Danish Literary Magazine - spring 2014

THE DANISH ARTS FOUNDATION

DANISH LITER ARY MAGA ZINE SPRING

2014

COVER ILLUSTRATION TAKING A LINE FOR A WALK, THAT’S WHAT I’M DOING ALL THE TIME, THAT’S MY FOOTPRINT AS AN ILLUSTRATOR; THE LINE IS MY PULSE, MY SIGNATURE. Hanne Bartholin (born 1962) is a picture book artist. She was born in Denmark, spent her youth in Sweden and has now been commuting between Denmark and England for twelve years. She has illustrated around 40 books. Some of her most famous works are Finn Herman written by Mats Letén, Axel elsker biler (Axel loves cars) with text by Marianne Iben Hansen and the series of Carl books written by Ida Jessen. They have been translated into foreign languages including Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Catalan and Swedish. Hanne Bartholin has received a number of prizes for her work including the Danish Minister of Culture award 2001. She has participated in exhibitions all over the world: In 2013 she exhibited in Seoul, Busan, Tallin and Nordiska Akvarell Museet in Sweden.

WELCOME The Danish Literary Magazine is THE place to meet the very latest trends in Danish literature and to keep abreast of the various support schemes. It’s also the place where you’ll meet a great range of Danish authors. In this edition you’ll meet, amongst others, a Danish teen sensation: Yahya Hassan who has smashed all records on his way to selling more than 100.000 copies of his debut poetry collection. Yahya Hassan describes a young life lived at the edge – a recurrent theme in the young adult genre presented here. Danish picture books are a bit less in your face, but there’s still an edge and no attempts to camouflage – true to their ethos that a younger readership has no problem looking at life “warts an’ all”.

Some readers may notice that it is now The Danish Arts Foundation that publishes the Danish Literary Magazine and not The Danish Arts Council. But this doesn’t mean a change in the support opportunities. In other words, the Danish Arts Foundation will continue the task of supporting Danish literature; from sample translations to translations proper, and then on to marketing and support for travelling authors who are promoting foreign versions of their books. And are doing this at an increasing rate: the number of Danish translation sales has doubled since 2009, and the support has followed suit. On pages 42-43 of the magazine, readers can get a quick overview of the support schemes available. But check out www.danishart.dk as well, for more details, deadlines, facts and figures and the latest happenings. Enjoy!

Annette Bach EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED BY Danish Arts Foundation’s Committee for Literary Project Funding www.danisharts.dk

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EDITOR

TEXT

DESIGN

Lars Sidenius lsi@kulturstyrelsen.dk

Lotte Kirkeby Hansen

NR2154

EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS

TRANSLATION

COVER ILLUSTRATION

Søren Beltoft sbe@kulturstyrelsen.dk Lars Theil Münster ltm@kulturstyrelsen.dk

Paul Larkin, Paul Russell Garrett, Lindy Falk Van Rooyen

Hanne Bartholin

CONTACT US H.C. Andersens Boulevard 2, 1553 Copenhagen V, Denmark Tel. +45 3373 3373, litt@kulturstyrelsen.dk

CONTENTS P. 4

JOSEFINE KLOUGART P. 6

BOOKS IN BRIEF P. 16

YAHYA HASSAN P. 20

RECENTLY SOLD P. 26

PICTURE BOOKS P. 34

LITERATURE FOR BOYS P.38

AWARDS P. 42

SUPPORT SCHEMES P.44

ORGANISATIONS

DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE

“ONE OF THE

” GREATEST With her modern apocalypse, Om Mørke (On Darkness), her sixth publication in just four years, Josefine Klougart establishes herself as one of the greatest; she is an almost frightening talent on the Danish literary scene, wrote one enthusiastic reviewer.

Few authors can boast of having received two nominations for the Nordic Council Literature Prize before the age of 30, as Josefine Klougart can. With her debut, Stigninger og fald (Rise and Fall) in 2010, it was already apparent that there was something rather special at work in her distinctive prose.

With a steady and seductive hand, she returns to the land of childhood in a sensory-filled, fragmentary, almost dreamlike form. Among other accolades, she was presented with the Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary’s Stardust Award, along with the testimonial, “one of the most important authors, not just of her generation, but of her time”. She was also nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize, the testimonial for which said: “Rise and Fall can be read in many ways. For those sensitive to linguistic articulation, you will lose your breath; for the cool intellectual searching between the lines, you

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will begin to feel; and for the blind reader stumbling about, you will begin to see.”

Klougart’s latest novel, Om Mørke (On Darkness), is a story of creation and destruction, in which long and short prose texts are combined, almost in the nature of a cinematic gallery. Zooming in and out, cutting and panning over infatuations, pearls and apple scrumping and also – perhaps particularly – earthquakes, avalanches, torrential rainstorms. And a lot of death; but not just final death and extraordinary destruction but the death that we meet every day in the form of our daily confrontation with changing bodies, rotting fruit and the autumn that is slowly closing in on us. On Darkness is an insistence that death, loss, decay and sorrow also hold beauty and are part of the same existence as everything else. “One can speak of unbearable beauty,” Politiken’s reviewer wrote,

throwing six out of six hearts at Klougart, “but one can also speak of a linguistic beauty that makes it possible to bear the unbearable.”

Josefine Klougart, born in 1985, studied comparative Literature and history of art. She graduated from the Danish Writer’s School in 2010, when she also debuted with the novel Rise and Fall, which was nominated for the Nordic Council Literary Prize. Since then, she has published, amongst others, Én af os sover (One of Us is Sleeping, 2012), which brought the young author her second nomination for the Nordic Council Literature Prize. On Darkness is her sixth publication.

JOSEFINE KLOUGART Om mørke (On Darkness), Gladiator 2013, 330 pp. PREVIOUS TITLES SOLD TO: France, Norway, Sweden. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Leonhardt & Høier Literary Agency, Monica Gram, monica@leonhardt-hoier.dk

JOSEFINE KLOUGART

“One sees them from above. The skin becomes more skin.

Everything is a question of distance, if one comes close enough, everything breaks apart, and when one moves away again, it gathers in new ways, into something one can miss and now truly be fond of. A gradual distance between one and the other. A certainty of direction, what moves, who sees, and what is seen. A feeling of being witness to something disappearing. The eye weeps because it is forever losing something. His legs are bent just like his thoughts, bent around a very small point or an eye.

The body can be seen as an embrace of the air. Direction in everything. What are you going to do to me, he thinks.

His stomach contracts, as if she has gathered his organs and is now raising them above a precious carpet. One sees the shadow, the two arms and a pile that is raised. The body that streams out like light and discolours things. The air can be seen as an embrace of the body.”

Extract from On Darkness

“Scandinavia has it’s own Virginia Woolf. Few come closer to the human condition than Klougart.”

PHOTO: SOFIE AMALIE KLOUGART

VG, NORWAY

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DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE

BOOKS IN BRIEF NEW BOOKS FROM DENMARK 2013-2014 6

BOOKS IN BRIEF / FICTION

SUSAN’S FEELING FOR SINCERITY People confide in Susan; she has an astounding ability to evoke sincerity, and when she runs over a Bollywood actor at a casino in India, her distinctive ability proves to be very useful. She is to receive a long prison sentence but a former government official offers to return her safely to Denmark if she succeeds in tracking down the last surviving member of what is known as “The Future Commission” and discover the contents of the minutes of their last meeting. But surprisingly enough, they are not willing to let that information emerge and Susan and her family are caught up in an impenetrable power struggle between politicians, scientists and money-men. Peter Høeg (born 1957) debuted in 1988 with the family chronicle, Forestilling om det tyvende århundrede, (The history of Danish Dreams), while the great international breakthrough came with Frøken Smillas fornemmelse for sne (Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow) in 1992. His works have been published in thirty-three countries.

A FATHER’S DESPERATE BATTLE

A couple have twins, but their paths part and they share custody of the children, an arrangement that works well until the woman falsely accuses the man of being violent and abusing the children, and he is plunged into a Kafkaesque hell. The authorities deprive him of all contact with his children and, although he puts up a fight, he can do nothing as the system guards the mother and her children.

All that remains are his tremendous loss and sorrow. Anden person ental (Second person singular) inspired by a true story impressed Politiken’s reviewer, who awarded the book five out of six possible hearts and concluded: “Daniel Dencik writes with great pathos about a father’s desperate battle for his children, but does so with an open mind and a potent language.” Daniel Dencik (born 1972), who also enjoys success as a film director, made his debut in 1998 with the poetry collection Lyn på en motorvej (Lightning on a Highway).

MAN IN FREE FALL A man makes a fatal decision: he wants to end someone’s life before taking his own. The novel Men (Just Men) describes the twelve weeks leading up to his decision, portraying two men on a path towards their own destruction. Jon, driven towards ruin and Peter, who powerlessly sees his own existence crumble, were once best friends but have not been in contact since the night that, in an act of youthful and fatal recklessness, they challenged each other to balance on the top of a bridge. Jesper WungSung (born 1971) debuted in 1998 and has since written books for both children, young adults and adults, among them the short story collection Mænd er fra Marstal (Men are from Marstal), which cemented his position as an exquisite literary researcher into men. As the magazine Femina wrote: “There is something very tender and very masculine at work. It’s almost like poking your nose through a hole in the fence at the swimming pool – and peeking at the men!”

PETER HØEG

DANIEL DENCIK

JESPER WUNG-SUNG

Effekten af Susan (The Susan Effect), Rosinante 2014, 330 pp. PREVIOUS TITLES SOLD TO: More than thirty countries. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Gyldendal Group Agency, Sofie Voller, sofie_voller@gyldendalgroupagency.dk

Anden person ental (Second person singular), Gyldendal 2014, 280 pp. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Gyldendal Group Agency, Sofie Voller, sofie_ voller@gyldendalgroupagency.dk

Men (Just Men), Samleren 2014, 432 pp. PREVIOUS TITLES SOLD TO: Germany, United States. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Gyldendal Group Agency, Sofie Voller, sofie_voller@ gyldendalgroupagency.dk

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DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE

LITERARY BIOGRAPHY OF AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOVEL REUNION WITH THE PAST PAUL GAUGUIN’S WIFE FROM THE UNDERWORLD Din

o

hengivne Et ægteskabs drama om Mette og Paul Gauguin

An n e Thompso n ROMAN

˚

GY LD EN DAL

The French painter Paul Gauguin meets a Danish woman, Mette Gad (1850-1920) in Paris in 1873 and later marries her. She is a resolute, modern and devoted woman and the first few years of the marriage are stormy, but happy. Their paths soon part, although they remain married and they spend a large portion of their married life apart: Mette alone in Copenhagen with their children, Paul in Paris, where he hopes to establish himself with his impressionist paintings. After Paul leaves Copenhagen, they visit each other only twice, but throughout their lives they maintain a lively, often heated, correspondence. Din hengivne (Your devoted) is a story about living in the shadow of a great artist, and sketches a strong portrait of a woman who never gives up hope of regaining domestic happiness. Anne Thompson, who is an Australian art historian, discovered Gauguin’s wife’s fascinating story in 2007, when she was led to Copenhagen by her interest in the painter.

“Vor tids helt (Hero of Our Time) is one of the wildest, hardest and best debuts of 2013,” was the review in Politiken, which awarded the novel five hearts out of a possible six, as did Berlingske. Jacob Skyggebjerg’s (born 1985) autobiographical debut novel is a dark and powerful, wildly macho and hypersensitive portrayal of his childhood as an ”underclass animal” in a large Danish provincial town.

