Heidi is a work of children's fiction by Swiss author Johanna Spyri, originally published in two parts as Heidi: her years of wandering and learning and Heidi : How she used what she learned. It is a novel about the events in the life of a young girl in her grandfather's care, in the Swiss Alps. Heidi is one of the best-selling books ever written and is among the best-known works of Swiss literature. Heidi is an orphaned girl initially raised by her aunt Dete in Maienfeld, Switzerland after the early deaths of her parents, Tobias and Adelheid (Dete's sister and brother-in-law). Dete brings 5-year-old Heidi to her paternal grandfather's house, up the mountain from Dörfli. He has been at odds with the villagers and embittered against God for years and lives in seclusion on the alm. This has earned him the nickname 'Uncle Alp'. He briefly resents Heidi's arrival, but the girl's evident intelligence and cheerful yet unaffected demeanor soon earn his genuine, if reserved, affection. Heidi enthusiastically befriends her new neighbors, young Peter the goatherd, his mother, Bridgget, and his blind maternal grandmother. With each season that passes, the mountaintop inhabitants grow more attached to Heidi.