DANISH ARTS FOUNDATION
DANISH LITER ARY MAGA ZINE
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AUTUMN 2018
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WELCOME ”We are what we read.” With the autumn come long, chilly, rainswept evenings. Perfect reading time! But the quality has to be there. Good books stay with us and affect us. In this edition of Danish Literary Magazine, we present some of the best of new Danish writing and literary publications. Pia Juul has published a new poetry collection, Forbi (Past), about what’s now past but still, like the hot summer just gone, singing in the body. We have a poem
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AWARDS
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A FORTUNATE MAN & PELLE THE CONQUEROR
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BOOKS IN BRIEF / FICTION
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BOOKS IN BRIEF / CRIME
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BOOKS IN BRIEF / NON-FICTION
from the collection and an interview with her about being translated and engaging with her foreign audience. Two new film adaptations of Danish literary classics have renewed interest in these works: Bille August’s film of Henrik Pontoppidan’s masterpiece Lykke-Per (A Fortunate Man, 1898-1904), which had its Danish premiere in late August, and Per Fly’s planned film of the final three volumes of Martin Andersen Nexø’s Pelle Erobreren (Pelle the Conqueror, 1906-10), which comes 30 years after Bille August’s Oscar winning 1988 movie that covered the first volume of the novel. And then we have a really exciting range of contemporary ‘classics’ such as Peter Høeg, Helle
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BOOKS IN BRIEF / GRAPHIC NOVELS
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Helle, Knud Romer, Dorthe Nors, Merete Pryds Helle and Ida Jessen. We also present several current works that reflect our fascination with auto-fiction, and historical novels about the world’s oldest man and Denmark’s not so distant colonial past.
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In Denmark recently, we’ve seen several of our newer authors engage with science fiction to intuit our present day realities – amongst them, Olga Ravn and Jonas Eika.
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In the field of graphic novels, Danish writers and illustrators have now established themselves on the international stage. We present three new books in this genre, which is undergoing dramatic growth. Finally, we provide our usual overview of funding opportunities for foreign publishers and literary agents via the Danish Arts Foundation. Marie Starup & Søren Beltoft / EDITORS
DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE
MAREN U THAUG
PHOTO: PETER NØRBY
The Danish Broadcasting Corporation Novel of the Year Award is highly valued by Danish authors because thousands of fully engaged readers in reading circles across Denmark are asked to vote for their preference from a number of nominated works. This year, Maren Uthaug won the award for Hvor der er fugle (Where There Are Birds). Readers plumped for her fun and quirky family novel for its “interesting cast” and also praised it for being “easy to read”, “cleverly written” and “uplifting” – despite its heavy subject areas like incest and unhappiness in love. Hvor der er fugle is set in and around a lighthouse on Norway’s windblasted west coast. The novel’s genius lies in somehow maintaining a cheerful and humorous tone, even as serious issues kick in. The same events are described from three different points of view and, gradually, a gripping and horrible family secret emerges, telling of concealed desires and incest. MAREN UTHAUG (b. 1972) lives in Denmark and is of Norwegian/ Sami descent. Before her literary debut, she showed her sharp eye
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for modern human dilemmas as an illustrator for the Danish newspaper Politiken’s cartoon strip Ting jeg gjorde (Things I’ve Done). Hvor der er fugle has confirmed Maren Uthaug as one of Denmark’s most exciting new writers. KVP/PL
MAREN UTHAUG
Hvor der er fugle (Where There Are Birds) Lindhardt og Ringhof, 2018, 303 pages FOREIGN RIGHTS: Lindhardt og Ringhof, Nya Guldberg, nya.guldberg@lrforlag.dk SOLD TO: Germany/Btb/Penguin Random House
The Blixen Award for the Year’s Best Literary Talent: Markløs (Vagabonds) Markløs (Vagabonds) is a modern, autobiographical odyssey in which two adult brothers wander through the Funen landscape of their childhood and find each other again. The novel’s title Markløs is an old term for walking aimlessly across fields and ‘marks’. In the novel, it’s also a metaphor for the emotional journey the two young men undertake. Their accounts of
PHOTO: ESBEN WEILE KIER
Danish Broadcasting Corporation Novel of the Year Award Hvor der er fugle (Where There Are Birds)
AWARDS
MALTE TELLER UP PETERSEN L AUGE The Blixen Award: Traveling (Traveling)
MALTE TELLERUP (b.1989) grew up in South Funen, where Markløs is set. He has a degree in Comparative Literature from the University of Copenhagen. KVP/PL
MALTE TELLERUP
Markløs (Vagabonds) Lindhardt og Ringhof, 2018, 160 pages FOREIGN RIGHTS: Lindhardt og Ringhof, Nya Guldberg, nya.guldberg@lrforlag.dk
The poems in Traveling speak of wanderlust, the act of writing and looming old age. Laugesen writes about train travel, birdsong, jazz music and describes a huge thematic arc. With Peter Laugesen as travel guide, the reader is led through emotional and physical landscapes, by way of a confident, poetic, and comradely narrative, infused by his customary anarchic style.
in 2018. He is regarded as one of Denmark’s greatest living poets and has an extensive set of works behind him. He has among other prizes won ‘Akademiets Store Pris’ and the Critics Prize. KVP/PL
PHOTO: SIMON KNUDSEN
a divorce-plagued and tumultuous upbringing are elegantly interwoven with the landscape and the rundown small villages along the way. The author has stated that he ‘likes to wrest a story from the landscape’. With Markløs he has fully succeeded.
One of the biggest Danish prizes for a work of fiction in 2018 went to one of Denmark’s most celebrated living writers. The poet Peter Laugesen has been a beat guy since his debut in the 1960s and his huge back catalogue culminates here, amidst great acclaim, with Traveling (Traveling). Or in the words of the award judges: “Traveling is the most beautiful gift for both old and new readers of Peter Laugesen; a poet who has an eye for both the ant in his path and the universe’s black holes.”
PETER LAUGESEN had his debut in 1967 and reached his 75th year
PETER LAUGESEN
Traveling (Traveling) Gyldendal, 2018, 149 pages FOREIGN RIGHTS: Gyldendal Group Agency, Lise Broen Rosenberg Dahm, srlbrd@gyldendal.dk
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DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE
GIANTS OF LI Lykke-Per (A Fortunate Man) and Pelle Eroberen (Pelle the Conqueror) are two of the most extensive and significant Danish novels of all time. Both are being made into films at the moment and, no, Pelle the Conqueror is not a remake.
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A FORTUNATE MAN & PELLE THE CONQUEROR
DANISH ITERATURE BY KIM SKOTTE TRANSLATED BY PAUL LARKIN
PHOTO: ROLF KONOW,SMPSP
Most countries have novels that, in decisive ways, have helped to shape their national identity. For that very reason, they are widely debated and film makers are wont to tackle such works with a degree of caution.
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DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE In Denmark, Henrik Pontoppidan’s Lykke-Per (A Fortunate Man, 1898-1904) and Martin Andersen Nexø’s Pelle Erobreren (Pelle the Conqueror, 1906-10) are so prominent because of their literary qualities, their place in the literary canon and because they represent two of the pillars on which the story of modern Denmark is based – the so-called ‘Modern Breakthrough’ and the ‘social contract’.
