DANISH ARTS COUNCIL

DANISH LITER ARY MAGA ZINE

SPRING

2013

The main aim of the magazine is to inform foreign

publishers, literary agents and translators about trends
in Danish literature and publicise sources of literature
funding available from The Danish Arts Council.
For details about the work of the Danish Arts Council
please visit
www.danisharts.dk & www.kunst.dk

TEXT & TRANSLATION

All articles in this edition are written by Lotte Kirkeby Hansen, a journalist with an M.A. in literature.
The articles are translated by Barbara Haveland.

COVER illustration
Helle Vibeke Jensen (born 09.09.1960) is a Danish illustrator and designer who took a degree in fashion design
from the Danish Design School in 1988. Her work includes picture books, illustrated books, educational material,
posters, rugs and designs for both indoor and outdoor exhibitions. In 2004 she was awarded the Danish Ministry of
Cultures Illustrator Prize for the picture book HR HER STR! (LISTEN STARLING!), written by Louis Jensen.
And in 2011 she received the Danish Arts Foundations three-year working scholarship. Helle Vibeke Jensen
employs collage techniques, drawings and photography and picks up ideas for her work on her travels
and in workshops held all over the world.
See www.hebiinu.com and hellevibekejensen.dk

Danish Literary Magazine is Published by

The Danish Arts Councils Comittee for Literature
www.kunst.dk

Editor-in-Chief
Annette Bach
aba@kulturstyrelsen.dk

Editor
Lars Sidenius
lsi@kulturstyrelsen.dk

Editorial Assistant
Sren Beltoft
sbe@kulturstyrelsen.dk

Design
NR2154

PRINT
Green Graphic

Contact us
Kulturstyrelsen / Literature
H.C. Andersens Boulevard 2, 1553 Copenhagen V, Denmark
Tel. +45 3373 3373, litteratur@kunst.dk

Contents
p. 4

NEWS FROM DENMARK

p. 8

SREN AABYE KIERKEGAARD

p. 12

BOOKS IN BRIEF
p. 18

Suzanne brgger
p. 20

Erling Jepsen
p. 22

RECENTLY SOLD
p. 30

Morten Sndergaard
p. 32

Classics in new garb

p.38

AWARDS
p. 42

SUPPORT SCHEMES
p.44

ORGANISATIONS

DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE

NEWS
DENM

Fiction

Everyday dramas and families

particularly of the dysfunctional
variety feature largely in this
springs crop of new fiction. The
Danish family from the 1950s in

Suzanne
Brggers
novel Til T (To T) cant so much
as manage to go for a picnic in the
woods or serve tea for Granma and
Grandpa when they come round,
and the roles of parents and children
are totally reversed in a book which
is as much a cultural critique as it is a
family drama (see also p. 18).

Erling
Jepsen
4

too tackles family secrets, repressed

feelings and parental ineptitude in
Min snderjyske farm (Out of Jutland),
the story of young Allan, who
breeds rabbits and struggles to come
to terms with his parentage not
least on the paternal side (see also p.
20). The family theme is also taken
lovingly in hand by

Katrine Marie
Guldager
in Den ny tid (The New Age), the
third volume in her chronicle of
several generations of a family
from the Danish provincial town
of Kge. Guldagers trilogy began
with the novel Ulven (The Wolf) and
continued with Lille hjerte (Little
Heart) which was acclaimed by
one ecstatic critic as something
quite unique in modern Danish
literature.

Dennis
Gade Kofod
puts a twist on the classic kitchen
sink drama in his novel Genfrd
(Ghost) by taking his grieving central
character into the realms of magic
and the absurd: Frederik checks in
to a hotel a place with a strange
and mysterious air about it, fraught
with bewildering secrets and baffling
family relationships. Minna, the
woman in

Dorthe
Norss
romantic (tragi-)comedy Minna
mangler et velokale (Minna Needs a
Rehearsal Room) also finds life pretty
bewildering. Here we are introduced
to a woman who is trying to get back
on her feet and reconcile herself to

NEWS FROM DENMARK

FROM
MARK
the things she feels are missing in
her life such as a rehearsal room in
which to compose her paper sonatas
in peace, a child (but her boyfriend
just broke up with her) and, generally
speaking, a reason for living. Poet

Niels
Frank
makes his fictional debut with Nellies
bog (Nellies Book), an account
of a family visit to the United
States in which he describes the
things his fictional character Nellie
experiences along the way in a
mixture of modern and antiquated
language, of Danish, American and
dialect.

