Eva Haldimann received her PhD from the University of Zurich in 1956. Her thesis subject was about critical studies of translations of William Shakespeare.
She started a career as a literary critic in 1963 in the Swiss German newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung, particularly on contemporary Hungarian literature. She wrote more than 300 reviews and her credo was: See what Hungarian literature has to offer, in terms of quality, it can compete with the great European literature.[2]
On 19 March 1977 she wrote a literary review of the novel Fatelessness by the Hungarian writer Imre Kertesz, describing it as the "novel of a desperate man" that helped to make it known in the West.[2] Imre Kertész discovered by chance criticism in an abandoned newspaper in a Budapest swimming pool and a correspondence between literary critic and the writer began, also accompanied by several personal encounters.[3] Imre Kertesz's letters were published in 2009 under the title Letters to Eva Haldimann.[4]
Eva Haldimann was also a translator from Hungarian into German of several novels by the writer Magda Szabo.
