speaking Switzerland, the other from the French-speaking side, explore the workings of an information system that reduces the ordinary citizen to the role of consumer. […]

Title: Sociologie de la fessée.
Réflexion sur la violence ordinaire dans la famille.
Author: Christine Barras
Preface: Daniel BERNARD
Pages: xxx
Format: 14 X 20 cm
5.5118” x 7.874” (width x height)
RRP: CHF xx.- (xx €)
ISBN: 978-2-940371-24-2

To spank or not to spank is a question bound to ignite sparks between two opposing schools of thought: one based on verbal communication and respect, the other on authority and structure. Opponents of spanking denounce the practice as abusive and humiliating, while defenders claim that more forceful methods help children assimilate norms. A survey of spanking was conducted on 237 students aged 19 years. They were invited to express their opinions on spanking, which they may or may not have experienced as children, and on the duality of views in society which will inform their future parenting style - authoritarian or permissive. Even as a one-off incident, impulsive violent behaviour is never a trivial matter. Fuelled by a violence-prone society, parenting methods of the past still pervade our lives and to question why certain behaviours are trivialised is perhaps the first step towards eschewing them. This book will offer fresh insights to confused parents as well as professionals seeking further arguments.
Christine Barras is a parenting coach and consultant. She has published several books on the proverbs of Suisse romande (the French-speaking part of Switzerland). She has been working in the field of parenting for the last twenty years, examining day-to-day issues. […]

SAGA Collection Drawing heavily on the world of verbal transmission, SAGA Collection presents original texts from a variety of cultural backgrounds that aim to be both didactic and aesthetically-pleasing. The texts are rooted in everyday life, whether in the form of memoirs, witness accounts or legends, they all succeed in handing down a form of ancient popular wisdom with a measure of artistic — sometimes even poetic — charm.

Title: La Robe de Lumière
Author: Rosemarie Matzinger-Pasquier
Illustration: Wojtek Klakla
Pages: 144
Colour illustrations: 8
Format: 20 X 20 cm
Retail price: CHF 39.50 (31 €)
ISBN: 978-2-940371-03-7

As a Swiss teacher active in promoting cultural awareness, Rosemarie Matzinger's life was tumed upside down with the sudden death of her husband. Her second book, in the form of a novel, is an account of events which have struck an emotional chord with her, be it in a positive or negative manner, and which illustrate each person's strengths and weaknesses. It is a powerful cry for help where feelings of impotence and injustice are gradually transformed into a desire to push back the limits, learning to show compassion and attune to the power of universal love. The story of a rebirth along a path of resilience. […]

Title: Marottes de sorcières
Author: Barbara Rytz
(texte and illustration)
Pages: 50
Colour illustrations: 15
Format: 20 X 20 cm
Retail price: CHF 27.50 (21.50 €)
ISBN: 978-2-940371-04-4

They haunt our imagination. In a succession of feasts and celebrations across the four seasons, all our "fundamental" questions on the subject of witches are answered in 10 short stories. With a touch of magic here and a pinch of salt there, the author has no qualms about laughing at herself and, indeed, portraying herself as a… witch! […]

Title: Verdict bipolaire.
Une ou deux vies plus tard.
Author: (Leila Moon) Monique Trompezinski
Preface: Rosette Poletti
Illustration: Max Jacot
DVD: Interview in French with Bernard Pichon, Tabou, TSR (TV), 1995
(video 25 min.)
Pages: 104
Colour illustrations: 16
Format: 20 x 20 cm
Retail price: CHF 45.- (35 €)
ISBN: 978-2-940371-05-1

Born during World War Two in Lyon (France), of Polish descent, it is in Switzerland that Monique Trompezinski begins her professional career, transforming every obstacle and setback into an opportunity to bounce back. She goes from being a beautician to becoming an insurance broker, always picking up the pieces and moving on.