Bille August has written the screenplay for Lykke-Per in collaboration with his son Anders August, who in recent years has written a number of acclaimed Danish film scripts. With a two generation partnership behind it, there’s a great buzz about the project, which will be released as a feature film and then a four part TV series. International awareness of Pontoppidan’s Lykke-Per will also be strengthened considerably by the recent publication of the English translation of Lykke-Per by Tusculanum Press. Lykke-Per is a key work in Danish literature and Pontoppidan (18571943) is one of only three Danes to receive the Nobel Prize. This sweeping novel is considered by many as the most important novel
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of the ‘Modern Breakthrough’ that had a particularly strong impact in Denmark; not least because one of its most important figures was the Danish literary critic Georg Brandes, who left a distinctive mark on European intellectual life. New ideas on individual freedom, freedom of expression, gender equality, the rejection of religion and hidebound ways, including the literary context, took a firm hold, especially due to Brandes. Brandes and Pontoppidan engaged in regular correspondence and, in many ways, Pontoppidan’s realism can be seen as his response to Brandes’ call for a more realist, challenging and contemporary literature. Brandes actually plays a minor role in Lykke-Per as the charismatic Dr Nathan. The novel’s hero, meanwhile, Per Sidenius, has ambitious plans to become a ground-breaking engineer – not unlike those a young Henrik Pontoppidan himself once had. As the apostate son of a severe religious minister, Per Sidenius wants to seize the reins of technological power, but falls short because of what’s portrayed as the Danish mind-set – torn between aspirations and self-doubt. A man of progress and a rapid social climber who falls prey to hesitation, inherited flaws and inner emptiness
PHOTO: BRIDGEMAN ART LIBRARY/RITZAU SCANPIX
Henrik Pontoppidan’s masterpiece has been waiting a long time for a film adaptation and it’s no surprise that veteran director Bille August has taken on the challenge. His big breakthrough came in 1987 with the film version of none other than Martin Andersen Nexø’s Pelle Erobreren (Pelle the Conqueror), which won the Palme D’Or in Cannes, as well as a ‘best foreign language film’ Oscar.
Henrik Pontoppidan’s masterpiece has been waiting a long time for a film adaptation and it’s no surprise that veteran director Bille August has taken on the challenge.
– the downside of the ‘New Age’. Just like Brandes, Pontoppidan was heavily influenced by Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy. However, whereas Pontoppidan’s realism was existential, the realism used by another hugely popular author at that time was firmly anchored in a different vision – that of a more just world. Martin Andersen Nexø wrote books that sought to change the world, though he dedicated Pelle Erobreren (Pelle the Conqueror, 1906-10) to “the master, Henrik Pontoppidan”.
A FORTUNATE MAN & PELLE THE CONQUEROR Nexø’s novel is steeped in the author’s anger at social injustice and would make him one of the most widely read left wing ‘workerauthors’ of that time. In his famous 1987 film of Nexø’s novel, Bille August focused on the first of its four volumes, which depicts Pelle’s harsh childhood in the countryside. The final volumes feature the adult Pelle in Copenhagen, where abject poverty in the tenements and starvation wages trigger bitter labour disputes. A time of strife that finally would end when, after a long struggle, the culture of negotiated agreements between workers and employers came to form the foundation of the Danish welfare state’s model of social cohesion.
Unlike Bille August’s international director profile, Per Fly is little known outside of Denmark. But in Denmark he is one of the most highly acclaimed realist film makers. His gripping ‘fatedramas’ – the so-called ‘Denmark Trilogy’ Bænken (The Bench), Arven (Inheritance) and Drabet (Manslaughter) lay bare the intense dilemmas that confront the lower, upper and middle classes respectively. This series of films has also helped to raise Per Fly’s prominence internationally and this will be further enhanced by Fly’s key involvement in a new Pelle the Conqueror series. In fact Per Fly has been striving to make a follow up to Bille August’s original Pelle film for many years.
And now, what he originally conceived as a feature film, is to become an eight part TV series on HBO Nordic with Per Fly as the conceptual director and Rasmus Heisterberg as the screenwriter. A series that has a completely different filmic approach to the original masterpiece about little Pelle and his father Lasse played by Max von Sydow. But then, despite being so many years in the making, this story may still strike a real chord at time where many people, in a tumultuous world, view the Nordic social model as a prototype on which they can pin their hopes. The modern Danish welfare state with its democratic rights, social contract system and freedom of expression didn’t just emerge from thin air. Lykke-Per (A Fortunate Man) and Pelle Eroberen (Pelle the Conqueror) are two stories that each in their own way provide a set of pointers to the profound developments that followed.
HENRIK PONTOPPIDAN (1855-1943) PHOTO: SCANPIX DANMARK
Martin Andersen Nexø wrote books that sought to change the world, though he dedicated Pelle the Conqueror to “the master, Henrik Pontoppidan”.
Lykke-Per (A Fortunate Man) The novel was published in eight parts between 1898-1904. The first complete three volume edition was published in 1905. Danish premiere 30th August 2018 DIRECTOR: Bille August DISTRIBUTION: info@trustnordisk.com BOOK – FOREIGN RIGHTS: DSL, Det danske Sprog- og Litteraturselskab, Jesper Gehlert Nielsen: jgn@dsl.dk
MARTIN ANDERSEN NEXØ (1869-1954)
Pelle Erobreren (Pelle the Conqueror) The novel was published between 1906-1910. It was published as a serial in labour movement newspapers in several European countries. HBO NORDIC: Erobreren / The Conqueror Eight 60 minute episodes DIRECTOR: Per Fly BOOK – FOREIGN RIGHTS: Gyldendal Group Agency; Lydia Constance Grønkvist Pedersen: dirlp@gyldendal.dk
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DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE
BOOKS IN BRIEF / FICTION POINTS ON A MAP OF MODERN LIVES Every sentence in Dorthe Nors’ polished set of short stories Kort over Canada (Map of Canada) delivers a pang of loneliness. Together, the stories draw points on a map of modern lives: existences marked by an absence that is always near, like gulls in the wake of a trawler. The title is a quote from Joni Mitchell’s song ‘A Case of You’ (1971) in which the narrator draws her lost beloved’s face on a map of Canada. The 14 short stories revolve around love, violence, care and loneliness, and just as in Kantslag (Karate Chop, 2018), the tone is ironic and sad with a twist of humour. All the main characters
long for human contact, but can’t settle in themselves. We meet them in Norway, in Northern Jutland, in Los Angeles and Copenhagen, but never quite at home. A husband loses all his battles; always seeming to be led by the nose. A female writer lodges dubiously close to her ex’s mother. A man works out there’s been some kind of double booking, so he’s not getting laid with Anna, but going to her aunt’s birthday. You get coffee and cake, scouts and sweet-smelling flowers in these stories. But don’t be fooled. She has never been darker than here. Dorthe Nors is terse, unsentimental and biting about life as we always knew it – but somehow see it for the first time. DORTHE NORS (b. 1970) debuted in 2001 and is known for her sharp, humorous depictions of modern
PHOTO: PETRA KLEIS
THIS NOW-TIME OF ABSENCE
life. Her short stories have appeared in, e.g., Boston Review, Harper’s Magazine and The New Yorker. In 2017, her novel Spejl, skulder, blink (Mirror, Shoulder, Signal) about Sonja who starts driving lessons at a ripe old age was nominated for the Man Booker International Prize. MLK/PL
DORTHE NORS
Kort over Canada (Map of Canada) Gyldendal, 2018, 130 pages FOREIGN RIGHTS: Ahlander Agency, Astri von Arbin Ahlander, info@ahlanderagency.com SOLD TO: Germany/Kein & Aber, Italy/Bompiani, The Netherlands/Podium, Norway/Gyldendal, Sweden/Ordfront, UK/Pushkin Press
THROUGH ANOTHER’S EYES After Simon’s attempted suicide, Peter tries to help his childhood friend, and is drawn into the research project of another childhood friend, scientist Lisa Skærsgaard. A breakthrough in brain scanning technology at the Institute for Neuropsychological Imaging has enabled a kind of physical blueprint of an individual’s emotional history and make-up. Together the three friends partake in an experiment, where they trace back to the shared consciousness and connection of their childhood, in the time before they went their separate ways as adults. Simon is frail and Lisa has no memory of her childhood after a
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BOOKS IN BRIEF / FICTION
THE HUMAN CONNECTION PHOTO: ROBIN SKJOLDBORG
car accident. Peter must therefore go beyond the ‘firewall’ of his adult memory for all three of them; he must connect to the emotional experiences of his friends. As the project advances, Lisa’s memories resurface, and Peter is tangled in the painful realization of her past. Meanwhile, the project moves beyond connections between single human beings, to sourcing a wider collective consciousness – including the suppressed grief of entire nations. PETER HØEG (b. 1957) has established himself as one of the major writers of contemporary Danish fiction. Høeg published his debut novel in 1988, Forestilling om det 20. århundrede (The History of Danish Dreams), followed by six more novels, including the international sensation, Frøken Smillas fornemmelse for sne (Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow) in 1992. Høeg’s books have been translated into 33 languages. /ST
DARK SECRETS BEHIND THE SUBURBAN HEDGE Vi kunne alt (We Had It All) is a standalone continuation of the 2016 family chronicle Folkets skønhed (Human Beauty) which became a bestseller in Denmark. Teenager Merle lives in the suburbs, where we are told the middle classes had it all in the 1970s. But her family is far from middle class. Merle comes from a dysfunctional family and her mother’s mental problems overshadows everything. Her father does his best to cope when mother has one of her ‘turns’ but when he’s
had enough he seeks the refuge of another woman’s company, leaving Merle and her sister to deal with the mess. Merle grows up and things go from bad to worse. She’s very gifted and does well at school, but is bullied by her school mates. A bright side to life is hard to find but she never loses hope and grabs its pleasures where she can – the sexual revolution and liberal values of these times offer some consolations. Vi kunne alt is an unsentimental, yet captivating, tale of a troubled teenage life, mental health issues and new attitudes to gender and sexuality in a time of upheaval and shifting values. MERETE PRYDS HELLE (b. 1965) is an acclaimed Danish author of numerous works of fiction. Her style is vibrant, questioning and multifaceted; just like the author herself, who in addition to a literature degree has also studied archaeology, science and history. Her big breakthrough was in 2016 with the family chronicle Folkets skønhed, which has won numerous awards. NG/PL
MERETE PRYDS HELLE
Vi kunne alt (We Had It All) Lindhardt og Ringhof, 2018, 352 pages FOREIGN RIGHTS: Lindhardt og Ringhof, Nya Guldberg, nya.guldberg@lrforlag.dk PREVIOUS TITLES SOLD TO: Sweden, France, Germany, Iceland, Arabic
A TEEN GIRL’S LIFE IN THE NOT SO ‘GROOVY’ 70S
PETER HØEG
PHOTO: THOMAS A.