Svend Aage
Madsen

experiments with style and form in

his latest novel Pigen i cementblanderen
(The Girl in the Cement Mixer), in
which a small town in the Danish
provinces provides the setting for a
mysterious suicide, a murky family
history and a succession of crimes,
some past, some present and some
invented elements used in these
stories to explore the question of
when a crime is really a crime.
There is no shortage of crimes of a
clearer, more tangible sort in

Simon
Pasternaks
Ddszoner (Death Zones), set in
White Russia in July 1943, at the
time of the German massacre
of civilians there. Two boyhood
friends, Manfred and Heinrich,
are serving with the German army.
Manfred thrives in the moral

morass, while Heinrich finds it

harder to steer a course through
the Nazi system and still maintain
his reason and his honour. Both
of them become caught up in the
investigation of the murder of SS
General Felix Steiner, Manfreds
mentor; and Heinrich embarks on
a journey into the dark heart of
an impenetrable moral wasteland.
Simon Pasternak has previously,
together with his fellow author
Christian Dorph, written three
crime thrillers Om et jeblik i
himlen (In a Moment in Heaven),
Afgrundens rand (Edge of the Abyss)
and Jeg er ikke her (Im Not Here).

Crime fiction
Although malicious tongues would
have it that the crime wave is starting
to subside, there is no lack of new
crime novels on the Danish market.

DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE

Leif
Davidsen

Steffen
Jacobsen

has won a host of prizes for his

thrillers and since 1984, when his
first novel appeared, his books
have been translated into fifteen
languages. Now comes a new thriller
from Davidsens hand, Patriarkens
hndelige dd (The Accidental Death
of the Patriarch). The novel is set in
Russia, in Putins own, very unique,
version of a democracy. In Moscow
two deaths occur on the same day:
the Patriarch of all Russia passes
away peacefully in his sleep and
shortly afterwards a Dane, Gabriel
Lassen, is beaten to death in a
back court. On the surface there
is no connection between these
two deaths but back in Denmark
Gabriels twin brother comes by
information that seems to point the
other way. The action in

Trof (Trophy), which follows the

fortunes of Elizabeth Caspersen, the
wealthy Danish heiress to a worldwide
industrial empire. In her late fathers
safe Elizabeth finds a DVD of a
cynical, well-organised manhunt
which culminates in the death of a
young man. She hires an ex-soldier to
identify both victim and executioner,
only for him also to become embroiled
in a manhunt one in which he ends
up as the prey. In the new novel from

Morten
Hesseldahls
latest crime novel, his fourth, also
takes place in a number of different
countries. In En tid til at d (A Time
to Die) a disgraced Danish army
chaplain comes home from the war
in Afghanistan to a half empty bedsit, an uncertain future and, not least,
to his brother, who has his life all
mapped out. He also has distinctly
shady plans, though, of intervening
in a crisis in the Central African
country of Abu Sidre. The former
chaplain becomes caught up in this
game of intrigue, much against his
will, when his brother disappears
and a blonde assassin shows up on
a remote Danish island. There is a
fourth novel too from

Robert Zola
Christensen
it is the central character, scientist
Theis, whose is dispatched on a
hunt. Is i blodet (Ice in the Blood) is a
scientific crime novel which depicts
the in-fighting between researchers in
Greenland and Alaska, where Theis
is faced with the mass death of the
entire crew of a Greenland research
and a missing girlfriend whom he
absolutely has to find. Newcomer

Jakob
Melander
on the other hand, stays within the
bounds of Denmark in jesten (The
House that Jack Built). Melander
achieved the distinction of having
this, his first novel, sold to several
countries even before it appeared
in Denmark. jesten is a critically
acclaimed crime novel from the
streets of Copenhagen, where a
macabre murder shocks the whole
city. This killing, later to become
known as the Sandman case, proves

to be linked to events that took place

during the Second World War. jesten
is the first volume in a projected
series featuring Detective-Sergeant
Lars Winkler (see also Recently Sold).
Spring also sees the appearance of
new titles on the historical crime
front, including two new titles from

Martin
Jensen
namely volumes four and five in
his series on Winston, Halfdan and
Alfilda, snoops and henchmen to
King Canute. These latest two books
in Jensens series set in England
during Viking times are entitled Den
tredje mnt (The Third Coin) and
Svrdets bid (Sword Edge). See also
Books in Brief for more information
on new Danish crime fiction.

Childrens books
A number of Denmarks best known
and most respected writers of adult
fiction have also turned their hands to
childrens books, among them

Katrine Marie
Guldager
who has just published two new
books in her series on Little Miss Fine
Frken Fine skal til fdselsdag (Little
Miss Fine Goes to a Birthday Party)
and Frken Fine har vret p ferie (Little
Miss Fines Holiday). Both of these
concern her relationship with her
best friend Bitte, which is not always
quite the way Little Miss Fine would
like it to be. These books are ideal for
reading aloud or as early readers.