With a successful career and a large salary everything seemed to be going Monique Trompezinski’s way until one day the verdict fell: manic-depressive psychosis (bipolar disorder) at the age of 38, 100% invalidity due to mental illness. It was a devastating blow, leaving her deserted by her friends and alone with a two-year old child. […]

Title: Un Eclat de Vie
Author: Rosemarie Matzinger-Pasquier
Preface: Gabrielle Nanchen
Illustration: Philippe Pasquier and
Wojtek Klakla
Pages: 168
Colour illustrations: 10
Supplément photos: 4
Format: 20 X 20 cm
Retail price: CHF 42.50 (33 €)
ISBN: 978-2-940371-06-8

Rosemarie Matzinger-Pasquier's life was turned upside down by the sudden death of her husband. Initially written to help close friends and family remember and come to terms with the loss of a loved one, this book - whose influence is perceptible in her second book La Robe de Lumière - quickly struck a chord with the public. Its reputation as a life catalyst and as an indispensable aid to healing wounds and transcending grief has spread by word of mouth. […]

Title: Tarentule
Author: Geneviève Biffiger
Illustration: Ambroise Héritier
Pages: 56
Format: 20 X 20 cm
Retail price: CHF 30.- (23.50 €)
ISBN: 978-2-940371-07-5

At the end of the War there was a need to rebuild. But a whole generation inherited the traditional values of the past in a world that was waiting to be re-invented by the next generation of as yet unborn young people. It is one of these traditional couples that Geneviève Biffiger has chosen to examine. Delving far beyond the accepted views, she exposes brilliantly the stereotypes and their damaging consequences. Does a man have to be strong? Does a woman have to be tender and loving? […]

Title: Non, je ne suis pas comme toi, et alors?
Author: Daniel BERNARD
Pages: 80
Format: 20 X 20 cm
Retail price: CHF 32.- (25 €)
ISBN: 978-2-940371-08-2

Having trained as a film director, Daniel BERNARD is now a journalist and teacher with a great number of documentaries and television programmes to his credit. In 2007, at the age of 20, AGIS (Geneva association for social integration) commissioned a new play from him which was first staged at the Salle Pitoeff in Geneva. The cast is made up of professional and different actors. We should stop thinking that differences can simply be eliminated. Yes, things can be improved by changing our everyday environment, making our journeys safer or safeguarding our living spaces, but our neuron paths can no longer be changed. The message of this book is clear: we are every one of us capable of altering our point of view… […]

Title: Passer à autre chose…
Author: Nourredine Ben Bachir
Category: short stories
Preface: Pascal Herlem
Illustrations: artwork by Kate Deleaval, ceramic artist
Pages: 106
Format: 20 X 20 cm
Retail price: CHF 33.50 (26 €)
ISBN: 978-2-940371-10-5

This book is about embracing life’s challenges: embarking on a new relationship, becoming a father again, exploring new ways of engaging with a language and country… and finding the courage to face the unknown in others. Author and psychiatrist Nourredine Ben Bachir likes to say that he became a psychoanalyst in order to rediscover and take care of the writer who came knocking at the door of the adolescent in search of a country. The result is a vivid portrait, mixing humour and gravitas, of all the questions that too often remain unanswered in the chiaroscuro of our mind. Seeking that ray of happiness that will illuminate our everyday lives, the characters in these short stories contemplate whether to take the great leap forward or to stay put. They thus embody all of us in life’s restless journey. […]

Title: La balade d'une vie.
Parcours d'un insoumis
Author: Pierre Rottet
Category: biography / documentary
Preface: Christian Campiche
Illustrations: 12 (8 colour pictures)
Pages: 224
Format: 20 X 20 cm
Retail price: CHF 43.- (34 €)
ISBN: 978-2-940371-14-3

In ‘La balade d’une vie’, author Pierre Rottet reveals what went on behind the scenes at the ‘Bélier’ group – the Swiss Jura liberation movement – from 1972 to 1974. As a privileged observer working at the Catholic press agency Apic in Fribourg, Rottet has for the last forty years been casting a critical eye on the Vatican’s policy in Latin America in particular and in the Hispanic world in general. The author questions John Paul II’s policy and that of his successor, Benedict XVI - as well as the Roman Curia’s role - of stifling liberation theology, grassroots movements and replacing them with charismatic movements and, above all, granting Opus Dei an inordinate amount of power. From the Jura to the Andes, Pierre Rottet’s ‘stroll through life’ is a tool for friendship and combat, or better still, a cry for freedom. […]