Gennem dine øjne (Through Your Eyes) Forlaget Rosinante, 2018, 362 pages FOREIGN RIGHTS: Rosinante in association with Rogers, Coleridge & White Ltd. Laurence Laluyaux: l.laluyaux@rcwlitagency.com SOLD TO: The Netherlands/Meulenhoff Boekerij, Germany/Hanser, Italy/Mondadori
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DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE PHOTO: LÆRKE POSSELT
LUCIDLY BIZARRE VISIONS OF THE FUTURE ”Efter Solen (After the Sun) is only Jonas Eika’s second book, which is hard to fathom. It’s so ridiculously confident and lucid.” – Information
INGENIOUS AND LITERARY SCI-FINOVEL
THUMPING HEART SCI-FI With increasingly extreme weather conditions, massive migration flows and the kind of volatile political developments few people previously thought possible, the world – and its future – appears more disturbing and unpredictable than ever. Perhaps that’s why science fiction is now experiencing a sort of rebirth – not least in literary fiction. Olga Ravn, one of Denmark’s most gifted younger writers has, with her daring literary output alternated between poetry and more conceptual and avant-garde forms of ghost tales and kitsch. Now, with De ansatte (The Employees), she has engaged with one of today’s popular genres – Sci-Fi.
the truth about what happened on a space shuttle in the 22nd century. After a series of strange objects appear on board, relations between human beings and humanoids begin to change – and the question of what the essence of ‘human’ actually is becomes one of the novel’s most urgent issues. The book received overwhelmingly positive reviews by the critics; with one reviewer describing it as “a strong contender for the perfect contemporary novel”. OLGA RAVN (b. 1986) is an author, editor, and founder of the alternative writer’s academy ‘Hekseskolen’, which especially focuses on feminist, ritualistic and collective approaches to literary and writing processes. Olga Ravn is a graduate of the Danish School of Authors and has written a range of fiction books. NG/PL
De ansatte is a conceptually driven Sci-Fi novel that is provocative, mysterious and deeply disturbing at the same time. For here, humans and cyborgs provide separate testimony to readers who must then decide
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OLGA RAVN
De ansatte (The Employees) Gyldendal, 2018, 136 pages FOREIGN RIGHTS: Gyldendal Group Agency, Lise Broen Rosenberg Dahm, srlbrd@gyldendal.dk PREVIOUS TITLES SOLD TO: Sweden, Norway
Events in the five novellas in Jonas Eika’s Efter Solen (After the Sun) take place in somehow familiar locations across the globe. We meet young beach boys in Mexico, who grease wealthy bathers with sun cream during the day and indulge in bizarre sex rituals with each other at night. In another story, a young IT consultant arrives in Copenhagen for a meeting, only to find that the building has literally sunk into the ground. Several of the stories in Efter Solen are redolent of Sci-Fi, picturing a globalized future in which identity, climate, politics, economics and nature have been radically altered.
BOOKS IN BRIEF / FICTION
JONAS EIKA (b. 1991) is a graduate of the Danish School of Authors and debuted in 2015 with the social-realist novel Lageret Huset Marie (The Depot) for which he won a young debutant award. Jonas is regarded as one of Danish literature’s most promising younger voices. Efter Solen is his second book.
PHOTO: LIZETTE KABRÉ
Jonas Eika has an enigmatic yet also convincing vision of humanity’s ominous future. His novellas reflect a world in dissolution and decay but, for all that, carry the inherent sense of hope found in Sci-Fi and its new amalgams of man, nature and machine. In the Rachel, Nevada (Rachel, Nevada) novella, for example, an elderly man walks into the desert, slits parts of his throat and couples with a crystalline transmitter so as to meld with it.
LITERARY PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER
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JONAS EIKA
Efter Solen (After the Sun) Basilisk 2018, 161 pages FOREIGN RIGHTS: Basilisk, Pejk Malinovski, admin@basilisk.dk SOLD TO: Sweden/Modernista
YOUNG BEACH BOYS AND OLD CYBORGS
RULES FOR SAYING HELLO Line-Maria Lång’s unreliable narrator balances between a poetic tenderness and a brutality reminiscent of Patrick McCabe’s The Butcher Boy.
PHOTO: PRIVAT
Growing up in a commune in the 1980s, beyond society’s norms, and sharing her toys and her parents, Timian is a child from a different world. She grows up directed by fierce instincts and an incredible imagination. As an especially sensitive child, her father encourages her to be the ‘blue tiger’ she is, and supports an openness to everything, including the research project of Ib, a fellow commune member, which exposes the young girl to videos of violence and rape. A few years later, Timian’s father withdraws from the commune and places Timian in a private school, where she is alienated by classmates and develops her own internal set of rules to help her adjust.
As a young woman, Timian works as a carer, attempting to check off a list of social stepping stones, such as having a boyfriend. Yet Timian increasingly turns to intensive sessions with dildos, instead of the boyfriend, and becomes bound by the rules she has created for her relationships with others. When she witnesses a suicide, a different set of innate rules suddenly takes precedence, and Timian heads for Sweden to track down Ib and his videos. LINE-MARIA LÅNG (b. 1982) had her debut with the short story collection Rottekonge (The Rat King) in 2009, followed by Artiskokhjerte (Artichoke Heart) in 2014. /ST
LINE-MARIA LÅNG
Blå tiger (Blue Tiger) Rosinante, 2018, 271 pages FOREIGN RIGHTS: Copenhagen Literary Agency, Monica Gram, monica@cphla.dk PREVIOUS TITLES SOLD TO: Serbia
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DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL ROLLERCOASTER WITH A GLOBAL VISION “Kort over paradis (Map of Paradise) juggles with details, facts, fiction and feelings and conjures a mix that demonstrates the author’s discerning eye for both the grotesque and heart-breaking.” – Berlingske Tidende 12 years after his debut, Knud Romer makes his comeback with an expansive novel. In Kort over paradis (Map of Paradise), Knud Romer tells the story of his own life. It’s a vintage ‘tale of destiny’ that spans several decades. We first meet Knud as a teenager in Nykøbing – on the island of Falster, and learn of his alternative upbringing by headstrong parents. Knud becomes a slacker student who, despite 17 years of study, never takes his finals and ends up as a cokehead working in advertising with delusions of grandeur
and money to burn. The journey ends in utter humiliation and a physical and mental collapse that sends Knud back to his childhood home. Here his stunning fiction debut Den som blinker er bange for døden (Whoever Blinks First is Dead) literally becomes his lifebelt. This new, raw and authentic story of Romer’s tumultuous life intersects with its other main narrative thread: a fictional take on international politics, personified by Romer’s secret American friend, ‘M’, who’s the son of a diplomat and a CIA agent. KNUD ROMER (b. 1960) is an author, commentator and radio-show host. His 2006 bestselling debut Den som blinker er bange for døden won several big prizes in Denmark. The novel has been published in 13 countries, including Germany, Sweden, Spain and France.