Here there is no society instead there are parents with addiction problems, quarantine stations for mischievous boys, scandalous working conditions at slaughterhouses and cake factories, drugs and, not least, faithless love.

The anti-hero “white trash” who as a child couldn’t “find any other explanation to my intelligence, than that I must have come from outer space” moves away from the losers in the countryside to take up with losers in the capital, Copenhagen, where he smokes, takes drugs, drinks and whores – and where everything ferments, and everything ends in destruction.

When Niels’ father suddenly passes away, he returns for the first time in many years to his home in an outlying region of Denmark. The reunion with his mother, brothers and childhood friends in the hinterland from which he once ran away, stirs up memories of a violent past that has played a far bigger role than Niels is prepared to acknowledge.

The events surrounding his father’s death slowly but surely lead him to remember more and more of what he has repressed. But how far does he dare to go to get beneath the surface of the hinterland and himself? Opland (Hinterland) is a raw and empathetic novel about growing up in a forgotten part of a country, the distance between where you come from and what you have become and, not least, the painful distance between father and son. Jens Vilstrup (born 1964) debuted in 2002 with the children’s book Den Store Viller (The Great Viller) and has since written both novels and children’s books.

ANNE THOMPSON

JACOB SKYGGEBJERG

JENS VILSTRUP

Din hengivne (Your devoted), Gyldendal 2014, 350 pp. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Gyldendal Group Agency, Jenny Thor, jenny_thor@ gyldendalgroupagency.dk

Vor tids helt (Hero of Our Time), Gladiator 2013, 252 pp. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Leonhardt & Høier Literary Agency, Monica Gram, monica@ leonhardt-hoier.dk

Opland (Hinterland), People’s Press 2014, 385 pp. FOREIGN RIGHTS: People’s Press, Thilde Nybro Pfeifer, thilde@artpeople.dk

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BOOKS IN BRIEF / FICTION

BLACK HUMOUR IN CONTEMPORARY NOVEL Many people bear heavy secrets.

And many people live lives with which they are far from satisfied. Both secrets and the unsatisfactory lives tend to be invisible to the outside world but in Torben Munksgaard’s new dark, diagnostic, contemporary novel, I Virkeligheden (In Reality) the unique voices of ten such people have their say. The novel is composed of ten separate stories, each of which focuses on one of the main characters.

Together they combine to a form a collective novel. Torben Munksgaard (born 1975) has made as his distinctive feature the contemporary novel written with a wry, black humour. He debuted in 2007 with the critically acclaimed novel, Retrograd, before truly finding his Danish following in 2012, when Sort Hund (Black Dog) was published. “A sumptuously witty and well-written work by Torben Munksgaard, measuring the happiness metre of tomorrow’s welfare society, it should be one of the year’s most successful novels,” wrote Berlingske’s enthusiastic reviewer.

CAMILLA’S WORLD

“This is great; better than ever before.

Christina Hesselholdt creates new possibilities for Danish literature, pure and simple,” wrote Information, when Hesselholdt (born 1962) published Selskabet gør op (The Party breaks up). Now she has published a sequel, Agterudsejlet (Left behind), the fourth part of a prose suite. Echoes from other works of literature act as backdrop to the daily lives of Camilla, her friends and a handful of curious minor characters. In Agterudsejlet (Left behind) Camilla is sitting in the garden of her summer house, writing about the troubles in her family history and feeling as lonely as if she were stranded on a desert island.

But then her friend persuades her to join her on a trip to New York – and finally something begins to happen.

Christina Hesselholdt was awarded The Critics Prize in 2010.

GREENLANDIC ADVENTURE With a Gothic shiver, Mads Peder Nordbo debuted in 2012 with the novel, Odin’s Labyrint (Odin’s Labyrinth), a breathless thriller that now has a stand-alone sequel in Thuleselskabet (The Thule Society). A dead woman is found. She is naked and her body is covered with rune markings, literally carved into her skin. The young student, Mathias Hviid, is called in to decipher the runes, the starting point of an escalating adventure that leads him and the reader on exciting and sombre discoveries, stretching from the era of the SS and The Thule Society to Norse settlements in Greenland. It soon becomes apparent that there was more than one reason for Mathias being drawn into the case … Mads Peder Nordbo (born 1970) debuted in 2012 with the thriller Odin’s Labyrinth, “a fascinating, perhaps revolutionary linguistic investigation filled with Gothic shivers,” the newspaper Information wrote. The Thule Society is his second novel.

TORBEN MUNKSGAARD

CHRISTINA HESSELHOLDT

MADS PEDER NORDBO

I virkeligheden (In Reality), Lindhardt og Ringhof 2014, 304 pp. PREVIOUS TITLES SOLD: Finland, Norway, Sweden. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Lindhardt og Ringhof, Hans Henrik Schwab, hans.henrik.schwab@lindhardtogringhof.dk

Agterudsejlet (Left behind), Rosinante 2014, 120 pp. PREVIOUS TITLES SOLD TO: Serbia, Spain, Sweden. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Gyldendal Group Agency, Jenny Thor, jenny_thor@ gyldendalgroupagency.dk

Thuleselskabet (The Thule Society), Lindhardt og Ringhof 2014, 400 pp. PREVIOUS TITLES SOLD TO: Greece. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Lindhardt og Ringhof, Hans Henrik Schwab, hans.henrik.schwab@lindhardtogringhof.dk

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DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE

WILD FAMILY TALE

One winter evening in 1984, fourteenyear-old Daniel Stark steps off a ferry and onto a small Danish island. For the first time in his life, he’s going to meet his grandfather. He turns out to be a towering, staggeringly drunk gentleman wearing a frock coat and top hat: Theodor – sailor, womaniser and replica clothing manufacturer – who lives with his lover and a collection of hunting trophies. The visit with his eccentric grandfather becomes a seminal moment for Daniel, culminating in a hunt and a global catastrophe. De Tørstige (The Thirsty) is a fantastical novel full of family feuds, mariner’s tales, ferocious tigers, wedding bells and frothing pints; at the same time, it is a novel about truth and lies, about pure motives in a filthy world.

Søren Toft (born 1971) works as a digital consultant by day and writer by night. He debuted in 2003 with his collection of short stories, Ilmarch (Forced March) The Thirsty is his second novel.

STRONG FAMILY DRAMA Anna lives with her husband and their little daughter. On the surface everything seems fine, but when Anna meets a man from her childhood there are fatal consequences. Not only does the meeting destroy Anna’s family life, but it also draws an arc back to her childhood and the death of her younger brother. In the wake of this meeting, a strong family drama unfolds about a faithless older brother, a charismatic grandmother and two parents who are more than a little aloof. Signe Langtved Pallisgaard (born 1976) makes her debut with Et andet sted (Another place), a novel about quitting your life; falling down and getting up again. There are equal measures of matrimonial drama, Bildungsroman and family chronicle in this novel, which was praised in Politiken under the headline “Keen debutant walks in Tolstoi’s footsteps”.

The review concluded: “Here is a debutant who wants to tell roaring fireside stories, and seems to have more than one place from which to tell them.”

RAW AND INCISIVE SHORT STORIES

Many of the stories in Peder Frederik Jensen’s new collection were composed as the author commuted to and from Copenhagen, and the book is inspired by the brief glimpses of scenes caught by him as his train rushed by. The novels peer into sitting rooms and kitchens, garages and farmyards and are accounts of decisive choices; about letting things go or fighting back; deciding to stay or leave; give or take. Peder Frederik Jensen (born 1978) is a graduate of The Danish Writer’s School, as well as being a qualified boat builder.

He made his debut in 2007 with the novel Her står du (You’re standing here). In 2012 the critically acclaimed novel Læretid (Apprenticeship) was published and was praised in JyllandsPosten’s review: “The text contains references to literary minimalism that so many readers love in Helle Helle’s rendition. Peder Frederik Jensen may very well be proffered as her male counterpart.”

SØREN TOFT

SIGNE LANGTVED PALLISGAARD

PEDER FREDERIK JENSEN

De tørstige (The Thirsty), Samleren 2014, 320 pp. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Gyldendal Group Agency, Sofie Voller, sofie_voller@ gyldendalgroupagency.dk

Et andet sted (Another place), Lindhardt og Ringhof 2014, 234 pp. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Lindhardt og Ringhof, Hans Henrik Schwab, hans.henrik.schwab@lindhardtogringhof.dk

Banedanmark (Danish Rail), Samleren 2014, 138 pp. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Leonhardt&Høier Literary Agency, Monica Gram, monica@ leonhardt-hoier.

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BOOKS IN BRIEF / FICTION

JUBILEE POEMS Jubilees ought to be celebrated. And Katrine Marie Guldager has done so with the publication of a new poetry collection to mark the 20th anniversary of her debut collection of poems, thereby completing a circle.

Et sted i verden (A Place in the World) is primarily about relationships: about one’s network of family relations and friendships. Not least of these is the author’s relationship with her father and her experience of his sudden, tragic death. Katrine Marie Guldager (born 1966) made her debut in 1994 with the poetry collection Dagene skifter hænder (The Days are shifting Hands). Since then, she has written both short stories as well as novels and children’s books. Most recently, she has produced a critically acclaimed family chronicle, which prompted Politiken’s reviewer to opine: “The tone of Guldager’s fictional narrator is and remains something completely unique in Danish contemporary literature.” She was awarded The Critic’s Prize in 2004.

ABSOLUTELY SHATTERING POETRY

“Zeuthen completely destroys his own lyrical construction in a very effective manner – so that it refracts its bizarre and bizarrely everyday rays in all directions,” wrote Politiken’s reviewer when Nicolai Zeuthen released his collection of poetry, Stråler (Rays),written with the melancholy wry perspective on reality that he unveiled in his debut. He has mastered social satire as few other writers have done and with both wit and economy, he uses completely colloquial social utterances as the point of departure in his poetical texts. Nicolai Zeuthen (born 1974) made his debut in 2009 with the poetry collection Oliebåle (Oil Fire) followed by the satirical novel Verdensmestre (World Champions) (2010), which was praised for its witty, tender, but also deeply critical portraiture of family life in the first decade of the new millennium.

COLLAGE ABOUT FREEDOM AND GENDER Author Naja Marie Aidt and the poet Mette Moestrup have joined forces with the dramatist Line Knutzon to create Frit flet (Free Weave). Under the pseudonyms A, B and C, the three women combine texts from various genres, including poetry, logbooks, songs, drama and letters, all garnished with photos. Many of the texts are written jointly, and the whole book is a collaborative effort. The result is a fun, humorous, personal and anarchistic collage about freedom and gender. Naja Marie Aidt (born 1963) made her debut in 1991 and has a well-established authorship; most recently she published the novel Sten, saks, papir (Rock, Paper, Scissors) in 2012. She was awarded The Nordic Council’s Literature Prize in 2008.

Mette Moestrup (born 1969) has most recently published the poetry collection, Dø, løgn, dø (Die, Lie, Die) in 2012. Line Knutzon (born 1965), the award-winning Danish dramatist, is among other things the author of a series of children’s books.