Title: On ne disparaît pas comme ça
Author: Daniel BERNARD
Pages: 64
Format: 20 X 20 cm
Retail price: CHF 28.- (22 €)
ISBN: 978-2-940371-23-5

"On ne disparait pas comme ça” (‘One doesn’t just vanish into thin air’) premiered at a fundraising event held by the Lions Club of Geneva in April 2011 in favour of the Geneva Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
Set in the city of Geneva, this three-part play combines poetic comedy and whodunit. In three tableaux it illustrates a journalist’s revelations to his old friend, Sam the pianist, about the disappearance of a man by the lakeside, at a location known as Port-Noir. Five years previously Alexis Corbier, a sporty and politically engaged industrialist, vanished without trace. When he was declared dead, his main business partner was arrested and accused of murder… Façade or mascarade?
On a metaphoric level, the play alludes to oxygen deprivation, a characteristic of the illness (cystic fibrosis) that brought about the writing of the play. The hero is alleged to have been sucked into the lake and dragged to the bottom by an unknown monster, or he might have absconded to the ends of the earth, leaving behind life’s torments, and his faithful wife… […]

Title: La vieille en fugue …à l’ombre des sages.
Author: Didier Pingeon
Category: short stories
Interior colour illustration: Marlyse Heughebaert
Pages: 92
Format: 20 X 20 cm
Retail price: CHF 38.- (32 €)
ISBN: 978-2-940371-26-6

Like the strands of a Bach fugue, these short stories pinpointing our shortcomings and weaknesses deftly interweave to form a composition rich in finely-tuned emotions that carries us forward in leaps and bounds, forever in search of meaning, equilibrium and perfect harmony. All too often in life we remain unaware of the impact of our actions. In these pages, however, each story brings a sense of self-reconciliation and thus becomes a hymn to life […]

Symbol of eternity, the diamond chosen as logo of the SAGAX collection is an invitation to strive for perfection. In this collection of non-fiction books you will find no pre-formatted recipes but guidelines to help you along the way. A selection of pertinent examples leading you to improve on both 'savoir faire' and 'savoir vivre', thus stimulating your creative energies. Stepping stones to help you work out your own personal solutions.

Title: L'émotiologie.
Tome I: un art de Coeur
Author: Christiane Savio
Category: Mind, Body and Spirit
Illustration: Maurice Savio
Pages: 108
Format: 20 X 16 cm (width x height)
Retail price: CHF 29 (22.50 €)
ISBN: 978-2-940371-15-0

As an experienced psycho-kinesiology practitioner, Christiane Savio is always interested in exploring new ways to personal development. In this book she invites us to share her experiences in discovering our emotional states, crucial factors of our equilibrium and harmony, through a new approach – emotiology. Using simple language, she sheds new light on emotionally charged everyday phrases and situations. These are gradually decoded and explained in a gentle initiation process, akin to the Socratic and Confucian traditions of oral transmission. […]

Title: Emotiologie, le Maître Coeur
Author: Christiane Savio
Category: Mind, Body and Spirit
Illustration: Maurice Savio
Pages: 128
Format: 20 X 16 cm (width x height)
Retail price: CHF 33 (28 €)
ISBN: 978-2-940371-29-7

Facing our fears and anger is life-changing. With every witness account, the author invites us to revisit our past and gives us tools to help decode our emotions. Feelings of powerlessness are gradually replaced with self-knowledge. As we free ourselves of frustrations, we gain in self-esteem by listening to our intuition and exploring our sensuality without fear. As we grow in serenity, old habits are questioned - but not condemned, for punishment is no remedy. All too often we measure a person’s maturity by their degree of rationality – which is forgetting that throughout life the visionary powers of our imagination remain our staunchest ally in helping us confront a world in perpetual mutation. Accessible to all readers, this book will help you take the leap from ‘intending to do’ to actually ‘doing’. […]

Title: La dernière conversation. Ultime heure de Marat.
Author: Daniel BERNARD
Category: theatrical play
Preface: Alain-Jacques Tornare
Pages: 88
Format: 15 X 21 cm (width x height)
Retail price: CHF 27.- (21 €)
ISBN: 978-2-940371-11-2