MY FATHER – THE LONE STAR
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KNUD ROMER
Kort over Paradis (Map of Paradise) Lindhardt og Ringhof, 2018, 528 pages FOREIGN RIGHTS: Agentur Literatur: Gudrun Hebel, gudrun.hebel@agentur-literatur.de SOLD TO: Germany/Insel Verlag
In her authorship, Mathilde Walter Clark has dealt extensively with philosophical scenarios and imaginative form structures, but she takes a new path in her latest novel Lone Star (Lone Star); the story about her Texan father and their challenging, but extraordinary relationship. Lone Star is both auto fiction, a cultural journey of discovery and a travelogue, as the author weaves her ambitious and colourful strands into a meditative and moving tapestry.
SELF-DESTRUCTION – THERE AND BACK
PHOTO: THOMAS A.
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A PHILOSOPHICAL DAUGHTER/FATHER ODYSSEY
Since childhood, the author lived with her mother in Denmark and only saw her father, a nuclear physicist, in the summer. The author’s relationship with her father is not just hampered by the huge physical distance between them but also by her dad’s absence, basic cultural differences and then his new
BOOKS IN BRIEF / FICTION
MEMOIRS OF A DISTRESSED CHILDHOOD Thomas Korsgaard provoked uproar when, as a callow 21-year-old, he debuted in 2017 with the novel Hvis der skulle komme et menneske forbi (If Someone Should Come by). This is an auto-fictional narrative; depicting a poverty stricken childhood at the edge of Danish society, scourged by massive neglect and violence.
PHOTO: LES KANER
MATHILDE WALTER CLARK (b. 1970) is a Danish-American author and graduate of New York University where she studied philosophy and Danish. Apart from her novels she is known for her outstanding essays that have been published in a range of Danish newspapers. She has also won numerous awards for her writing.
BITTERSWEET AUTOFICTION FROM THE BACKSTREETS
En dag vil vi grine af det is a moving coming-of-age tale that in terse prose, leavened with humour and a fine ear for dialogue, depicts a child’s ‘divorce’ from his family. At the same time, we sense the love, dependence, and need for acceptance, children will always seek from their parents regardless of upbringing. In spite of it all. THOMAS KORSGAARD (b. 1995) is a self-taught author whose genre is auto-fiction. This is his second novel; a standalone continuation of his debut and bestselling novel Hvis der skulle komme et menneske forbi, which reviewers described as: “brutal, touching and movingly beautiful”. NG/PL
THOMAS KORSGAARD
En dag vil vi grine af det (One Day We’ll Look Back and Laugh at It All) Lindhardt og Ringhof, 2018, 320 pages FOREIGN RIGHTS: Lindhardt og Ringhof, Nya Guldberg, nya.guldberg@lrforlag.dk
PHOTO: LÆRKE POSSELT
wife who was strongly opposed to her husband seeing Mathilde. However, they would subsequently defy these obstacles and try to recapture lost time. They travel back to their ancestral heartland in Texas and a psychological and cultural odyssey ensues – an attempt to understand some of the most elementary questions of human life: who are we and where do we come from?
The novel En dag vil vi grine af det (One Day We’ll Look Back and Laugh at It All) is a standalone continuation of the author’s acclaimed debut. Here we follow the everyday teenage life of its ‘hero’, Tue, as he contends with his family’s internal strife, drug abuse and furtive mind games, especially from his father. We see how Tue tries to hide the misery – which embarrasses him – from his schoolmates and his irrepressible zest
for life that continually bursts forth as a sort of personal fightback against the dark side.
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MATHILDE WALTER CLARK
Lone Star (Lone Star) Politikens Forlag 2018, 448 pages FOREIGN RIGHTS: Politiken Literary Agency, Rudi Urban Rasmussen, rudi.u.rasmussen@jppol.dk PREVIOUS TITLES SOLD TO: Norway
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DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE
VIBSE DOES ONE ”Katrine Marie Guldager’s Bjørnen (The Bear) is a short, captivating novel by a great writer who gives a convincing portrayal of a person’s struggle to find meaning in life.” – Kristeligt Dagblad
THEY LAUGH TILL THEY CRY
PHOTO: MIKKEL CARL
THE ABSURDITY AND BEAUTY OF THE BANAL Helle Helle is Denmark’s literary Queen when it comes to subtle, understated prose à la Hemingway or Raymond Carver. She’s an expert in depicting strong emotions within and between people, without these feelings ever being mentioned. But as strong as these unmentioned emotions are, with Helle Helle, the subtle humour is every bit as powerful. Her latest novel de (they) is about a 16-year-old girl who lives alone with her mother in a small Danish town where the mother runs a cosmetics business. The girl is just about to start high school, her mother is about to die. True, the mother’s terminal illness is never stated, but via subtle allusions the reader picks this up very quickly. Using equally subtle means, the warm empathy between mother and daughter is conveyed in small episodes, flashbacks and dialogue.
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HELLE HELLE (b. 1965) debuted in 1993 and has since published a range of books and has been translated into over 15 languages. She won the Golden Laurels in 2012 and the Danish Academy’s main prize in 2016.
ANGER MANAGEMENT IN THE WILDERNESS
LMR/PL
HELLE HELLE
de (they) Forlaget Rosinante, 2018, 157 pages FOREIGN RIGHTS: Rosinante in association with Rogers, Coleridge & White, Laurence Laluyaux: l.laluyaux@rcwlitagency.com SOLD TO: Norway/Forlaget Oktober, The Netherlands/Querido, Sweden/Norstedts
PHOTO: LES KANER
Helle Helle’s special prosaic poetry emerges through her intense focus on the banal. The absurdity and
beauty of the banal. A lot can be said in few words – the essence of literary ‘minimalism’. And you don’t get much more minimal than ‘they’ as a title, which depicts the ending of ‘they’ and the start of a singular ‘she’. Despite the sad situation, there’s a lot of laughter here. “They have a right laugh” the novel tells us more than once. Elsewhere it says: “They laugh till they cry.” And so does the reader. Having a right laugh and crying; quietly and deeply almost simultaneously. That’s how it is to read Helle Helle.
Vibse is approaching middle age when life collapses around her. She loses her job as a school teacher the same day as her eldest daughter leaves home. And when she decides that her husband Bent is actually a bit of a twat Vibse does one. She hits the road in a no-warning flash. Whilst attempting to get a grip on her life and her volcanic anger, Vibse holes up in her log cabin in the wilds of Sweden. Peace at last to think and ponder. It seems like a good idea, but when the electricity conks, her phone dies and the snow locks her inside the hut, she suddenly has to move from anger to action. Out in the snow, alone in the vast wilderness, Vibse encounters a bear – and perhaps her true self?
BOOKS IN BRIEF / FICTION
SOLACE AND ATONEMENT
KATRINE MARIE GULDAGER (b. 1966) graduated from the Danish School of Authors in 1994 and debuted in the same year. Since then she has written numerous highly praised books of poetry, short stories and novels and has won the Critics Prize and the Danish Academy debutant award. KVP/PL
KATRINE MARIE GULDAGER
Bjørnen (The Bear) Gyldendal, 2018, 176 pages FOREIGN RIGHTS: Gyldendal Group Agency, Lise Broen Rosenberg Dahm, srlbrd@gyldendal.dk PREVIOUS TITLES SOLD TO: UK, Germany, Korea, Norway
PHOTO: MORTEN JUHL
Bjørnen (The Bear) has echoes of Norwegian writer Erlend Loe’s Doppler – An Elk is for Life, Not Just for Christmas. But Guldager opts for a more existential look at mid-life crisis, seen through a strong woman’s eyes, and creates a dramatic, short novel about being seriously angry in an age of wellness and positive psychology.