NAJA MARIE AIDT LINE KNUTZON METTE MOESTRUP

FRIT FLET FÆLLESBOGEN GYLDENDAL FF.RESET.indd 541

KATRINE MARIE GULDAGER

NICOLAI ZEUTHEN

Et sted i verden (A Place in the World), Lindhardt og Ringhof 2014, 60 pp. PREVIOUS TITLES SOLD TO: Germany, Norway, Sweden, United States. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Busch Agency, Trine Busch, trine@buschagency.dk

Stråler (Rays), Samleren 2013, 59 pp. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Gyldendal Group Agency, Sofie Voller, sofie_voller@gyldendalgroupagency.dk

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NAJA MARIE AIDT, METTE MOESTRUP, LINE KNUTZON Frit flet (Free Weave), Gyldendal 2014, 500 pp. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Gyldendal Group Agency, Sofie Voller, sofie_voller@ gyldendalgroupagency.dk

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DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE

LOUISE RICK IS BACK

Sara Blædel does it again: expertly balancing between plot and character, between the hardboiled and the touching, between criminal cases and the private life of Louise Rick, head of Copenhagen Police investigative unit. Reviewers are in complete agreement about her eighth crime novel, Dødesporet (Death Trail). The death trail of the title is an overgrown path in a forest along which, in days gone by, the dying were led to a great oak tree to sacrifice some of their blood to the gods. There are indications that traffic moves once more on the death trail, when a 15-year-old boy disappears close to the legendary path, not far from Louise Rick’s home. Sara Blædel (born 1964) debuted in 2004 with Grønt Støv (Green Dust), the first volume in the Louise Rick series. She has been selected as Denmark’s favourite author no fewer than three times by the bookstore chain, Bog og Idé.

MYSTERY OF THE DEAD MAYOR Even before its publication, Jakob Melander’s first book, the crime novel, Øjesten (The House that Jack Built), had already been sold to foreign publishers. Danish reviewers were quick to match the publishers’ enthusiasm for the book declaring it to be “captivating”, “distinguished”, “impossible to put down” and “a sure touch”. In this Melander’s second book about Detective Sergeant Lars Winkler, Winkler is assigned to a delicate case when the mayor of Copenhagen is found murdered in his luxury flat. And if matters weren’t already complicated enough, the victim’s mother,who happens to be the Danish Finance Minister, gets her secret service agent, Lars Winkler’s arch enemy, involved in the investigation. Jakob Melander (born 1965) debuted in 2013 with the crime novel, Øjesten (The House that Jack Built). Serafine is the second novel in the series about Lars Winkler.

P R ESS EN OM ØJESTEN :

HHHHH HHHHHH BERLINGSKE

FEMINA

JAKOB M E LAN DE R KRIM I

TO SAVE YOURSELF

“Agnete Friis and Lene Kaaberbøl get everything right in their new novel.

Bravo!”, said Weekendavisen when the fourth crime novel about Red Cross nurse, Nina Borg, was published.

Nina Borg is used to saving others – but how far will she go to save herself? That is the question in Den betænksomme morder (The Thoughtful Murderer) when, after Nina Borg has been knocked down, dazed and semiconscious, she hears her assailant begging for forgiveness. And suddenly her own life is in danger, in a case that has connections to three young men from Manila and their surprising and dangerous friendship.

Lene Kaaberbøl (born 1960) and Agnete Friis (1974) made their mark in 2008 with their co-debut, Drengen i kufferten (The Boy in the Suitcase).

The series was sold to twenty-seven countries, selling over half a million copies worldwide.

SERAFINE R OS I NANTE

SARA BLÆDEL

JAKOB MELANDER

LENE KAABERBØL & AGNETE FRIIS

Dødesporet (Death Trail), People’s Press 2013, 317 pp. PREVIOUS TITLES SOLD TO: More than twenty countries. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Victoria Sanders & Associates, Victoria Sanders, vsanders@victoriasanders.com. FOREIGN RIGHTS: (Scandinavia): Busch Agency, Trine Busch, trine@buschagency.dk

Serafine, Rosinante 2014, 400 pp. PREVIOUS TITLES SOLD TO: Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Slovakia. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Gyldendal Group Agency, Sofie Voller, sofie_voller@ gyldendalgroupacency.dk

Den betænksomme morder (The Thoughtful Murderer), People’s Press 2013, 285 pp.

PREVIOUS TITLES SOLD TO: More than twenty countries. FOREIGN RIGHTS: People’s Press, Thilde Nybro Pfeifer, thilde@artpeople.dk

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BOOKS IN BRIEF / CRIME

NEW THRILLER FROM KAZINSKI In the lingerie department of a large shopping centre in Copenhagen Julie catches sight of the woman who ruined her life. What should she do? Pretend that everything is okay? Or should she follow her and exact revenge, because she stole her husband? A.J Kazinski’s latest book, Forfølgerne (The Persecutors) is a story about four perfectly average people. Each begins to follow another person; secrets are unearthed, lies are uncovered. But what are these people actually looking for? And what are they going to do with their newfound wisdom? Forfølgerne (The Persecutors) is the fourth book written under the pseudonym of A.J. Kazinski, behind which lurk the authors Anders Rønnow Klarlund (born 1971) and Jacob Weinreich (born 1972). The author-duo made their debut in 2010 with Den sidste gode mand (The Last Good Man), which was awarded the French Prix Relay. Most recently, the novel En hellig alliance (A Holy Alliance) has been published.

A MAD POLE

The brother and sister team Søren and Lotte Hammer (born 1952 and 1955) debuted with Svinehunde (The Hanging), selling more than 80,000 copies in Denmark. The rights have already been sold to at least sixteen other countries, including the US, where Publisher’s Weekly wrote: “Everything works in this dark Scandinavian procedural – the intelligent and complex plot, the fallible lead and the atmospheric prose.” The pair have now produced another novel in the series about Detective Chief Inspector Konrad Simonsen. One summer day, four people are brutally murdered on a Copenhagen canal tour, with all clues leading Konrad Simonsen and his team back in time – to 1995 and a secretive event in Bosnia involving Danish UN soldiers. And it seems no one has any interest in raking up the past. Quite the contrary. Den sindssyge polak (The Mad Pole) is the fifth novel in the series, with plans in the pipeline for another volume.

BONE EXPERT ON SPANISH VISIT A gangster flees Copenhagen in order to enjoy the good life on Spain’s Costa del Sol. Almost forty years later, an elderly woman is brutally decapitated in a quiet Copenhagen park and an attempt is made to assassinate a leading biker, threatening to spark a gang war. In Spain – where bone expert Linnea Kirkegaard is taking part in an excavation and enjoying a little time away from her boyfriend and domestic life in Denmark – a fresh corpse turns up in a mass grave.

Når solen forsvinder (When the Sun Disappears) is the third stand-alone book from Benni Bødker (born 1975) and Karen Vad Bruun (born 1977) about the bone expert Linnea Kirkegaard. Previously published were Blod vil have blod (Blood Wants Blood), 2010, as well as Før døden lukker mine øjne (Before Death Shuts My Eyes), 2012, which according to Politiken’s reviewer, “rises well above the parish pump in the writers’ composition of an internationally orientated plot.”

A.J. KAZINSKI

LOTTE AND SØREN HAMMER

BØDKER & BRUUN

Forfølgerne (The Persecutors), Politikens Forlag 2014, 320 pp. PREVIOUS TITLES SOLD TO: More than twenty countries. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Politikens Forlag, Nya Guldberg, Nya. Guldberg@jppol.dk

Den sindssyge polak (The Mad Pole), Gyldendal 2014, 400 pp. PREVIOUS TITLES SOLD TO: More than twenty countries. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Gyldendal Group Agency, Sofie Voller, sofie_voller@gyldendalgroupagency.dk

Når solen forsvinder (When the Sun Disappears), Modtryk 2014, 352 pp. PREVIOUS TITLES SOLD TO: Germany, Japan, Norway.

FOREIGN RIGHTS: Nordin agency, Henny Holmquist, henny@nordinagency.se

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DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE

EXISTENTIAL SHORT STORIES

“There is no overriding moral and no instruction in the works of Janne Teller. No simple Good and no Evil.

Teller simply aspires to see into the souls of her heroes, even when it hurts. And this is precisely what makes this book – these heroes – so human,” wrote Der Spiegel, when Janne Teller’s ALT (All) was published in Germany. Similar to INTET (Nothing) from 2000, which has already sold nearly half a million copies in 25 countries, Janne Teller again depicts – for readers aged12 years and upwards – what transpires when we cannot find any common humanity or coherence in life. Janne Teller (born 1964) has published a series of books for children, young adults and adults that often explore the existential and ethical questions of life. The eight short stories contained in ALT (All) span themes ranging from meaningless violence, freedom of expression, exclusion, parental failure and role models to mental disability and questions concerning individual responsibility.

FATAL LOVE “As they haul us up out of the Limfjord, we’re still bound together.

I don’t know how long we’d been lying in the water, it’s hard to tell – you kind of lose all track of time. A week. Maybe two. I can’t tell. The coroner has equal difficulty in being more precise. He’d like permission to remove the handcuffs; he keeps repeating this, it’s bloody difficult to work with two corpses that are bound together in this manner.” Dig og mig ved daggry (You and Mee at Dawn) is a love story with fatal consequences; a story about coincidences, misunderstandings, desertion and forgiveness – and about loving someone so deeply and meaningfully that it’s worth dying for. Critics across the board have unanimously described the novel as beautiful, formidable, gripping – a must-read.

This book is the first joint project of the two experienced authors, Sanne Munk Jensen (born 1979) and Glenn Ringtved (born 1968).

WEIRD AND WONDERFUL THOUGHTS

Armed reindeer, angry pixies, cross penguins, dying grandmothers and clueless parents are just some of the personalities who live in the pages of Lortehjorte (Damn Deers). In a series of brief short stories – which are well-suited to being read out loud to slightly older children – Tina Sakura Bestle demonstrates her talent for conveying weird and wonderful thoughts with humour. And all the stories have their own magical illustration by Annika Øyrabø.

“Wow! That sums it up. Here are finally a string of stories, where everything is said between the lines,” wrote a reviewer in Fyn’s Amts Avis awarding Lortehjorte (Damn Deers) maximum six out of six possible stars.

Tina Sakura Bestle (born 1975) has published several children’s books.

Annika Øyrabø, who has provided the book’s illustrations, studied design and illustration at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences and Denmark’s Design School.

JANNE TELLER

SANNE MUNK JENSEN & GLENN RINGTVED TINA SAKURA BESTLE & ANNIKA ØYRABØ

ALT (All), Dansklærerforeningen 2013, 140 pp PREVIOUS TITLES SOLD TO: More than twenty countries. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Lars Ringhof Agency, Esthi Kunz, esthi@ringhof.dk

Dig og mig ved daggry (You and Mee at Dawn), Gyldendal 2013, 309 pp. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Gyldendal Group Agency, Louise Langhoff Koch, louise_langhoff_koch@gyldendalgroupagency.dk

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Lortehjorte (Damn Deers), Jensen & Dalgaard 2014, 104 pp. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Jensen & Dalgaard, Bjarne Michael Jensen, jensen@jensenogdalgaard.dk

BOOKS IN BRIEF / YOUNG ADULT

COMING-OF-AGE NOVEL Sommerdrenge (Summer Boys) is set in a little Danish coastal town in the summertime. A young girl, Kille, is usually just one of the boys, but this summer everything is different. She can feel it in her body and in the way the boys look at her. Precisely the boys are important puzzle-pieces in this novel about not being the same person you were last summer – yet being more yourself than ever before. “Rebecca Bach-Lauritsen writes a convincing and empathetic story about how tremendously awful and wonderful it is when your body suddenly decides to change ... there are just as many exciting things going on in this short book of just 96 pages as there are assembled in all the teenage-years,” wrote Information’s reviewer. Rebecca Bach-Lauritsen (born 1976) is a graduate of The Danish Writer’s School for Children’s Fiction and made her debut in 2011 with the novel Veronika lyder som harmonika (Veronika sounds like Harmonica).