As a journalist from foreign parts who stood by his radical ideas, Marat has a special place in the history of the French Revolution, which was not lacking in local colour. In this play devoid of loathing and prejudice, Marat is portrayed in delicate touches as the self-appointed, passionate supporter of the masses. With a superb novel approach to his subject, Daniel Bernard gives us a balanced, indeed almost affectionate, portrait of a man whose tragic destiny is about to be fulfilled. […]

Title: L'armée des papillons. Italo Balbo rencontre Jean Mermoz.
Author: Daniel BERNARD
Category: theatrical play
Pages: 84
Format: 15 x 21 cm (width x height)
Retail price: CHF 25.- (20 €)
ISBN: 978-2-940371-13-6

One gala evening, between two doors, two giants of European aviation in the 1930s meet in a Roman palace. Italo Balbo, Minister of Air, famous for taking squadrons of seaplanes on cruises entirely dedicated to the glory of Mussolini and fascism, and Jean Mermoz, French hero of the ‘Aéropostale’, friend of Saint-Exupéry and Joseph Kessel. Besides being charismatic, they also have in common their love of women, their pilot skills and a thirst for aeronautical adventure. But how could they lead such lives without selling themselves to the devil? […]

New collection

Aimed at children and young people, the Délire-Délivre collection is intended as a vehicle of cultural transmission between generations. Its objective is to facilitate the transition from oral culture to all the many written forms of expression: stories, novels, poems, comics, etc. Eclectic in nature and form, this collection is a testing ground for experiments and discoveries in developing powers of expression. Suitable for 10-17 year-olds.

Title: Rousseau ou l’éducation racontée à Vera
Author: Anne Bonhôte
Category: didactic story
Colour illustrations: 10
Pages: 120
Format: 13 x 18.5 cm (width x height)
RRP: CHF 35 (29 €)
ISBN: 978-2-940371-27-3

Author Anne Bonhôte tells the story of Genevan philosopher and writer Jean-Jacques Rousseau in a manner accessible to children and young people. She emphasises the modern aspects of his thinking, as well as those that are decidedly not, such as Rousseau’s views on how to educate girls, treat foreigners or uphold human rights. The author uses a judicious selection of contextualised and commented extracts from Rousseau’s works to lead us in the footsteps of the famous ‘Citizen of Geneva’ and remind us that with freedom also come responsibilities. A good citizen book that casts a critical eye on the ‘here and now’ and urges the next generation of youngsters to roll up their sleeves and show commitment to the community they live in - for the story of the future rests in their hands. […]

Title: Repères pour l'histoire de la Conférence des Organisations Internationales Catholiques (1927-2008)
Author: Dr François Blin
Category: Documentary reference
Pages: 262
Retail price: CHF 30.- (23.50 €)
Format: 15,5 x 21 cm (width x height)
ISBN: 978-2-940371-12-9

Contents: Chronology and original documents presented by Dr F. Blin, Conference archivist.

The Conference of International Catholic Organisations, located near the League of Nations in Geneva, was formed in 1927 under the impetus of voluntary groups and dioceses. Its importance increased considerably after the war, with the arrival of the UN and other international organisations, who agreed to grant NGOs the status of advisory body. At the same time, links with the institutions of the Catholic Church were officialised, with the friendly support of Mgr Montini, substitute from 1937 to 1952, pro-secretary of State until 1954, then Sovereign Pontiff from 1963 to 1978. The Conference played an important part during the conciliary period and every time the role of laymen in the Church was being discussed. The need for continuous dialogue with the Vatican, especially with the Secretariat of State, has always been seen as paramount amongst the higher echelons of the International Catholic Organisations in their efforts to better direct and coordinate work with the supranational organisations. […]

Title: La vie par dessus tout
Author: Dominique MARTIN
Category: testimonial literature
Pages: 112
Retail price: CHF 28.- (22 €)
Format: 14,5 x 19,5 cm (width x height)
ISBN: 978-2-940371-16-7

As a young graduate with a passion for Albert Camus (chosen as her dissertation topic), Dominique Martin was keen to broaden her horizons. Her yearning for travel was fulfilled when she went to live in Saudi Arabia with her architect husband. Many more travels followed over the years. Until one day she embarked on a totally unexpected journey: Dominique Martin shared her husband's daily battle against cancer. He is now fully recovered but the experience has profoundly transformed her.