IT’S IN THEIR VOICES Ida Jessen’s beautiful, engaging prose doesn’t miss a beat in this melodic array of voices, which reveal what they otherwise seek to hide. “It’s all in their voices,” as Lisa says to a colleague at the telephone helpline in central Copenhagen, where she works as a volunteer. Amongst the ‘dregs’ of Copenhagen society, where tortured voices tell of loneliness, sickness, disability and many forms of abuse, Lisa tries to answer cries for help, solace and friendship. But her natural empathy is often challenged; someone is raging over a rejected bank card, say, or an alcoholic mother obsesses about her daughter’s disapproval: “’I just want to be respected, not controlled.’ ‘But that respect has to be earned.’ ‘So it’s endless judgement?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Then there’s no mercy, and no forgiveness.’”
Thing I Think of), as this novel sheds new light on the traffic accident and confronts two people who deal with the past in very different ways. Being unhappy seems to be a form of being trapped within yourself, without others to turn to. But as the novel says: “You can’t keep silent about it. You have to talk.” With telling psychological realism, IDA JESSEN (b. 1964), explores the depths of human relations, often in small communities, inspired by her childhood in a provincial town. She has twice been a Nordic Council Literature Prize nominee. In 2009, she won the Golden Laurels and Blixen Award, and in 2016 The Danish Broadcasting Corporation Novel of the Year Award. In 2018, she received the Critics’ Prize for Doktor Bagges anagrammer (Doctor Bagge’s Anagrams, 2017). She writes novellas and novels for children and adults and has been translated into several languages. MLK/PL
Out of the blue, Lisa comes in contact with the childminder who, 16 years earlier, was to blame for her seven year old son’s death. Telefon (Telephone) is a continuation of Jessen’s Hvium (Hvium) trilogy (2001-2009), especially the first in the series Det første jeg tænker på (The First
IDA JESSEN
Telefon (Telephone) Gyldendal, 2018, 162 pages FOREIGN RIGHTS: Copenhagen Literary Agency, Sophia Hersi Smith, sophia@cphla.dk PREVIOUS TITLES SOLD TO: Azerbaijan, Australia, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands, USA
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DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE
TWO SIDES TO TRAGEDY Morten Pape’s social realist novel depicts three young men affected by the streets where they grew up, and three lives held back by a single tragedy. Jamil remembers the day his friend Zeki was struck down in the street, the police interrogation, and the tabloids reporting on the meaningless violence between young men. The memories continue in flashbacks, as Jamil traces their friendship, the challenges of growing up on public housing estates, and the days when Zeki took him under his wing. Simon, Freja, and the twins move south of Copenhagen after Simon’s release from prison. It’s an attempt to move himself away from trouble, and from all the old ghosts in the city. Mickey rants about his life and the
youth prison. In the meantime, he drives the staff, and the other inmates, half-crazy. Jamil tries to get back on his feet after a stay at the psychiatric ward, but all he can think of is Zeki, and revenge, for Mickey and Simon’s callous act of hatred. It is a story told from both the victim’s (Zeki) and the perpetrators’ (Simon and Mickey) perspective. MORTEN PAPE (b. 1986) won the Debutant Award at the Copenhagen Book Fair for his debut novel, Planen (The Plan) in 2015. Most recently, Pape has co-written ‘Liberty’, a drama series for the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, based on Jakob Ejersbo’s Africa trilogy. /ST
MORTEN PAPE
Guds bedste børn (God’s Best Children) Politikens Forlag, 2018, 448 pages FOREIGN RIGHTS: Politiken Literary Agency, Rudi Rasmussen: rudi.u.rasmussen@jppol.dk
PHOTO: LES KANER
GHETTO TRIPTYCH
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REDEMPTION IN THE POURING RAIN When France capitulated to the Nazis in 1940, the famous French composer Olivier Messiaen was soon captured and sent to a prison camp. Here, surrounded by severe privation and horrible suffering, he wrote and performed his famous quartet ‘For the End of Time’. In the novel, the piece is played outdoors, in the rain, in front of 400 prisoners and their guards. Kvartet til tidens ende (Quartet for the End of Time) is a poetic tale of the redeeming power of art, at a time when the bloody horrors of war had brought Europe to its knees. The novel crosscuts between the four young musicians who each have their own ways in and out of the camp’s horrors. Henri, Jean, Etienne and Olivier’s dreams and hopes were shattered when Europe was overwhelmed by Nazism. We see them on the battlefield, witness growing antiJewish persecution and the resistance struggle; all of which will have fatal
PHOTO: DAVID FOLI
BOOKS IN BRIEF / FICTION
SPARKLING COOKBOOK NOVEL Vegetarian recipes, a surfeit of alcohol, careless dating and kitchen table discourse on Marx and Foucault serve up a surprisingly successful cocktail in Anders Haahr Rasmussen’s fiction debut.
MUSIC SOARS ABOVE THE DEATH CAMP
consequences. And we follow them right up to ‘The End of Time’. The heart of the novel is a stunning portrait of the composer Olivier Messiaen; the creation of his ‘off the scale’ work, the underlying musicphilosophy and the search for the sound of a blackbird in the camp and how he perceives chords as colours. A beautiful and disturbing portrayal of barbarity and how music can transcend us beyond war to the locus that is humankind’s unshakeable will to survive – reminiscent of Erik Fosnes Hansen’s Psalm at Journey’s End and Primo Levi’s If This is a Man.
In Det var ikke planen at købe kålroer (Amanda’s Cook Book – How to Ruin Everything Equally Badly) frazzled humour runs like a piquant sauce in a ‘cookbook novel’ in which we are not just exposed, in each section, to the main character Amanda’s excesses – but also to the vegetarian dish of the day that she throws together in her Brooklyn kitchenette. Amanda is single, in her early thirties, and trying to establish herself in the Academe as a sociology lecturer, but it seems that what she actually does best is to drink alcohol and engage
in probing monologues. For, in her small apartment, she discusses the world and its problems with herself as she chops cabbage and drinks wine. At the same time she holds that same world at a distance. Friends, lovers and family must never get too close. Amanda is sparkling when reflecting on life, but not quite so brilliant at living it. Thus, this recipe fiction becomes a riveting portrait of a young single person and her life as she coaxes herself to maturity. Humour and poignancy go hand in hand. ANDERS HAAHR RASMUSSEN (b. 1979) is an author and journalist who has written a range of articles for Danish newspapers. Det var ikke planen at købe kålroer is his fiction debut. NG/PL
ANDERS HAAHR RASMUSSEN
Det var ikke planen at købe kålroer (Amanda’s Cook Book – How to Ruin Everything Equally) Forlaget Ekbátana, 2018, 142 pages FOREIGN RIGHTS: Forlaget Ekbátana, Christel Sunesen, forlaget@ekbatana.dk
A FUN INTELLECTUAL TAKE ON VEGGIE FEMALE SINGLES
CARSTEN MÜLLER NIELSEN (b. 1977) holds a degree in comparative literature and a Masters in Danish and philosophy. He debuted in 2010 with his poetry collection Verdens synkende byer (The World’s Sinking Citadels). KVP/PL
Kvartet til tidens ende (Quartet for the End of Time) Jensen & Dalgaard, 2018, 182 pages FOREIGN RIGHTS: Jensen & Dalgaard, Bjarne Jensen, jensen@jensenogdalgaard.dk
PHOTO: KASPER LØFTGAARD
CARSTEN MÜLLER NIELSEN
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DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE
OH FOR THE GOOD OLD DAYS … ”Torben Munksgaard’s novel isn’t a hero’s eulogy, but rather a sensitive, well-crafted tale (…). Full of humour, brave insights and inventive language.” – Dagbladenes Bureau PHOTO: SIMON NØRLEV NYBERG
LOVE IN A TIME OF COLONY
THE CAMERA AS WITNESS Faith Nethlock, the young and talented photographer on the Caribbean island of St. Thomas, is witness to the impact of the huge changes when, in 1917, Denmark sells the Virgin Islands to the USA. With her camera, she documents events as Denmark gives up colonial power. But when Faith’s father, Carl, dies and she inherits both his old art studio and his abandoned house outside the city, the past comes knocking. At the same time, a passiveaggressive American businessman has his eyes on Faith’s new property. Faith (Faith) is a harsh but beautiful story about the long-term impact of slavery in the West Indies. It’s also an intense and alluring tale of love and a family history that shows how hope, love and not least faith in humankind and one’s own abilities can give us the strength to overcome even the greatest obstacles. Faith – the final novel in Mich Vraa’s slave trilogy – is a discerning, well-
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researched and insightful depiction of the end of Denmark’s dubious past as a slave trading nation in the Caribbean. In a very similar way to Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railway, Mich Vraa conjures a compelling tale about the horrors of slavery and its consequences that still reverberate to this day. His trilogy lays bare a long, dark chapter in Denmark’s history, which gave the Danish upper class extreme wealth. The first part of Mich Vraa’s awardwinning slave trilogy, Haabet (Hope) was published in 2015, followed by Peters kærlighed (Peter’s Love) the year after. It now concludes with the standalone novel Faith. MICH VRAA (b.1954) is a journalist and worked for a newspaper for many years. Today he is a full time writer of both adult and children’s books. Vraa is also a prolific translator into Danish. KVP/PL
MICH VRAA
Faith (Faith) Lindhardt og Ringhof, 2018, 472 pages FOREIGN RIGHTS: Copenhagen Literary Agency: Sophia Hersi Smith, sophia@cphla.dk PREVIOUS TITLES SOLD TO: Norway, Germany
Growing old is not getting any easier. John feels that life has left him behind. He would have preferred it to have just stood still many years ago – in ‘the good old days’. He wanders around in today’s Copenhagen astonished by all the changes. Many of his friends are dead, just like his wife Vera. So he begins to explore the city’s small pubs where he meets a variety of local characters. John’s children start worrying about his increased boozing and discuss sending him to a nursing home. But John’s new mates put him on the
BOOKS IN BRIEF / FICTION
trail of a forgotten past. Then, in the land of legends and sagas – Iceland – an old family secret is revealed. A thoughtful and understated tale about growing old in a world that seems to change by the second before the ‘hero’s’ wondering eyes. Johns Saga ( John’s Saga) is a bittersweet novel that has been compared to Icelandic author Hallgrímur Helgason’s ‘Woman at 1,000 Degrees’.