OCCULT NOVEL

Sebastian wakes up in hospital, knowing that something is terribly wrong. But has he really killed a man out in the forest as the police and the morning papers claim? In an attempt to prove his innocence and get to the bottom of the case, Sebastian and his friend, Naja, become embroiled in an age-old rivalry between a powerful demon and a merciless avenger who calls himself Glam.

“The entire unfolding of events can be read as an illustration of young people’s difficult coming-of-age, but first and foremost, Glam is a magical and effective thriller,” ran Berlingske’s review of David Meinke’s occult, gory “splat-novel” which, using colloquial language and written in a breathless tempo is an account of love, revenge, spirits and murder. Glam is suited to the older segment of young readers.

David Meinke (born 1974) made his debut with Kaos (kys ah oh shit) (Chaos (Kiss ah oh shit)) in 2007, and most recently has published the horror novel Ordenen (The Order) (2011).

DOOMSDAY STORY When a major catastrophe hits the earth, millions of people will die –but not the “preppers”, people who don’t just sit around waiting for the catastrophe to strike. Among them are Daniel and his family, preparing themselves for the ultimate catastrophe, so that they will be ready when it strikes. Well, at least as ready as one can be. For even if you have prepared yourself for this day all your life, it is impossible to predict what will happen. Prepper is part elementary thriller about a struggle between life and death and, despite its doomsday theme, part realistic novel that follows the development and education of its protagonist, Daniel, from boy to young man. Lise Bidstrup (born 1976) made her debut in 2005, and already has a large back catalogue of books for children, young adults and adults. In recent years, she has been nominated for a series of prizes, including the Orla Prize in 2008 and 2010.

REBECCA BACH-LAURITSEN

DAVID MEINKE

LISE BIDSTRUP

Sommerdrenge (Summer Boys), Høst & Søn 2013, 96 pp. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Gyldendal Group Agency, Louise Langhoff Koch, louise_ langhoff_koch@gyldendalgroupagency.dk

Glam, Høst & Søn 2013, 268 pp. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Gyldendal Group Agency, Louise Langhoff Koch, louise_langhoff_koch@ gyldendalgroupagency.dk

Prepper, Høst&Søn 2013, 186 pp. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Gyldendal Group Agency, Louise Langhoff Koch, louise_langhoff_koch@ gyldendalgroupagency.dk

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DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE

YAHYA HASSAN “Very rarely do I open my email attachments, start reading and know immediately this is a book I want to publish – one that I need to publish, one that’ll haunt me if I don’t get to publish it. Very rarely do I find that a collection of poetry has this magical, powerful quality that grips both my head and heart, refusing to let either one go. Yahya Hassan has this very rare talent. Due to his angry, vivid and raw words I was unable to put the book down. His strong, sad, shocking story made me wince, even as I admired the courage and honesty he possesses.

I am sure that Yahya Hassan will reach as many readers in Norway as he has in Denmark, and I am equally sure that we need a voice like this – his voice; his story is not unique, but the authority with which he tells it and the quality of his writing, is.

We should all read Yahya Hassan now. And we will continue to do so for years to come.”

PHOTO: MIKKEL BERG PEDERSEN / POLFOTO

Anne Fløtaker, Fiction Publisher, Cappelen Damm, Norway

“To start with the obvious: it is not often that we buy a poetry collection from Denmark. However, when we read the manuscript, we knew immediately that this was an important voice in modern literature; someone with a unique perspective on the outside world, someone with a distinctive, striking voice. His poetry tells a coming-of-age story that is touching, unnerving, raw and ultimately, unforgettable. We expect that the book will have a large impact on the Dutch literary world, not only because of the controversial content of the poems, but also because of Yahya’s original and expressive style of writing.”

Peter van der Zwaag, Publisher, De Bezige Bij, The Netherlands

“Despite his young age, Hassan is a mature poet. His writing is disturbingly sharp; his words hit you right in the face, and the world he describes – the world he has grown up in – will hurt you while you read it, as much as it hurt him.”

Marta Treves, Foreign Fiction Editor, Rizzoli, Italy

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YAHYA HASSAN

PHOTO: MIKKEL BERG PEDERSEN / POLFOTO

“This is a collector’s item. Of 100,000 collections. Of several collections that will probably be established with this wonderful little phenomenon of a fucking poetry collection. Congratulations to Denmark.”

Lars Bukdahl, reviewer and author in his motivation for the winner of Weekendavisen’s Literature Prize.

“When did someone last break through the sound barrier and upend the nation? There is a heart in this work. It may very well be that the heart has been hidden behind a hard shell along the way, but when he reads his work out loud, it is like hearing a young man who is peeling off his childhood and tossing it over his shoulder where it lands with an explosion on the ground behind him.”

Mona Madsen, Entertainment, Culture and Library Manager in her motivation for the winner of BogForum’s Best Newcomer Prize.

PHOTO: MIKKEL BERG PEDERSEN / POLFOTO

YAHYA HASSAN YAHYA HASSAN, Gyldendal 2013: SOLD TO: Germany, Italy, The Netherlands. Norway, and Sweden. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Gyldendal Group Agency, Sofie Voller, sofie_voller@ gyldendalgroupagency.dk

“He has gained our attention because he has created a work of art that touches the most tender places in both the reader and the Danish welfare society. It reveals a great deal about what has happened in Denmark that a poet who has Palestinian parents, who writes in Danish, yet does not consider himself to be Danish, can walk away with Politiken’s Literature Prize. There are so many ways to be a Dane. Yahya Hassan is a Danish poet. Not because he falls within the parameters of some or other definition of what it means to be ‘Danish’, but because he composes his poetry in Danish. And he has done so in a manner that has rammed an entire nation in the centre of its heart. The winner of Politiken’s Literature Prize 2013 has already changed the world.”

Jes Stein Pedersen, literature editor, in his motivation for the winner of Politiken’s Literature Prize.

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DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE

CHI / BARNDO

The opening poem Childhood of Yahya Hassans self titled debut poetry collection

FIVE CHILDREN IN A ROW AND A FATHER WITH A CLUB POLY CRYING AND A PUDDLE OF PISS WE PUT OUT OUR HANDS IN TURN FOR THE SAKE OF PREDICTABILITY THE SOUND OF BLOWS RAINING DOWN SISTER JUMPING SO QUICKLY FROM ONE FOOT TO THE OTHER DOWN HER LEGS A WATERFALL OF PISS ONE HAND FORWARD THEN THE OTHER TOO SLOW RANDOM BLOW A BLOW A SCREAM A NUMBER 30 OR 40 SOMETIMES 50 AND A KICK IN THE ASS TO EXIT THE DOOR HE GRABS BROTHER BY THE SHOULDERS 18

YAHYA HASSAN

ILDHOOD OM TRANSLATED BY KUKU & AL AGAMI

STRAIGHTENS HIM UP BEATING AND COUNTING FACE DOWN WAITNG MY TURN MOTHER SMASHING PLATES IN THE STAIRCASE AL JAZEERA TRANSMITS HYPERACTIVE BULLDOZERS AND RESENTFUL BODY PARTS GAZA STRIPPED IN SUNSHINE FLAGS WILL BE BURNED IF A ZIONIST DOES NOT RECOGNIZE OUR EXISTENCE IF WE EVEN EXIST WHEN WE HICCUP FEAR AND PAIN WHEN WE GASP FOR BREATH AND MEANING AT SCHOOL NO ARABIC AT HOME NO DANISH A BLOW A SCREAM A NUMBER 19

DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE

RECENTLY SOLD ABROAD SEPTEMBER 2013 – JANUARY 2014

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BRAZIL BERTRAND MICHAEL KATZ KREFELD AFSPORET EDITORE ARQUEIRO LENE KAABERBØL & AGNETE FRIIS ET STILLE UMÆRKELIGT DRAB VERTIGO HAMMER & HAMMER ALTING HAR SIN PRIS

BULGARIA PROZORETZ PUBLISHING HOUSE KRISTIAN BANG FOSS DØDEN KØRER AUDI

CHINA BEEPUB BENNY ANDERSEN 100 UDVALGTE DIGTE

CROATIA HRVATSKO FILOLOSKO DRUSTVO KAREN BLIXEN BABETTES GÆSTEBUD ZNANJE JUSSI ADLER-OLSEN JOURNAL 64

CZECH REPUBLIC BRANA PUBLISHING A.J. KAZINSKI DEN SIDSTE GODE MAND

HOST KIM LEINE PROFETERNE I EVIGHEDSFJORDEN

EDITIONS GAÏA FLEMMING JENSEN EN LILLE BOG OM GLÆDEN VED AT BLIVE NATTETISSER

KNIHA ZIN LEIF DAVIDSEN PATRIARKENS HÆNDELIGE DØD

EDITIONS GAÏA JESPER MALMOSE BORGEN

GREECE PSICHGIOS MICHAEL KATZ KREFELD AFSPORET

HUNGARY

KNIHA ZIN STEFFEN JACOBSEN TROFÆ

EDITIONS GAÏA ANNE-CATHRINE RIEBNITZSKY FORBANDEDE YNGEL

PASEKA MICHAEL KATZ KREFELD AFSPORET

GALLIMARD KAREN BLIXEN BABETTES GÆSTEBUD

ANIMUS JUSSI ADLER-OLSEN MARCO EFFEKTEN

ESTONIA

GALLIMARD SISSEL-JO GAZAN SVALENS GRAF

EUROPA KAREN BLIXEN DEN AFRIKANSKE FARM

GERMANY

NAPKUT ERLING JEPSEN KUNSTEN AT GRÆDE I KOR

VARRAK MICHAEL KATZ KREFELD AFSPORET

FINLAND GUMMERUS JUSSI ADLER-OLSEN JOURNAL 64 LIKE MICHAEL KATZ KREFELD AFSPORET SILTALA PUBLISHING LENE KAABERBØL & AGNETE FRIIS ET STILLE UMÆRKELIGT DRAB

FRANCE

BTB/RANDOM HOUSE MAREN UTHAUG OG SÅDAN BLEV DET

ANIMUS JUSSI ADLER-OLSEN AFDELING Q, BOG 6

NAPKUT KIRSTEN HAMMANN SE PÅ MIG

GOLDMANN MICHAEL KATZ KREFELD AFSPORET

ICELAND

KIEPENHEUER & WITSCH JESPER STEIN BYE BYE BLACKBIRD

DRAUMSYN CHRISTIAN JUNGERSEN DU FORSVINDER

PIPER VERLAG SARA BLÆDEL DØDESPORET

ITALY

ULLSTEIN YAHYA HASSAN YAHYA HASSAN

ACTES SUD MICHAEL KATZ KREFELD AFSPORET

ATMOSPHERE LIBRI EVA MARIE FREDENSBORG ÉN GANG MORDER EINAUDI MICHAEL KATZ KREFELD AFSPORET RIZZOLI YAHYA HASSAN YAHYA HASSAN SCRITTURAPURA INGER CHRISTENSEN DET MALEDE VÆRELSE

MAREN UTHAUG Illustrator, writer and columnist, Maren Uthaug, debuted in style with her family novel Og sådan blev det (And That’s How It Was). “You’d have to search long and hard for a more complete, humorous and promising debut novel” Jyllands-Posten’s reviewer wrote about the story of the halfSami girl, Risten. When her dad leaves his Sami wife, Risten’s mum, she is torn from her roots, moving from the north of Norway to the southernmost region of Denmark.

