Markus Werner was a German-speaking Swiss author. He was the author of seven novels, including Zündels Abgang (Zündel's Exit), Am Hang (On the Edge), and Die kalte Schulter (Cold Shoulder). Born in 1944 in Eschlikon, in northeast Switzerland, he entered the University of Zürich in 1965, where he studied German, philosophy and psychology. In 1974, Werner completed a doctorate on Max Frisch, whose writing was to be an important influence upon Werner's own. Werner then began work as a teacher and an assistant professor at a high school in Schaffhausen, but eventually dedicated himself exclusively to writing, and lived and wrote in Schaffhausen for the remainder of his life. He has received numerous German-language awards, including the Hermann-Hesse-Literaturpreis, the Joseph Breitbach Prize, the Bodensee Literature Prize, and others.