"I felt immense pressure to externalise my experience, buried inside me. I had to burst the bubble of silence in order to release all those captive emotions and expose them to the light. I had to find a meaning to this ordeal".

A true and poignant story of survival that will appeal to patients, their entourage, therapists and foremost to everyone who loves life above all else. […]

Title: Femmes suisses dans le monde
du 17e au 21e siècle
Authors: Laurence Deonna, Bénédict de Tscharner
Category: short biographies
Cover illustration: Clara D'Atena Pizzolato
Internal illustrations: 30 (Museum of the Swiss Abroad)
Pages: 198
Format: 12,5 x 18,5 cm (width x height)
Retail price: CHF 20.- (16 €)
ISBN: 978-2-940371-21-1

Whatever one may say or think on the subject, the past – as well as the present - is full of examples of women who have had the courage to break the mould and lead an unconventional life. Given that women have usually gone by the wayside of History, the list is far from exhaustive, but it does shed some light on a reality that has remained too long in the shadows. Navigating through different periods and destinies in the pages of this book, we get to meet thirty exceptional Swiss female personalities whose outlook was enriched by their experiences abroad. Despite their differences, common traits emerge, such as gritty determination, a fighting spirit and… a slight touch of madness. […]

Title: Elsa et le crabe
Author: Laurence Dubouloz Pradervand
Category:
Pages: 100
Retail price: CHF 28.- (22 €)
Format: 14,5 x 19,5 cm (width x height)
ISBN: 978-2-940371-19-8

A seemingly lightweight and straightforward book which, in fact, defies appearances by asking very probing questions:
“What happened to the essentials of life? Can anyone tell me where they have disappeared to? Why have they gradually deserted me in such an insidious fashion while I was growing up and then growing old?” (p.47)

Writing during a period of ill health, the author uses her pen to expose the dysfunctional societies of the western world, the excessive materialism, the limitations of a health system in which she herself worked before being treated as a patient.

“To find what is essential. […] I need to retreat from the hullabaloo emanating from the crowds of people blinded by greed, terrified at the thought of losing their meaningless belongings, forever meowing and screeching, obsessed with keeping tabs on their possessions, and never realising that they are missing the essential element, the one and only thing they ought never to have relinquished or traded in: their soul.” (p.35)

Using a variety of techniques (mirror imaging, alternating monologues and dialogues between the self as actor and the self of narrative fiction) the author emphasises the importance of writing and how urgent it is to rediscover the poetic elements of life, which will help us in our quest for love. […]

Title: Brève histoire des Organisations Internationales Catholiques à Genève
Author: François Blin
Category: documentary reference
Pages: 32, stapled booklet
Format: 14,8 x 21 cm (width x height)
Retail Price: CHF 8.50 (7 €)
ISBN: 978-2-940371-33-4

Geneva, major financial hub and diplomatic crossroads, ranks second in the world for the number of international organisations it hosts. Amongst those drawn to establish themselves in Geneva, there are many Catholic organisations whose history is closely linked to that of the city.
This booklet (A brief history of International Catholic Organisations in Geneva) is intended as a complement to Repères pour l’histoire de la Conférence des Organisations Internationales Catholiques (1927-2008),(Guide to the history of the Conference of International Catholic Organisations, 1927 to 2008), 262 pages, by the same author, published by ECLECTICA Editions in 2010. ISBN: 978-2-940371-12-9. […]

Title: Quand la vie vole en éclats
Author: Serge Heughebaert
Postface: Patrick Baudry
Illustrations: Marlyse Heughebaert
Pages: 96
Colour illustrations: 28
Format: 13 x 13 cm
Retail price: CHF 33.- (28 €)
ISBN: 978-2-940371-28-0

Originally from French Flanders, the author has been living in Switzerland since 1978 where he started ‘Espace Art Vif’, a charitable foundation that helps people in crisis through art therapy. Serge Heughebaert never ceases to wonder at the sheer energy deployed by the distressed in self-mutilating and destructive behaviours. To counter these negative forces, he invokes the creative powers of Art, exploring and experimenting with a variety of techniques that help give renewed meaning to life. This little book, with its message of hope, is the ideal gift for the tormented soul, when words fail us… […]

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