Only as an adult does Risten see her mum again and it was nothing like she had hoped.

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RECENTLY SOLD DANISH FICTION

ISRAEL

MACEDONIA

KINNERET ZMORA DVIR JUSSI ADLER-OLSEN FASANDRÆBERNE

ANTOLOG JUSSI ADLER-OLSEN KVINDEN I BURET

JAPAN

ANTOLOG KRISTIAN BANG FOSS DØDEN KØRER AUDI

HAYAKAWA BØDKER & BRUUN BLOD VIL HAVE BLOD HAYAKAWA BØDKER & BRUUN FØR DØDEN LUKKER MINE ØJNE HAYAKAWA BØDKER & BRUUN NÅR SOLEN FORSVINDER HAYAKAWA MICHAEL KATZ KREFELD AFSPORET HAYAKAWA ERIK VALEUR DET SYVENDE BARN

LATVIA ALMA LITTERA JENS CHRISTIAN GRØNDAHL TAVSHED I OKTOBER

MEXICO SEXTOPISO INGER CHRISTENSEN ALFABET SEXTOPISO INGER CHRISTENSEN DET

THE NETHERLANDS COSSÉE ERLING JEPSEN DEN SØNDERJYSKE FARM DE BEZIGE BIJ YAHYA HASSAN YAHYA HASSAN DE GEUS SARA BLÆDEL DØDESPORET

LITHUANIA

KARAAT JONAS T. BENGTSSON ET EVENTYR

KITOS KNYGOS MICHAEL KATZ KREFELD AFSPORET

LEBOWSKI PUBLISHER TOM KRISTENSEN HÆRVÆRK

DETTE

BURDE

skrives

I NUTID ELLE ELLE ROMAN

H 22

SAMLEREN

PROMETHEUS MICHAEL KATZ KREFELD AFSPORET PUBLISHING HOUSE Q JESPER MALMOSE BORGEN

NORWAY

SCHIBSTED ANNE-CATHRINE RIEBNITZSKY FORBANDEDE YNGEL TIDENS FORLAG SARA BLÆDEL DØDESPORET VIGMOSTAD & BJØRKE SISSEL-JO GAZAN SVALENS GRAF

AUDITUR EVA TIND ROSENVEJ

PAKISTAN

BASTION MAREN UTHAUG OG SÅDAN BLEV DET

AIM PUBLISHING STIG DALAGER SKYGGELAND

CAPPELEN DAMM YAHYA HASSAN YAHYA HASSAN

POLAND

CAPPELEN DAMM TOM KRISTENSEN HÆRVÆRK GYLDENDAL NORSK FORLAG HANNE-VIBEKE HOLST KNUD, DEN STORE GYLDENDAL NORSK FORLAG A.J. KAZINSKI EN HELLIG ALLIANCE PELIKANEN STINE PILGAARD MIN MOR SIGER SCHIBSTED MICHAEL KATZ KREFELD AFSPORET

HELLE HELLE “This Should be Written in the Present is an outstanding novel, another svelte, nonchalant masterpiece from the hand of Helle Helle, naturally,” Information’s reviewer wrote of Helle Helle’s latest novel. Here the reader meets a young woman who, strictly speaking, ought to be focusing on her university studies but instead, spends her time on the streets and alleys. She writes as well, but with little success – there are too many disruptions: former boyfriends, parents and the freight train that comes thundering past her bedroom window every night.

LITERACKIE MICHAEL KATZ KREFELD AFSPORET ZNAK CHRISTIAN JUNGERSEN DU FORSVINDER

PORTUGAL CAVALO DE FERRO ERLING JEPSEN KUNSTEN AT GRÆDE I KOR EDITORIAL PRESENÇA JUSSI ADLER-OLSEN KVINDEN I BURET

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ROMANIA

TOM KRISTENSEN With his major work, the autobiographical novel Havoc (1930), Tom Kristensen enters the period of inter-war European modernism along with authors such as James Joyce, Thomas Mann and Louis-Ferdinand Céline. In the novel, Tom Kristensen presents a judgement of himself and the times, the roaring 1920s, when he tells the story of the failed author, Ole Jastrau, who leaves his middleclass existence as family man and literary critic in order to plunge himself into the oblivion of alcohol.

EDITURA RAO MICHAEL KATZ KREFELD AFSPORET

RUSSIA ARIEL INGER CHRISTENSEN UDVALGTE DIGTE INOSTRANKA MICHAEL KATZ KREFELD AFSPORET

SERBIA GEOPOETIKA KAREN BLIXEN DEN AFRIKANSKE FARM KARPOS KIM LEINE PROFETERNE I EVIGHEDSFJORDEN

SLOVAKIA ARTFORUM HELLE HELLE DETTE BURDE SKRIVES I NUTID

NORSTEDTS JENS ANDERSEN ASTRID LINDGREN BIOGRAFI

PEGASUS CARSTEN NAGEL ZEHRAS FLUGT

NORSTEDTS YAHYA HASSAN YAHYA HASSAN

YAPI KREDI PUBLISHING INGER CHRISTENSEN AZORNO

TAIWAN

YAPI KREDI PUBLISHING STIG DALAGER ØJEBLIKKETS EVIGHED

IKAR MICHAEL KATZ KREFELD AFSPORET

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SLOVENIA

TURKEY

UCILA MICHAEL KATZ KREFELD AFSPORET

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SPAIN

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AYRINTI CHRISTIAN JUNGERSEN UNDTAGELSEN DEDALUS JOHANNES V. JENSEN KONGENS FALD MARTI MICHAEL KATZ KREFELD AFSPORET

UNITED KINGDOM DALKEY ACHIVE PRESS LARS SIDENIUS JOHANNE, JOHANNE …

GRANTA BOOKS THORKILD HANSEN UDDRAG QUERCUS SISSEL-JO GAZAN SVALENS GRAF SERPENT’S TAIL MARTIN KONGSTAD FRYSER JEG SOHO PRESS LENE KAABERBØL & AGNETE FRIIS DEN BETÆNKSOMME MORDER

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UKRAINE KOMPANIYA KROK DAN TURELL MORD I MØRKET

MARTI ERIK VALEUR DET SYVENDE BARN

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DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE

RECENTLY SOLD DANISH NON-FICTION

TOM BUK-SWIENTY

FINLAND

Karen Blixen’s father, Wilhelm Dinesen, is the central figure in Tom Buk-Swienty’s latest drama documentary, Captain Dinesen 1 – Fire and Blood. Wilhelm Dinesen was an aristocrat, adventurer, soldier, hunter, politician and author and in choosing to join company with him, you follow in part, a story about an extraordinary personality as well as a fascinating journey through nineteenth century European history, when Wilhelm Dinesen managed to experience four wars over his brief lifespan. A second volume about Wilhelm Dinesen is due for publication in Autumn 2014.

ATENA THOMAS RODE ANDERSEN STENALDERKOST GUMMERUS GRETHE DIRCKINCKHOLMFELD EN VEN HJÆLPER EN OP AD MUDDERET GUMMERUS GRETHE DIRCKINCKHOLMFELD VIL DU VÆRE MIN KÆRESTE?

GERMANY

NEW ZEALAND

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ICELAND UGLÁ KLAUS WIVEL DEN SIDSTE NADVER

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NORWAY AKADEMIKA FORLAG CARSTEN BENDIXEN, HENRIK FISCHER (RED.) PSYKOLOGI I SKOLEN – HVAD VIRKER AKADEMIKA FORLAG ULF BRINKKJÆR, MARIANNE HØYEN VIDENSKABSTEORI FOR DE PÆDAGOGISKE PROFESSIONSUDDANNELSER ARNEBERG FORLAG ANNA SKYGGEBJERG INTROVERT

GYLDENDAL NORSK AKADEMISK RIKKE SCHWARTZ, SUSAN HART (RED.) BARNET OG DETS RELATIONELLE MILJØ

SPAIN

GYLDENDAL NORSK FORLAG TOM BUK-SWIENTY KAPTAJN DINESEN 1

SWEDEN

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MORA JESPER JUUL AGGRESSION

GLEERUPS CARSTEN BENDIXEN, HENRIK FISCHER (RED.) PSYKOLOGI I SKOLEN – HVAD VIRKER NATUR OCH KULTUR JOAKIM JAKOBSEN TOUR DE FRANCE STUDENTLITTERATUR ULF BRINKKJÆR, MARIANNE HØYEN VIDENSKABSTEORI FOR DE PÆDAGOGISKE PROFESSIONSUDDANNELSER

UNITED STATES JACK MURPHY THOMAS RATHSACK I KRIG MED ELITEN

JOAKIM JAKOBSEN Every year, millions gather in front of TV screens to follow the wold’s best cyclists in the Tour de France, and year after year, they push their bodies through inhuman hardships on the French country roads and mountaintops.

In his impressive, mammoth work, Tour de France, journalist Joakim Jakobsen tells the story behind the race , following its development from 1903 up until today – drawing portraits of the great and the small champions, describing the most absurd incidents, telling the wildest anecdotes and delving deep into the most crucial stages.

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AUSTRALIA STABENFELDT DORTE ROHOLTE PÅ EGET ANSVAR

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FINLAND STABENFELDT DORTE ROHOLTE PÅ EGET ANSVAR

FRANCE GALLIMARD JEUNESSE JENS CHRISTIAN GRØNDAHL MED BEDSTEMOR I TIDENS LABYRINT PIKA EDITION METTE FINDERUP & THOMAS MUNKHOLT & LARS GABEL GEMINI 1-6 POCKET JEUNESSE KENNETH BØGH ANDERSEN JULEMANDENS DØD

GERMANY ARENA VERLAG SABINE LEMIRE 365 TING BOJE VERLAG JAKOB MARTIN STRID DA LILLE MADSENS HUS BLÆSTE VÆK BOJE VERLAG JAKOB MARTIN STRID DEN UTROLIGE HISTORIE OM DEN KÆMPESTORE PÆRE CARL HANSER VERLAG JESPER WUNG-SUNG SKOLEN CARLSEN VERLAG KENNETH BØGH ANDERSEN TISSEMYRENS BID. ANTBOY 1

GERSTENBERG KIM FUPZ AAKESON & EVA ERIKSSON SÅ BLEV FARFAR ET SPØGELSE OETINGER VERLAG SALLY ALTSHULER & SVEN NORDQVIST NOAS SKIB