KVP/PL
TORBEN MUNKSGAARD
Johns saga (John’s Saga) Lindhardt og Ringhof, 2018, 192 pages FOREIGN RIGHTS: Nya Guldberg, nya.guldberg@lrforlag.dk PREVIOUS TITLES SOLD TO: Norway, Sweden, Finland
PHOTO: SOFIE KLOUGART
TORBEN MUNKSGAARD (b. 1975) lives in Copenhagen and has a degree in philosophy and IT. He debuted with the 2007 novel Retrograd (Retrograde), which has been translated into Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish.
THE 146-YEAR-OLD MAN
THE ART OF SELFPROMOTION Drakenberg is the story of a riddle, rather than a man. 146-year-old Christian Jacobsen Drakenberg died in 1772, and up until 1840 his mummified body lay on display in the cathedral of Aarhus, Denmark. After his death, his age, as well as his colorful lifestyle, travels, and womanizing habits, became part of popular folklore, and even the poorest farmer in Scandinavia knew the stories of the farmer boy from Norway who saw the world as sailor, slave, winemaker, and soldier.
FAMILY SECRETS LAID BARE
PHOTO: LES KANER
The story starts in Aarhus in 1768, where a half-blind, now retired Drakenberg, subsisting on a meager pension from the Danish king, recounts his life to the writer Peder Mønster, before it’s too late. Yet the more Peder digs into the factual basis of the stories, the harder it is for him
to keep up with the old storyteller and his lively drunken romps through town. Morten Leth Jacobsen’s historical novel, flavored by the bawdy humor and world view of centuries ago (including the abundant variety of prejudices Europeans held against each other), is part Scandinavian Baron Munchausen, part portrait of a self-made man and his shameless self-promotion. MORTEN LETH JACOBSEN (b. 1967) is a literary writer who received the Danish Arts Foundation’s three year work grant in 2012. In 2011 he was selected by the American Embassy in Denmark for the International Writing Program (IWP) at the University of Iowa, USA. He has previously written five novels. /ST
MORTEN LETH JACOBSEN
Drakenberg (Drakenberg) Turbine, 2018, 328 pages FOREIGN RIGHTS: Turbine, Marie Brocks Larsen: marie@turbine.dk
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DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE
BOOKS IN BRIEF / CRIME MURDER’S NOT JUST FOR SHOW Listed as number one on the Danish bookseller list for seven weeks following publication, the writer behind the Danish TV series Forbrydelsen (The Killing), returns with more haunting scenes of women fleeing through dark forests, a strong female lead, and a labyrinth of cases that lead to a cold-blooded killer. Little chestnut figurines, sold by girls to passing strangers, bring a sinister edge to the autumn chill. Inspector Naia Thulin is called to the murder scene of a young woman at a playground. One of her hands has been amputated and above her hangs a chestnut figurine. Thulin is forced to take on the case with inspector Mark Hess, a burnt-out macho agent with a mysterious past, who’s been sent home from Europol in the Hague. Thulin was hoping to get promoted
to another department, and Hess is looking for any opportunity to escape working for the provincial police, but together they begin to uncover connections to past missing persons’ cases, including that of Social Minister Rosa Hartung’s daughter. Then, another woman is found brutally murdered and amputated, along with another clue connecting the case to the Hartung girl. SØREN SVEJSTRUP (b.1968) is a writer and producer and has won an extensive list of prizes, including an “Emmy” for the Best International TV Series, Nikolaj og Julie (Nikolaj and Julie), a Bafta for Best International TV Series, Forbrydelsen (The Killing). Forbrydelsen is sold to more than a hundred countries. /ST
SØREN SVEJSTRUP
Kastaniemanden (The Chestnut Man) Politikens Forlag, 2018, 528 pages FOREIGN RIGHTS: Politiken Literary Agency, Rudi Rasmussen: Rudi.U.Rasmussen@jppol.dk SOLD TO: More than 20 countries
THE NEXT SARAH LUND
PHOTO: LES KANER
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FORENSIC PSYCHIATRIST – ON THE RUN After many years of helping the East Jutland Police with complicated criminal cases, forensic psychiatrist Christian Falk is stepping away from it all. Besides, Falk has more than enough on his hands, seeking funds to set up a mental health clinic with his girlfriend Emma, and looking for a place to settle down, because to top off his joy – Emma is pregnant. Then there’s that last desperate call from the police. A disabled man has been drugged and drowned in a pool in an affluent neighborhood. His sister and her husband are suspects, and Christian is called in for a quick overview. Before long, he finds
BOOKS IN BRIEF / CRIME himself not just in the middle of an investigation, but wanted for murder. He is now a fugitive on the run. Framed by a man who’s stolen his identity and – via the use of a hyperflesh mask – his face, and up against a vengeful new police chief, the frantic
A LITTLE EVERYDAY TERRORISM “Kjædegaard has (…) his very own tone and technique, that dramatically stands out from the multitude of today’s fanciful murder mysteries …” – Politiken An attack by a young Muslim immigrant on four people at a department store in Copenhagen is swiftly followed by another – this time on the crowds mourning the victims. Shortly after this, a highranking, older policeman is shot on the main square. A small nation deals with its inexperience with terror and the loss of their ‘old world’ colleague. Crisis meetings and snap decisions follow, between law enforcement, the justice department, and PET (Danish Intelligence Services), leaving a trail of investigative gaps for homicide detectives (and lovers) Thor Belling and Anita Hvid.
EVIL HAS A NEW FACE
A conspiratorial, neo-Nazi type is framed for the murder of the policeman, and swiftly killed in a raid. His girlfriend is murdered, and her killer supposedly commits suicide. The trail goes cold, until Belling uncovers a link to a French assassin, and a longstanding conflict between the old pragmatic policeman and a PET staff member. In Kjædegaard’s classic whodunnit story, death is upclose and swift, and the real story is the intrigue of detective work, and the strain of loyalties within the system.