QUERIDO KIM FUPZ AAKESON & EVA ERIKSSON SØNDAG

NEW ZEALAND STABENFELDT DORTE ROHOLTE PÅ EGET ANSVAR

SPAIN RINOCERONTE EDITORA OLE LUND KIRKEGAARD ALBERT RINOCERONTE EDITORA OLE LUND KIRKEGAARD EN FLODHEST I HUSET

NORWAY

RINOCERONTE EDITORA OLE LUND KIRKEGAARD FRODE OG ALLE DE ANDRE RØDDER

CAPPELEN DAMM ASTRID LINDGREN & VARIOUS ILLUSTRATORS JULEFORTÆLLINGER

RINOCERONTE EDITORA OLE LUND KIRKEGAARD GUMMI TARZAN

GEORGIA

GYLDENDAL NORSK FORLAG SANNE MUNK JENSEN & GLENN RINGTVED DIG OG MIG VED DAGGRY

OETINGER VERLAG SANNE MUNK JENSEN & GLENN RINGTVED DIG OG MIG VED DAGGRY

STABENFELDT DORTE ROHOLTE PÅ EGET ANSVAR

MTP CECIL BØDKER SILAS OG BEN-GODIK

HUNGARY STABENFELDT METTE FINDERUP EMMY 4+5 STABENFELDT DORTE ROHOLTE PÅ EGET ANSVAR

ICELAND FORLAG ID OLE LUND KIRKEGAARD ORLA FRØSNAPPER

LATVIA ZVAIGZNE ABC PUBLISHERS JAKOB MARTIN STRID DEN UTROLIGE HISTORIE OM DEN KÆMPESTORE PÆRE

MEXICO LEGION COMIX PETER MADSEN VALHALLA

THE NETHERLANDS MEULENHOFF JENS CHRISTIAN GRØNDAHL MED BEDSTEMOR I TIDENS LABYRINTH

GYLDENDAL NORSK FORLAG OLE LUND KIRKEGAARD OTTO ER ET NÆSEHORN PÆDAGOGISK FORUM JYTTE ANDERSEN DET GEMMER SIG I BLYANTEN SCHIBSTED JAKOB MARTIN STRID DEN UTROLIGE HISTORIE OM DEN KÆMPESTORE PÆRE SCHIBSTED JAKOB MARTIN STRID MIMBO JIMBO BESØGER EN VEN SCHIBSTED JAKOB MARTIN STRID MIMBO JIMBO OG DE STORE ELEFANTER STABENFELDT INA BRUHN DITTE & LADY. HESTENE PÅ PONYGÅRDEN STABENFELDT ASTRID HEISE-FJELDGREN JAGTEN PÅ JOE. KYS OG KANEL 4 STABENFELDT DORTE ROHOLTE PÅ EGET ANSVAR

RINOCERONTE EDITORA OLE LUND KIRKEGAARD HODJA FRA PJORT RINOCERONTE EDITORA OLE LUND KIRKEGAARD LILLE VIRGIL RINOCERONTE EDITORA OLE LUND KIRKEGAARD ORLA FRØSNAPPER RINOCERONTE EDITORA OLE LUND KIRKEGAARD OTTO ER ET NÆSEHORN RINOCERONTE EDITORA OLE LUND KIRKEGAARD PER OG BETTE-MADS

SWEDEN BOKFÖRLAGET HEGASI BENNI BØDKER ORION 1-4 NYPON ANDERS MORGENTHALER EN HUND EFTER SELSKAB STABENFELDT DORTE ROHOLTE PÅ EGET ANSVAR

UNITED STATES ENCHANTED LION GLENN RINGTVED & CHARLOTTE PARDI GRÆD BLOT HJERTE SIMON & SCHUSTER JESPER WUNG-SUNG DEN SIDSTE HENRETTELSE

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DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE

STORIES WITH AN EDGE, UNSOFTENED BY CAMOUFLAGE The content of Danish picture books displays a certainty that children need not be shielded from life’s problems.

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Most parents read aloud to their children. They do this to entertain and reassure them, and also to sooth them or help them fall asleep. Picturebook time is often experienced as enjoyable “quality time” for children and parents alike. But the value of these books goes far beyond just entertainment. They also reveal a great deal about the lives of children in the countries in which they are set, and about different societies’ view of their children. In this way, these apparently innocent picture books plant a set of formative images in the minds of these small, blissfully unaware children; thus, picture books become part of both the discourse and the narrative arc that describe what it’s like to be a child in a particular country.

In Danish picture books, there is a strong tradition of children being depicted as individuals who can, will and want to act independently.

Through the action in these books, children are witnessed as being transformed into small people who can speak for themselves. Thus, the children we meet within the pages of a Danish picture book are often free-spirited and rather rebellious; they are not necessarily sweet or well behaved characters. On the contrary, they might have a nasty edge; they might be bad-mannered and wilful or even be struggling with grim or forbidden feelings. These books, therefore, tend to depict a raw, realistic image of the child rather than one that is sweetness and light or idealised. However, this is also an image of a child who has a more nuanced attitude to life, a child who can be far more than the cardboard cut-out “happy/sad” model of a child.

No subject is too big or too small to be included in a picture book. It can address anything from everyday situations, like being a fusspot,

PICTURE BOOKS being unfriendly, sibling jealousy or reluctance to accept a new parent, to hefty existential questions such as what it’s like to be different from other people, or illness, or death. Life is shown “warts and all”, completely free of any softening camouflage; but fortunately, there is also an ironic or comical edge to make even the harshest of topics somehow bearable.

And, more than any other element, it’s the illustrations in picture books that provide moments in which crisis situations are given welcome twist.

These moments have come to play a bigger and bigger role in the genre.

THE CRUCIAL IMPORTANCE OF COLLABORATION Close cooperation between author and illustrator is a factor that, in recent years, has helped to push Danish picture books to a new level.

Thanks to new types of training and wider options for developing skills, we are seeing far more examples of top class work and, today, more illustrators than ever are able to make a living by illustrating children’s books. This more professional and holistic approach has been a key element in the expansion of skills. Once upon a time it was the author who acted as the catalyst, writing a text that was then sent to an illustrator, who did the artwork without necessarily engaging in a dialogue with the author about the way the text and images should interact. Today, the collaborative process is much closer, which is why we are seeing books in which the text and pictures do more than simply strive to imitate each other. Instead, the space created between text and image becomes a place in which humour and irony are brought to the fore – a place in which significant moments and issues arise.

CONFIDENCE AND SOLIDARITY In other words, as they interact with humour and irony, the illustrations can take the sting out of the sometimes harsh narratives being presented to Danish children. In fact, there are very few taboos in Danish picture books for children, and this comes from a tradition in which self-confidence and solidarity are emphasised. This sense of confidence stems from a belief that even quite small children are competent, sensible and able to reflect on their circumstances – and thereby able to grapple with life’s problems.

Thus, the overall approach is one that reflects the belief that too much mollycoddling is a bad thing. Rarely do Danish authors and illustrators of children’s books seek to shield their young readers. Rather, they address them directly and honestly, without talking down to them, believing implicitly that children will be able to process and interpret the issues being raised. This includes the more lyrical and poetic texts, which also often deal with serious topics but not necessarily by direct reference to them.

It may well be that the processing of certain narratives requires a bit of help from grown-ups, perhaps as they read aloud for children. But adults also benefit from reading picture books of this sort. For the truth is that it is very often not children who are afraid to tackle issues such as jealousy, sickness and death, but rather it is adults who find it difficult to discuss these things with their children. And it is precisely in this area that the best of the picture books can pave the way for discussions about things like how hard it is to be a big brother, how sad it is to lose a special girlfriend, how horrible it is when your parents are in the throes of divorce, or how terrible it feels when a grandparent or a favourite pet dies.

These narratives show how, despite everything, such things can usually be dealt with in a positive way.

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DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE

DIFFICULT CHILDREN – AND THE CRAZY ADULTS THEY HAVE TO PUT UP WITH

FRØKEN FINE (MISS FINE)

Book Prize, of which Gyldendal was joint sponsor, in 2004. The tale concerns a really, really bad little frog who whooshes down from outer space and lands slap bang in the middle of an unsuspecting middleclass frog family. The story of the totally impossible, misunderstood frog-child is told with great humour

LILLE FRØ (LITTLE FROG)

BETTY

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Naughty children who harbour forbidden feelings and do nasty things can be represented in any form, from naked frogs to conventional-looking children with pony tails and spiky hair. Jakob Martin Strid’s book about the little frog who pushes everything to the limit, Lille Frø (Little Frog – Gyldendal), won the Nordic Picture

PICTURE BOOKS and no little edge – the little frog has to go through the mill before finally becoming a brilliant artist.

Difficult and anti-authoritarian children also appear in more conventional guises, as portrayed by, amongst others, Kim Fupz Aakeson in books such as Vitello (Gyldendal), illustrated by Niels Bo Bojesen.

Vitello does not always behave as he should – in fact, far from it – when he gets a knife and discovers he’s quite good at carving his name on cars, or when he’s confronted with a new stepfather, a prospect that he doesn’t welcome, to put it mildly. Like Vitello, Betty (Gyldendal), captured in all her angry glory by Rasmus Bregnhøi’s

artwork and Alberte Winding’s text, is filled with infinite rage when her parents go to a party without her or presume to dictate what she should and shouldn’t eat; while the “Miss” in Katrine Marie Guldager’s Frøken Fine (Miss Fine – Carlsen), illustrated

by Mette-Kirstine Bak, deals with things in a more internalised way

DENGANG MIN ONKEL KULLE BLEV SKØR (THE TIME MY UNCLE KULLE WENT A BIT STRANGE)

VERDENS STÆRKESTE MAND (THE WORLD’S STRONGEST MAN)

VITELLO

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DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE and becomes furiously jealous when she returns home from her holidays and discovers that her best friend has betrayed her.

There is no guarantee in Danish picture books that adults are going to behave themselves, either. In Kim Fupz Aakeson and Rasmus Bregnhøi’s Dengang min onkel Kulle

blev skør (The Time my Uncle Kulle Went a Bit Strange – Carlsen), Uncle Kulle arrives on a visit, acting strangely and wearing wellies, and insists that he has been turned into a rhododendron. Meanwhile, Verdens Stærkeste Mand (The World’s Strongest Man – Gyldendal) would like to be less powerful because he’s scared of

MOR (MUM)

a method in his madness,” declared the Danish author Benny Andersen when he presented the Silas Award to Aakeson in 2009. “The method can be found in the fact that he is always on the side of the children and talks to them like an intimate friend, so that together they can observe and share a mutual bewilderment about adults. Those crazy adults who always think they are right, but whose avarice, calculating slyness and self-importance leaves them unstuck time after time – or maybe a lot worse than unstuck.”

Most children know all too well the feeling of being embarrassed by the parents they have been landed with, perhaps even wishing that they had different ones. Still, there can’t be many who can beat the awful feelings aroused by the monstrously fat, hotdog-eating, carrot-dodging, diet-avoiding mother in Kim Fupz Aakeson’s 1998 classic Mor (Mum – Gyldendal), who is captured perfectly by Mette-Kirstine Bak’s grotesque and incisive drawings. “There’s

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crushing his new-born daughter in his enormous arms. This moving story by Kim Fupz Aakeson & Lilian Brøgger deals with the difficulties of being very strong and at the same time trying to be gentle.

PICTURE BOOKS

LOTS OF ELEPHANTS – AND OTHER ANIMALS

Anthropomorphised animals are alive and well, indeed thriving, in Danish children’s books and are central to the work of many illustrators. This is certainly the case in the work of Hanne Bartholin, whose arrival was announced when she was awarded the Ministry of Culture’s Illustrator Prize for Herman (Gyldendal), written

by Mats Letén. The book concerns a sweet crocodile, Finn Herman, who loves going on trips round town with his mother, even though she never stops giving him useful but rather irritating advice. In 2005, Bartholin changed animals and created an elephant in Lille Nø (Little Nø – Gyldendal) in collaboration with her

MIMBO JIMBO

mangler Carl billede her CARL

LILLE NØ (LITTLE NØ)

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DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE illustrator colleague Hanne Kvist.

In this tale, a husband and wife are not sure whether they really want to tame the little African elephant they encounter one day, even though the elephant would give its trunk to be tamed. Bartholin has also explored an elephant motif with the Danish author Ida Jessen, who normally writes for

adults. Together they created a series about another little elephant, Carl (Høst & Søn), aimed at children aged three to six, which presents everyday situations such as really irritating little brothers and sisters, and parents who insist that you’re big enough to stand on your own feet. Books about the little blue elephant Mimbo Jimbo

by Jakob Martin Strid take a similar approach. Strid is also the author of Den Utrolige Historie om den Kæmpestore Pære (The Incredible Story of the Enormous Pear). All three books are published by Gyldendal.

HERMAN

FOREIGN RIGHTS: Authors that have been published by Carlsen – contact Lindhardt og Ringhof, Lotte Kjerskouv, lkj@lindhardtogringhof.dk – contact Gyldendal og Høst & Søn: Gyldendal Group Agency, Louise Langhoff Koch, louise_langhoff_koch@gyldendalgroupagency.dk

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PICTURE BOOKS

SNEUGLEUNGEN ULLA (ULLA THE SNOWY OWL)

Who would have thought that young snowy owls have problems speaking correctly? But that’s precisely the problem that Ulla has in poet Mette Moestrup’s Hvad Siger Sneugleungen Ulla (What’s Ulla the Snowy Owl Saying?

– Gyldendal), illustrated by Charlotte Pardi. Even though she tries her best with her vowels, it’s hopeless. A review in

the Berlingske gave it six out of six stars, saying: “The language has such lightness of touch that the deeper meaning at the heart of the story strikes home like a punch to the stomach. The dialogue is finely crafted. Everything is pared back to its essence and put together brilliantly. This is a highly creative way of presenting linguistic confusion, coupled with a fine balance between comedy and vulnerability.”

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DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE

PLENTY OF ACTION – BUT NOW THERE’S ROOM FOR FEELINGS TOO Danish literature for boys is undergoing a fundamental change. Where the different genres were once, in the main, cut and dried, we are now seeing books that dextrously combine a credible action narrative with references to feelings, humour and politics.

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LITERATURE FOR BOYS

There are many myths, preconceptions and prejudices when it comes to gender and reading: woman read novels and men read trade or professional journals, for example.

These gender stereotypes around reading habits are equally applied to the youngest of reader profiles: girls like real-life stories and enjoy fantasy tales, while boys want thrills, horror, humour and action – if, that is, they can bring themselves to look at the printed word at all. Another myth is that electronic media swept books off the table a long time ago, able to offer less demanding, immediate satisfaction in the areas of entertainment and action. Yet another myth is that good books are no longer written for boys and only bookish girls are now catered for. In reality, the question today is whether we are actually justified in talking about girls’ and boys’ books at all. These are concepts that belong to an age when the main characters in books for girls busied themselves about the house while, in books for boys, they were launched into adventures in faraway lands. Perhaps these genres are still to be found, but they are far less prominent than they once were.

HORROR, SPORT AND HUMOUR

Even a cursory glance at the range of books available in Denmark for children and youths will dispel the myth that books that appeal to boys are no longer available. In fact, after their first few school years, once they have gained a strong proficiency in reading, there are many book genres that will appeal to even quite young boys, not least in science-fiction, action and magic. Take, for example, the classic action story, Antboy (Antboy the Hero – Høst & Søn).

Kenneth Bøgh Andersen’s superhero, an alternative sort of Spiderman who saves a whole town from destruction,

has gained quite a following among Danish boys in recent years. Or take an author like Benni Bødker, who has penned an extensive and varied range of books, and recently produced the Zombie City 1–4 series (Corto Publishers), easy-to-read horror stories for the youngest independent reader profile, which, it must be said, are particularly aimed at boys.

Then there is Nicole Boyle Rødtnes’ series, Zombie-Jæger (Zombie Hunter – Alvilda Publishers).

The more realistic kind of book that focuses more on sport and action, and features the sort of impudence and humour often required to get a book to slide more easily into a boy’s schoolbag, is also well represented.

Lars Bøgeholt Petersen’s series FC Fodboldvenner (Football Friends FC – Gyldendal) is a good example of this, as is Daniel Zimakoff’s FC Mezzi series (Mezzi FC – Carlsen), both of which plunge us deep into the world of football fans. The same goes for Kasper Hoff’s series Doktor Z (Doctor Z – Gyldendal), about the crazy scientist Doctor Zakarov, who never tires of coming up with new scientific inventions for his small friends in need, Viggo and Mylle. Author Manu Sareen, meanwhile, uses more weighty, issue-based humour in his books about second generation immigrant Iqbal Farooq (Carlsen and Politiken Publishers), who straddles a position between two ethnic camps and doesn’t always “get” Danish customs and habits.

ACTION, EXISTENTIALISM AND SENSITIVITY

As evidenced by Manu Sareen’s work, classic literature for youngsters has taken on a more political, existential and sensitive tone, thus becoming less “uni-gender”. The same thing can be seen, amongst other places, in Trine Bundsgaard’s

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DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE

Skolen (The School): In this hardboiled yet lyrical tale of terror, Jesper Wung-Sung challenges his readers to dig deep, both in terms of their own feelings and the content of the text, as he describes what happens to a group of children when they discover that their school is under siege by a gang of men dressed in black.

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work. Bundsgaard’s theme is friendship between boys, and she raises questions around how stable these friendships actually are. Her book Mig & Milo (Me and Milo – Carlsen) features a fortune teller whose warning that the two boys’ friendship is in great danger turns out to be true. The prolific award-winning author Morten Dürr is equally unafraid of tackling life’s big issues in books like Marias Dukke (Maria’s Doll – Høst & Søn), an engaging tale in words and images about street urchins for our youngest readers and, for slightly older readers, Skaderne (The Magpies – Alvilda Publishers), which tells the story of Oscar, who is lost and forsaken after the death of his mother until the magpies in the garden bring him a letter from her.

This tendency to depict the lives of children and youths who are living on the edge – whether in a literal and physical sense or in a more metaphorical and existential way – is evident in children’s books aimed at all age groups, but is perhaps most noticeable in those for older

young readers. Here we see a blend of action and feelings, which means that the books potentially carry broader appeal for both genders. For example, Ronnie Andersen’s realist novel Komatøs (Coma Girl – Høst & Søn), which in 2013 was awarded The Danish Ministry of Culture’s Book Prize, portrays a sixteen-year-old girl who has problems with her alcoholic mother and war veteran father. It’s no coincidence, therefore, that Denmark itself, in the form of a belligerent military state, has begun to feature in literature for children. In Hell Man (Gyldendal), Sanne Søndergaard’s main character, the young Thor, goes off to fight in Afghanistan, mainly because he is searching for a future with some kind of point to it and doesn’t know what else to do. Both of these books depict young people who are trying to find real meaning in their lives and are challenged to find out exactly how much they can handle. This theme arises again in Sanne Munk Jensen and Glenn Ringtved’s critically acclaimed novel Dig og Mig ved Daggry (You and Me

LITERATURE FOR BOYS at Dawn – Gyldendal), a fatal story about a love so wild and meaningful that it’s worth dying for. (See also the reference in Books in Brief on page 14.) Another author who embraces major existential issues in his books for younger people is Jesper WungSung, whose Den Sidste Henrettelse (The Last Execution – Høst & Søn) explores the question of the right to life and capital punishment. In his most recent novel, Skolen (The School – Høst & Søn), three black-clad men take over a school and erect a fence around it, while food, medicine and bodybags rain down from the heavens around the unsuspecting school pupils. The book is redolent of The Lord of the Flies and explores the psychological forces that are unleashed when a framework for life goes out of the window, along with all rules and regulations.

Just like Ronnie Andersen, Sanne Søndergaard, Sanne Munk Jensen & Glenn Ringtved, Jesper Wung-Sung combines credible action scenes with effectively portrayed emotions, managing to satisfy the appetites of

readers hungry for action as well as those looking for tension of a more psychological sort. These authors offer action-packed narratives that also contain discussions around empathy, morality and ethics. At the same time, they demonstrate that the book as a concept is still an incomparable method of communication – for both boys and girls – when it comes to conveying the subtle interplay of actions and emotions that occur between all human beings.

Antboy: A complete pushover who, in a remarkable turn of events, ends up saving a whole town from destruction, Kenneth Bøgh Andersen’s Antboy has won a place in every Danish boy’s heart.

The books has been turned into a film series in Denmark, which was sold to the USA before it even reached Danish screens.

FOREIGN RIGHTS: Authors have been published by Carlsen – contact Lindhardt and Ringhof, Lotte Kjeldskouv, lkj@lindhardtogringhof.dk. Corto Publishers – contact Nordin Agency, Henny Holmqvist, henny@nordinagency.se. Alvilda Publishers – contact Alvilda Publishers, Pernille Larsen, pl@ alvilda.dk. Gyldendal and Høst & Søn – contact Gyldendal Group Agency, Louise Langhoff Koch, louise_langhoff_koch@gyldendalgroupagency.dk.

Politiken Publishers – contact Politiken Publishers, Nya Guldberg, Nya.Guldberg@jppol.dk

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YA H H A S YA SAN

DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE

K IM LEINE

E N I R E H T A ANNE- C NIT ZSK Y RIEB

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PHOTO: ANNE-SOPHIE FISCHER KALCKAR

Nordic Council Literature Prize awarded to Kim Leine

G N I N HEN ENSEN MORT When Kim Leine’s striking Greenlandic epic, Profeterne i Evighedsfjorden (The Prophets of Eternal Fjord), was published in 2012, Danish critics were bubbling over with genuine sensual pleasure.

As one enthusiastic reviewer noted, when Kim Leine drops his reader into the middle of the story, “so one shields oneself from the fire and shudders from the ice, scratches one’s wig for lice and grimaces from the stench of blubber and the reek of sweat.” Readers and

AWARDS

IA SA TA O L I VH O F NORDEN

CL AUS BE CK- NIE L S E N

IDA JES SEN

prize committees were obviously in complete agreement, for his story of the prophets planted itself at the top of the bestseller lists and in the months that followed ran away with almost every available Danish prize. The icing on the cake was the Nordic Council Literature Prize for which the adjudicating committee’s citation read: “The 2013 Nordic Council Literature Prize is awarded to Kim Leine for the novel, The Prophets of Eternal Fjord, a gripping epic about suppression and

rebellion, an anti-colonial, wildly sprawling work that fantasises over man as body and mind.”

Kim Leine, born in 1961, was first published in 2007 with his autobiographical novel, Kalak. The Prophets of Eternal Fjord, his fourth novel i set in the 1780s and follows the aspiring priest and anti-hero, Morten Pedersen, on his travels from Norway to Denmark and on to Greenland. There he encounters the charismatic preacher Habakuk and

his wife, who, in an act of rebellion against the Danish colonial power, have established a miniature society deep in Eternal Fjord, the dramatic focal point of the story.