PHOTO: LES KANER
LARS KJÆDEGAARD (b. 1955) has written more than 30 books since his debut in 1981, the majority of them crime, citing Philip Roth, Elmore Leonard and Jack Nicholson as inspiration. In 2017 he received the Harald Mogensen Prize for Best Danish Thriller. He received the Danish Arts Foundation three-year work grant in 2007. This is the twelth book in the Hvid and Belling crime series, and also works as a standalone novel. /ST
LARS KJÆDEGAARD
media, and the dark past of his father’s unethical experiments, Christian takes matters into his own hands, in a race against his own insanity.
Sherif (Sherif) Rosinante, 2018, 387 pages FOREIGN RIGHTS: Copenhagen Literary Agency, Lars Ringhof, lars@cphla.dk PREVIOUS TITLES SOLD TO: Japan
INGER WOLF (b. 1971) published her debut Sidespring (The Affair) in 2000 and Sort Sensommer (Dark Summer) in 2006, which won the Danish Crime Academy Debutant Award. En djævelsk plan is the third book in the forensic science thriller trilogy with Christian Falk and her twelfth crime novel.
CLASSIC WHODUNNIT
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INGER WOLF
PHOTO: ASGER SIMONSEN
En djævelsk plan (A Devilish Plan) People’s Press, 2018, 280 pages FOREIGN RIGHTS: People Group Agency People Group Agency, Louise Langhoff Koch, louise.langhoff@peoplespress.dk PREVIOUS TITLES SOLD TO: Germany, France, Norway, Sweden, The Netherlands, Portugal
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DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE
/ NON-FICTION PHOTO: ROBIN SKJOLDBORG
LOVE AND ART
ARTIST COUPLES From the beginning of their marriage in 1891, the late-Romantic composer Carl Nielsen and his sculptor wife Anne Marie Brodersen were in agreement; life should be lived to the fullest. It is a relationship that is destined to be turbulent and longdistance, as they pursue their separate artforms and give each other space to flourish (although Carl wonders how his wife can be away from their newborn for six months to finish a sculpture). Marie creates hundreds of sculptures, and Carl composes operas and symphonies, including many of the Danish folk songs still sung today. Marie is uncompromising and unable to work when he’s close by; Carl gets ill-tempered and can’t compose when she’s away. The relationship somehow survives, despite absences and affairs. A selection of 200 letters, out of the 900 exchanged over a span of 40 years, create a portrait of their artistic drive, their support of each other’s pursuits, and their at times conflicting efforts to manage a family
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with three children. Their letters are a surprisingly modern testament to the push and pull of two individuals trying to fulfil themselves, but unable fully to do so on their own. LOTTE ANDERSEN (b. 1963) is an actress, singer, filmmaker, and theater director. In 2015, Lotte Andersen wrote the musical Carl & Marie (Carl & Marie), based on letters exchanged between the two. Andersen collaborated with Amalie Kestler on the development of the musical, and they later collaborated on the book. AMALIE KESTLER (b. 1976) has worked as a journalist and editor at several major newspapers, and is currently an editor at Politiken. /ST
LOTTE ANDERSEN & AMALIE KESTLER Carl & Marie (Carl & Marie) Gyldendal, 2018, 327 pages FOREIGN RIGHTS: Gyldendal Group Agency, Lise Broen Rosenberg Dahm, srlbrd@gyldendal.dk
sought to boost morale by depicting their forefathers as superior, hornhelmeted heroes. Anders Lundt Hansen exposes the romanticized myths of the ‘V’ word, or the so-called Viking Age, delving into parts of the Icelandic Sagas that sound like police reports on motorcycle gangs, and exposing the truth about the Runes (they’re neither holy nor ancient). Lundt Hansen’s detailed, yet accessible and engaging history-telling, offers a grounded presentation of the Viking Age (or more rightly named the Steel Age) as a culmination of trade, the formation of dynasties, centralization, and eastward expansion, including the role played by key figures such as King Harald Klak of Denmark, Egil SkalleGrimssøn of Iceland and Queen Emma of Normandy. In addition, he explores the specific innovation in boat building and sailing, that allowed for a smoother trade route connecting to Baghdad or the Silk Road. In reality, the Vikings were just regular pirates, with a slightly bigger budget. ANDERS LUNDT HANSEN (b. 1973) is a historian of the Nordic Middle Ages, and has published books for both children and adults, such as Jellingmysteriet (The Jelling Mystery) in 2016, and Nordens hersker (The Ruler of the North) in 2017. /ST
THE ‘V’ WORD
A TRUE VIKING After Denmark suffered a severe defeat in 1864, the National Romantics
ANDERS LUNDT HANSEN
Sølv, blod og kongemagt (Silver, Blood, and Kingship) Gyldendal, 2018, 307 pages FOREIGN RIGHTS: Gyldendal Group Agency, Lise Broen Rosenberg Dahm, srlbrd@gyldendal.dk
BOOKS IN BRIEF / GRAPHIC NOVELS
/ GRAPHIC NOVELS THE MAN WHO LOVED BIRDS Kattemand, åh Kattemand (Here Kitty Kitty …) is a short picture book about grief, loneliness and brutality. Aksel is a nice but rather lonely old man who likes to keep pets – at least at the start of the book; gradually though, it dawns on the reader that he captures cats to kill them and stuff them! Cats eat birds. Aksel loves birds. Author Dennis Gade Kofod and illustrator Anna Margrethe Kjærgaard allow text and image to each tell part of the story. With the text we are in Aksel’s mournful mindscape. The images, on the other hand, reveal what the text doesn’t: Aksel butchers cats. The minimalist text emphasises words like – emptiness, pain, loneliness, cancer, anxiety and weariness. There is a staccato mix of short and long sentences. Often more like statements than narrative. The cautious, quirky and shaded pencil drawings are redolent of loneliness. A wedding photo. An empty armchair. Aksel raising up a scarf to his face in an attempt to retrieve the scent of his dead wife.
DENNIS GADE KOFOD (b. 1976) is an author and graduate of both Roskilde University and the Danish School of Authors. His native Bornholm plays a significant role in his work, which primarily consists of novels, drama and children’s literature.
material, she has illustrated a number of picture books and illustrated stories. She has won numerous awards, most recently the illustrator award from the Danish Ministry of Culture for Mit hus (My House).
ANNA MARGRETHE KJÆRGAARD (b. 1972) is an illustrator. She trained at the Danish School of Design and Akademia Sztuk Pieknich in Poland. In addition to easy readers and educational
DENNIS GADE KOFOD & ANNA MARGRETHE KJÆRSGAARD
MEL/PL
Kattemand, åh Kattemand (Here Kitty Kitty …) Jensen & Dalgaard, 2018, 60 pages FOREIGN RIGHTS: Jensen & Dalgaard, Bjarne Jensen, jensen@jensenogdalgaard.dk
MURDEROUS SECLUSION
The book’s scrapbook ‘fetish’, with tape remnants and perforation holes, marks an increasing tendency to experiment with the layout. The pencil shading and underlying sense of the macabre, meanwhile, bear comparison with the German illustrator Anke Feuchtenberger.
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DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE
SHIFTING SHADES
THE PAST ALWAYS CATCHES UP WITH US Grus (Gravel) is a subtle story about coming to terms with your past. The young and cosmopolitan Mathilde returns to her hometown, somewhere in the provinces, because her mother is in a coma. While Mathilda waits for her Mum to, hopefully, wake up, she meets old classmates. Both alive and dead. The style used tags a number of different genres such as crime, school dramas, coming-of-age tales and magical realism. All held together
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by Anna Degnbol’s elegant imagery. The author makes the supernatural a perennial undercurrent via a strippedback symbolism: a drip-drip pattern as a visual leitmotif, emphasising Lena’s fluid face and body. The book’s colourscape is also made a central part of the story. Blue symbolizes the present and red the past. The two colours are kept separate until the end, when colours merge as Mathilde becomes reconciled to her mother’s illness and the memory of the dead Lena. Fans of Jillian and Mariko Tamaki’s bittersweet teenage universe in This
One Summer, or the teen-horror Black Hole by the American illustrator Charles Burns, will love Grus. ANNA DEGNBOL (b. 1993) is studying visual communication at the School of Design and works as a graphic designer and illustrator of book covers and children’s literature, amongst others. Grus is her first major work. MEL/PL
ANNA DEGNBOL
Grus (Gravel) Fahrenheit, 2017, 184 pages FOREIGN RIGHTS: Fahrenheit, Paw Matthiesen, fahrenheit@email.dk PREVIOUS TITLES SOLD TO: Italy
BOOKS IN BRIEF / GRAPHIC NOVELS
CROSSING THE LINE In predominantly black, red and white tones, the graphic novel Pyt (Forget It) explores any writer’s worst nightmare: writer’s block. The despairing, previously successful author, who remains anonymous, wants to help his daughter financially, but has completely seized up at his vintage Remington typewriter. Then, by what is decidedly not sheer chance, a manuscript turns up that sends both his editor and the wider world into paroxysms of delight and leads to instant stardom. But the author is wracked with fear that he’ll be exposed and so admits on live TV that he didn’t actually write it. The ingenious plot in this tragicomic tale leads us to a warm and humorous denouement.
The novel’s underlying air of melancholy and desperation are illustrated in terse, graphic imagery that has a distinct retro feel about it. The motifs act as surface forms for the black, red and white colours: for example, the main character is either all white or all red. Some of the colouring resembles spray painting, which gives the images a special texture. Illustrator Morten Voigt’s graphic coolness is reminiscent of the American cartoonist David Mazzucchelli in his masterly Asterios Polyp. In both works, font sizes change depending on who’s talking. The author character in Pyt naturally speaks in Remington font. MORTEN VOIGT (b. 1962) trained at the School of Applied Arts and works as an illustrator for Kristeligt
Dagblad newspaper and a number of trade journals. In 2017 he won the Danish Ping illustrator award for best journalistic artist. Pyt is his debut as a graphic novel illustrator. KIM SCHOU (b. 1982) studied journalism at the University of Southern Denmark and works as a digital stories editor at Danmark’s Radio. In 2017 he was awarded the Danish Online News Association’s distinction award for those who have made a significant contribution to digital journalism. In his leisure time he makes podcasts about superheroes. MEL/PL
KIM SCHOU AND MORTEN VOIGT Pyt (Forget It) Fahrenheit, 2018, 144 pages FOREIGN RIGHTS: Fahrenheit, Paw Matthiesen, fahrenheit@email.dk
RETRO COOL
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PIA JUUL
THE TRANSFORMATION OF TRANSLATION INTERVIEW BY SOLVEJ TODD
What is an author’s experience of getting translated and being read abroad? How can authors know if readers in another country understand their work, or if what they’ve read is even their own words?
To further promote and support translations, the Danish Arts Foundation offers travel bursaries to Danish authors, so they can meet their foreign publishers and readers from around the world.
PHOTO: KAROLINA ZAPOLSKA
Poet and writer Pia Juul has had her fair share of international encounters at, among others, events like World Book Night, Literature Night in Prague, the Budapest Book Fair, and a DanishChilean poetry conference in Chile. Recognized in Denmark for her poetry and literary works, Pia Juul reveals to Danish Literary Magazine the necessary evil of translation and the lessons learned abroad, in particular, with the foreign publication of her unconventional crime novel, Mordet på Halland (The Murder of Halland), that has sold to more than 10 countries.
Have publishers abroad presented your work differently to their audiences? In Germany, the book is called Life After the Happy End (Das Leben nach dem Happy End), but to begin with the publisher suggested a title that included Gérard Depardieu, because he’s mentioned in the book. As it’s not strictly a crime novel, they thought the title was misleading; in the UK it’s called The Murder of Halland. I’ve appeared at events abroad with my novel, Mordet på Halland, in the company of huge crime fiction writers such as Jo Nesbo, for example, and for me, that was wonderful. The book isn’t really a crime novel, but I agreed to participate, because when it comes down to it, there are so many different types of crime novels, so I don’t really mind being seen as a
crime writer – but I guess it would be cheating a little (for the readers) to put me on the crime fiction shelf. My book merely borrows from the genre. The lucky thing is that the marketing of the book as crime has helped as many readers as possible to discover it. How have your foreign readers interpreted your work? The English translation of Mordet på Halland has received a lot of reviews, as well as attention from bloggers, and there the book is often read for what it is; a novel. By some it’s presented as a crime novel, which it isn’t of course, but I still feel like they understand it, and don’t focus merely on whether or not it’s a crime novel, but see that it’s a novel about grief, rather than a search for the person who murdered Halland.
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DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE When you are translated into a language you are familiar with yourself, are you an active part of the process? I’ve decided that I don’t want to be. Of course, I’m happy to answer any questions, and in regard to my novel, The Murder of Halland, I’ve even made a list with important information for the translators. Most of my books have been translated into Swedish, and there were once some poems which I thought had been translated incorrectly, and because I had chosen to read them in Swedish at an event in Stockholm (I can’t really speak Swedish), I started rewriting some of the translation – I’m a translator from Swedish to Danish myself. The
problem is that I can’t translate into Swedish, and I realized what I was doing was crazy, and put away the changes I’d made, and completely respected the original translation. But of course, it’s always wise to read through something, if you can. If you don’t understand the translated language, how have you been able to tell if a translation is good? In Russia, for example, I know that the translator of The Murder of Halland was very competent, because even though I don’t speak Russian, you can still sense it from the questions and conversations you have with the translator, and the Russian translator (Nora Kijamova)
I want to have it here, now, on earth Not to see it only when it’s lost See the sunlight, it gleams on the wet branches see the gaze between those two sitting there on the bench see the child’s sleeping face You own nothing at all eternally and certainly not what is lost
POEM BY PIA JUUL FROM FORBI (PAST), ASGER SCHNACKS FORLAG TRANSLATED BY SUSANNA NIED, 2018
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found some mistakes, for example in my quotes, where I had written a name incorrectly, and then I was astonished by the thought that other translators might not have discovered it, and at the same time it was embarrassing for me to have made the mistakes. Similarly, in the Czech Republic, where I also don’t speak the language, I was interviewed by a journalist who had just read the Czech translation of the novel, and the questions she asked me showed me that the Czech translator (Helena B ezinová) is an excellent translator, because they were specific questions about my language, in a way where I could feel it was really my book she was talking about.
PIA JUUL
PHOTO: JAKOB BOSERUP/RITZAU SCANPIX
Sometimes translators or publishers leave a ‘foreign’ mark upon an author’s work. Have you experienced this – for better or worse – in the translation process? The worst thing I’ve experienced (and which I discovered on my own) was when a publisher thought that a scene that takes place in a train, which includes some excrement, wouldn’t suit the readers in her country. Therefore she simply decided to remove a whole page or more, and that really upset me. I eventually got some of it put back in. I think it’s wrong to start editing a book. People did that a lot in the past, and if you look up some of the old translations into Danish, it was a common occurrence for translators to take artistic liberties (and that’s also a reason for producing new translations), that no one really
questioned, ‘this looks difficult, I think I’ll skip it’, and that includes some of the translations of classic books too, such as Ulysses. Your latest publication includes a poetry collection, titled Forbi (Past), that came out in March 2018. Can you talk a little about that? With Forbi (Past), it’s all in the title, and in Danish it has two meanings of course, both that one can go past something, and that something has passed, is done, over. The first, long poem, is perhaps political, but the rest of the poems are about catastrophes or things that are irreversible and done, or that I thought were done, but perhaps weren’t after all. It also revolves around a few individuals – for example, there’s a poem about the actress Greta Garbo.
PIA JUUL (b. 1962) is a Danish poet, prose writer, and translator of Ali Smith, Alain de Botton, James Baldwin and Ted Hughes. She has received several prizes and is a member of the Danish Academy. She has also taught at the Danish writing school in Copenhagen. Her books and poetry have been translated into 11 languages, including English, German, Armenian and Spanish, and she has received several work grants from the Danish Arts Foundation. Some of her stories from her short story collection, Af sted, til stede (Off, On), have recently been translated into English by Caroline Waight, and are available for review.
PIA JUUL
FOREIGN RIGHTS: Asger Schnacks Forlag, Asger Schnack, asgerschnack@gmail.com and for backlist: Gyldendal Group Agency lydia_pedersen@gyldendalgroupagency.dk PREVIOUS TITLES SOLD TO: Armenia, Canada, Czech Republic, El Salvador, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Peru, Russia, Sweden, The Netherlands, UK
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