Profeterne i Evighedsfjorden (The Prophets of Eternal Fjord). Gyldendal 2012, 525 pp. PREVIOUS TITLES SOLD TO: France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, USA. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Gyldendal Group Agency, Sofie Voller, sofie_voller@ gyldendalgroupagency.dk

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DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE This powerful and controversial collection hammers resoundingly into Danish taboos and prejudices about second generation Danes, who until now have rarely had a voice in the cultural sphere. Yahya Hassan has redressed the balance, in style. You can read more about him elsewhere in this magazine.

yngel (Slaughtered Pigs) won Politiken’s prestigious novel competition in 2013.

Golden Laurels for novel about a dysfunctional family

Forbandede yngel (Slaughtered Pigs), Politikens Forlag, 329 pp. PREVIOUS TITLES SOLD TO: France, Norway. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Politikens Forlag, Nya Guldberg, Nya. Guldberg@jppol.dk.

PHOTO: SARA SKYTTE

Prizes for uncompromising poetry collection

Yahya Hassan, Gyldendal 2013, 169 pp.

SOLD TO: Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Gyldendal Group Agency, Sofie Voller, sofie_voller@ gyldendalgroupagency.dk

PHOTO: MORTEN HOLTUM

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PHOTO: ALBERT MADSEN

The book stores’ prize, the Golden Laurels, has been awarded to language officer and author Anne-Catherine Riebnitzsky (born 1974) for her novel Forbandede yngel (Slaughtered pigs). The novel pursues the Afghanistan theme, Riebnitzsky explored in her first, non-fiction book, Kvindernes krig (The Women’s War) (2010) and her fictional debut, Den stjålne vej (The Stolen Road). Based closely on the author’s own life circumstances, Forbandede yngel describes the story of a language officer who is sent to Afghanistan, but returns to Denmark when her younger sister tries to commit suicide. On the flight home she talks to the military doctor sitting next to her about her awful, neglected childhood and that dysfunctional family waiting for her back home. A review in Politiken called Forbandede yngel “A moving novel that should be devoured”.

Anne-Cathrine Riebnitzsky won BogForum’s Debutant Prize in 2012 for Den stjålne vej (The Stolen Road) and her book Forbandede

Montana Prize to Lodestone

The whole country is talking about Yahya Hassan, the 18-year-old poet who won BogForum’s Debutant Prize in 2013 and has already made literary history with Denmark’s fastest selling poetry collection of all time. Only a month after his self-titled debut collection of poetry was published, 37,000 copies had already been sold. The authorities come in for a roasting in the collection, which describes a violent childhood characterised by criminality, drug abuse and the experience of being let down again and again and again. After Yahya Hassan was awarded both the daily newspaper Politiken’s Literature Prize in January 2014 and Weekendavisen’s Literature Prize, sales jumped to 100,000.

“If everything doesn’t go under, I believe with time, Nordenhof can become a great, great literary figure at home,” one enthusiastic reviewer wrote for Politiken, upon publication of Asta Olivia Nordenhof’s second collection of poems, Det nemme og det ensomme (The Easy and the Lonely). The review called the young author, born in 1988, “a lodestone drawing clichés upon herself: she is a star, one of a kind”. Seen in that light, it isn’t surprising that the newspaper, Information and Testrup Folk School awarded Nordenhof the Montana Prize for her condensed,

AWARDS Klovnens rejse (The Clown’s Voyage).

Its colourful narrative garnished with historical research. The novel follows the former circus clown, Albert Palopoli. From a care home by the Odense River, his final stop, tells about his life’s voyages through Europe during two world wars, together with his family and best friend, the elephant, Petite Trompe.

Henning Mortensen, born in 1939, has written more than fifty books across all genres, including the ten novel series about Ib Nielsen and the Sondrup trilogy about peculiar events in the province.

autobiographical collection of poems. The Easy and the Lonely positions itself somewhere between broken prose and lyrical composition and with a rare, honest voice, tells of becoming an orphan at a young age, of being admitted to psychiatric wards, of earning a living as a prostitute and of growing up with a violent father - but also of life as a “dishonourable” miracle.

Asta Olivia Nordenhof’s frst collection of poems, Et ansigt til Emily (A Face for Emily) was published in 2011.

Det nemme og det ensomme (The Easy and the Lonely), Basilisk 2013, 55 pp. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Forlaget Basilisk, Peter Høyrup, admin@basilisk.dk

Klovnens rejse (The Clown’s Voyage), Gyldendal 2013, 533 pp. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Gyldendal Group Agency, Sofie Voller, sofie_ voller@gyldendalgroupagency.dk

Medal to Palopoli the clown

Nominations to the Nordic Council PHOTO: MIKLOS SZABO

PHOTO: HANNE WIENBERG

PHOTO: ISOLDE OHLBAUM

“With his sympathetic insight into the comedic and melancholic life of a clown, this diligent author presents a rather peculiar and motley picture of the twentieth century. With its original twist, the novel enters into a long tradition of making use of the insightful, wry perspectives of a jester.” Thus read the citation when author Henning Mortensen secured himself the Holberg Medal for his novel,

This year, Ida Jessen and Claus Beck-Nielsen will represent Denmark in the competition for the Nordic Council Literature Prize. In its citation, the committee says of Ida Jessen’s short stories, Postkort til Annie (Postcard for Annie): “With these short stories, Ida Jessen shines in her literary exploration of the strong ties between people, how they are bound, how they are broken.

It is existential and psychological wisdom in short story form. But it’s also high-energy prose with a sizzling drive in terms of language and composition; its narrative tone is both subdued and reckless and has an indulgent humour and clear, enigmatic images. Claus BeckNielsen formerly wrote under the names Das Beckwerk and Nielsen.

The committee had this to say about his novel, Mine møder med De Danske Forfattere (My Encounters With The Danish Authors): “What is sensational about this book is the humour that constantly balances on the borders of seriousness. The portraits of the Danish authors maybe well be caricatures but they all hold a truth – if only a mythological truth, seen from the point of view of the writer as he recollects himself as young and hesitant man.” The Nordic Council Literature Prize will be awarded in October 2014 in Stockholm.

Ida Jessen Postkort til Annie (Postcard for Annie), Gyldendal 2013, 222 pp. PREVIOUS TITLES SOLD TO: Germany, Korea, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Gyldendal Group Agency, Sofie Voller, sofie_voller@gyldendalgroupagency.dk

Claus Beck-Nielsen Mine møder med De Danske Forfattere (My Encounters With The Danish Authors), Gyldendal 2013, 192 pp. PREVIOUS TITLES SOLD TO: Norway, Sweden. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Leonhardt & Høier Literary Agency, Anneli Høier, anneli@leonhardt-hoier.dk

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DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE

SUPPORT SCHEMES THE DANISH ARTS FOUNDATION’S COMMITTEE FOR LITERARY PROJECT FUNDING WORKS TO PROMOTE DANISH LITERATURE AT HOME AND ABROAD AND HELPS FACILITATE LITERARY EXCHANGE PROJECTS BETWEEN DENMARK AND OTHER COUNTRIES.

INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH PROGRAMME Support may be provided to foreign publishers, heads of festivals and the like who wants to acquire an insight into contemporary Danish literature and visit the Danish publishers, festivals ect., to strengthen network and dialogue between the Danish and international literary partners.

There is no application deadline, and applications will be processed as quickly as practicable.

SAMPLE TRANSLATION FUND Foreign translators, theatres, and publishers may apply for support to finance sample translations of Danish literature.

There is no application deadline, and applications will be processed as quickly as practicable.

TRANSLATION FUND

APPLICATION GUIDELINES, DEADLINES AND ELECTRONIC APPLICATION FORMS MAY BE OBTAINED AT DANISHARTS.DK

Support is provided to foreign publishing houses that publish works translated from Danish. Support is provided to works of fiction, general works of non-fiction, comics/graphic novels, and children’s literature translated by professional translators.

There are three annual application deadlines.

NORDIC TRANSLATION FUND: INTER-NORDIC TRANSLATIONS

CONTACT:

THE DANISH ARTS FOUNDATION’S COMMITTEE FOR LITERARY PROJECT FUNDING LITT@KULTURSTYRELSEN.DK WWW.DANISHARTS.DK 42

Support may only be sought for the translation of works from Danish. Support for translations into Danish must be sought from within the country in which the respective work was originally published. The funds for Nordic translations are distributed on behalf of the Art and Culture Program of Nordic Culture Point under the Nordic Council of Ministers.

There are three annual application deadlines.

SUPPORT SCHEMES

SAMPLE TRANSLATION FUND INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH PROGRAMME

GENERAL FUND

TRANSLATION FUND

THE DANISH ARTS FOUNDATION SUPPORT SCHEMES

PROMOTION GRANTS

NORDIC TRANSLATION FUND

LITERARY EXCHANGE FUND

LITERARY EXCHANGE FUND

GENERAL FUND

Support may be provided to defray travel and hotel expenses in connection with a Danish author’s participation in literary festivals, readings and publication events abroad, if there is a formal invitation.

Support may be provided to foreign authors travelling to Denmark on the same conditions.

In addition, foreign translators of Danish literature may apply for support to defray travel expenses in connection with shorter stays in Denmark.

Professional translators may apply for travel grants in connection with specific translation projects as well as for supplemental linguistic and cultural training.

There is no application deadline, and applications will be processed as quickly as practicable.

Normally, support is only provided for events, publications, and seminars in Denmark. In exceptional cases, however, the Danish Arts Foundation’s Committee for Literary Project Funding may subsidize the publication abroad of Danish works in translation and events, that have a special focus on Danish literature.

In a pilot project the Danish Arts Foundation’s Committee for Literary Project Funding has earmarked special funds to cover the cost of printing and production for foreign publishers wishing to publish Danish illustrated children’s books in translation. Publishers can apply for a set grant of 1,000 euros.

There are two annual application deadlines.

PROMOTION GRANTS Foreign publishers can apply for grants for the promotion of Danish literature abroad.

There are three annual application deadlines.

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THE DANISH ARTS FOUNDATION WORKS TO PROMOTE ART IN DENMARK AND DANISH ART ABROAD. THE DANISH AGENCY FOR CULTURE IS THE ADMINSTRATIVE ARM OF THE DANISH ARTS FOUNDATION. www.danisharts.dk

ORGANISATIONS DANISH WRITERS OF FICTION AND POETRY

THE DANISH WRITERS ASSOCIATION

was founded in 1991 and has approx. 200 members

is Denmark’s oldest professional association for writers and translators. It was founded in 1894 and has approx.

1350 members. The association includes the Danish Translators Association. df@danskforfatterforening.dk / www.danskforfatterforening.dk

kontor@skoenlit.dk / www.skoenlit.dk

THE DANISH PLAYWRIGHTS’ AND SCREENWRITERS’ GUILD (founded in 1906) is an association for theater, radio, television and film scriptwriters.

It has approx. 300 members. admin@dramatiker.dk / www.dramatiker.dk

THE DANISH BOOKSELLERS ASSOCIATION is a trade association for Danish booksellers.

The association has approx. 380 members and represents 90% of all Danish booksellers. ddb@bogpost.dk / www.boghandlerforeningen.dk

THE DANISH PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION (founded in 1837) is a trade association for individuals and firms involved in the publishing industry.

The association accounts for approx. 2/3 of the overall turnover from Danish publications, including multimedia. danskeforlag@danskeforlag.dk / www.danskeforlag.dk

DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED BY THE DANISH ARTS FOUNDATION’S COMMITTEE FOR LITERARY PROJECT FUNDING. THE MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED TWICE ANNUALLY. DANI S H AR T S . D K