NEWS FROM DENMARK

Jens Christian
Grndahl
has also written a childrens book,
his very first, entitled Med bedstemor
i tidens labyrinth (Travelling with
Granny through the Maze of Time)
(see also Books in Brief), while

Ida Jessen &

Hanne Bartholin
continues their successful
collaboration with the fourth book
in their picture-book series for the
very young about Carl the elephant
Da Carl havde det sjovt (When Carl
Had Fun). In the Carl books Jessen
and Bartholin present stories of
little everyday dramas as they are
experienced by the young readers
themselves. In this latest title Carl
is home alone with his Dad. They
are going to have a lovely day
together, just the two of them, but
first Dad has to do some work, read
the paper, talk on the phone and do
the shopping ... Ubiquitous, awardwinning author

Jakob
Martin Strid

(see also Literary prizes in this issue)

has also taken elephants as his subject,
in his picture books about Mimbo
Jimbo. In the latest title in this series
Mimbo Jumbo i Norge (Mimbo Jimbo in
Norway) the little blue elephant and
his friend Mimbo Jumbo the hippo,
go to visit a very nice little girl called
Nina, who lives in Norway.

Rene Toft
Simonsen
has previously written books for older
children, including the popular Karla
series. Just out from her is a new book
for the very small, Tiberius Tudefjs
laver muskler (Tiberius Cry-baby
Muscle-builder) in which Tiberius
runs into trouble at school when some
of the big boys threaten to beat him
up. But how is he to defend himself
when he doesnt have any muscles?
Among this springs offerings for
older readers we find PSSST!, a
graphic novel for girls in their tweens
which looks at the subject of identity
from various angles: Who am I?
Why am I the way I am? What do
I want to do with my life? In twelve
independent chapters

Annette Herzog
& Katrine Clante

introduce the reader to twelve-year-old

Viola and her thoughts and ideas on
life, death, friends, family, loneliness,
personal appearance and popularity.
In the Young Adult category there is a
stark and powerful first novel from

Conrad
Fields
In Minusmand (Minus Man) he tells
the story of two friends, Tobias and
Ali who find themselves one day on
opposite sides in a violent conflict.
In Minusmand Fields has written a
tale about identity, friendship and
love and about an underclass that
is seldom addressed in fiction. In
Komats (Coma Chick), a novel for
older teenagers,

Ronnie
Andersen
also gets to grips with the grimmer
side of life. Fourteen-year-old Maj
leads a nomadic existence with her
mother, who has a serious drink
problem. Maj is so sick and tired
of her life that when she falls into
ice-cold water she cannot find the
strength to fight for it and ends up
in a coma.

Suzanne Brgger is published by Gyldendal. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Gyldendal Group Agency. Erling Jepsen is published by Gyldendal. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Leonhardt
& Hier Literary Agency. Katrine Marie Guldager is published by Lindhardt og Ringhof. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Lindhardt og Ringhof. Dennis Gade Kofod is published
by Rosinante. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Gyldendal Group Agency. Dorthe Nors is published by Rosinante. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Gyldendal Group Agency. Niels Frank
is published by Gyldendal. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Gyldendal Group Agency. Svend Aage Madsen is published by Gyldendal. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Gyldendal Group
Agency. Simon Pasternak is published by Gyldendal. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Gyldendal Group Agency. Leif Davidsen is published by Lindhardt og Ringhof. FOREIGN
RIGHTS: Leonhardt & Hier Literary Agency. Morten Hesseldahl is published by Modtryk. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Leonhardt & Hier Literary Agency. Steffen
Jakobsen is published by PeoplesPress. FOREIGN RIGHTS: PeoplesPress. Robert Zola Christensen is published by Gyldendal. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Gyldendal
Group Agency. Jakob Melander is published by Rosinante. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Gyldendal Group Agency. Martin Jensen is published by Klim, FOREIGN RIGHTS:
Klim. Katrine Marie Guldager (childrens books) is published by Carlsen. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Lindhardt og Ringhof. Jens Christian Grndahl (childrens books) is
published by Carlsen. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Lindhardt og Ringhof. Ida Jessen & Hanne Bartholin are published by Hst & Sn. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Gyldendal Group
Agency. Rene Toft Simonsen is published by Politikens Forlag. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Politikens Forlag. Jakob Martin Strid is published by Gyldendal. FOREIGN
RIGHTS: Gyldendal Group Agency.Annette Herzog & Katrine Clante are published by Hst & Sn. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Gyldendal Group Agency. Conrad Fields is
published by Gyldendal. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Gyldendal Group Agency. Ronnie Andersen is published by Hst & Sn. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Gyldendal Group Agency.

DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE

Being
human

May 5th 2013 is the 200th anniversary of the

birth of Danish theologian, philosopher and
writer Sren Aabye Kierkegaard. The bicentennial
will be celebrated all over the world, not least in
Denmark where Siri Hustvedt, Slavoj iek and
Gianni Vattimo will be among the speakers at a
major international conference.
8

Sren Aabye Kierkegaard

The Great thing is not to be This

or That; but to be oneself, and this
any Man can do, if he so wishes
Sren Kierkegaard, Enten-Eller (Either-Or)

What is a human being? And how does one

become oneself? These are just a couple of
the existential philosophical questions that
occupied Sren Kierkegaard. According to
him, to become who we are we have to actively
do something. The responsibility rests with us.
And the work of becoming the person we want
to be should be done with passion. Kierkegaard
tries to get us to think about who we are. He
tries to show us what to do if we dont like the
individual we perceive, to save us from simply
adopting the image of the person others think
we should be.
But this is a responsibility from which we
tend to flee. Then as now. And it is, among
other things, his way of wrestling with these
problems that makes Sren Kierkegaard such
a classic and eternally relevant thinker. In his
writings he homes in on points that never cease
to be topical, as can be seen from the interest in
his work, which may not have had such a huge
impact in his own day, but which has gradually
built up a strong and stable following.
Sren Kierkegaards philosophy of existence,
which places the individual at the centre of
things, has been the inspiration for much of
modern European existentialist thinking for
Sartre, Camus, Heidegger, Adorno, Barth and
Bultmann. Kierkegaard himself was influenced
by the German idealists Kant, Hegel and
Schopenhauer as well as by Plato, Socrates
and the whole of the ancient school of idealism.

Sren Aabye Kierkegaard died on November

11th 1855. His was a short life, but one in which
he managed to produce an impressive number
of works, including Enten-Eller (Either-Or)
(1843), Philosophiske Smuler (Philisophical
Fragments) (1844), Begrebet Angest (The Concept
of Anxiety) (1844), Kjerlighedens Gjerninger
(Works of Love) (1847) and Sygdommen til
Dden (The Sickness unto Death) (1849). Since
1994 Gads Forlag has been working with the
Danish Sren Kierkegaard Research Centre
on an edition of his collected works. This has
now been completed all fifty-five volumes
of it and the finished work will be presented
to the University of Copenhagen as part of
the bicentennial celebrations. Elsewhere in
the world fresh shoots are also springing from
the Kierkegaardian loam, with translations
under way in the following languages: English,
French, Dutch, Italian, Chinese, Korean,
Latvian, Portugese, Rumanian, Spanish, Czech,
German and Hungarian. The English, French
and German projects are concentrating on the
translation of all of Kierkegaards journals,
notebooks and miscellaneous papers; the
Spanish project is devoted to his published
works; elsewhere it is a matter of translations of
individual works.

Read more about the Danish Sren Kierkegaard Research

Centre which also holds translation seminars at www.
skc.dk, and about the national and international celebration
of the Kierkegaard bicentennial at www.sk2013.ku.dk

DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE

I came by Regine Olsens letters only through

a stroke of pure luck. No one, publically or
in academic circles, knew they existed. But
after a talk I had given on Sren Kierkegaard
an elderly couple came up to me and asked if
I was also interested in his one-time fiance,
Regine, because they had a bundle of letters
belonging to her correspondence between her
and her sister Cornelia during the years 1855
to 1860, when Regine was living in the Danish
West Indies with her husband.
It is hard to underestimate exactly how
much Regine meant to Kierkegaard. Her
significance to his life and his work is far
greater than first imagined. He dedicates
his entire body of work to his father and to
Regine, the person who really brings out the
writer in him and the great inspiration for an
untold number of his stories about love - both
consummated and unconsummated. And it
was Regine, not least, who gave him insight
into the nature of erotic love.
The bond between Kierkegaard and Regine
was very close. Their fascinating love story
is proof that Platonic love can be every bit as
intense as sexual love. They were never able
to break free of one another, even though they
were only officially engaged for a year. Regine
remains an engima in his life, one to which he
continually returns, analyzing and interpreting
it. He breaks off the engagement in 1841 and
for the next fourteen years, until she leaves
for the Danish West Indies, they do not speak.
Although they meet often. They have their
regular routes on which their paths wordlessly

cross. On the day of her departure Regine seeks

out Kierkegaard in the street and blesses him:
a moving scene in the heart of Copenhagen, in
which the man of many words is speechless, in
which the woman takes the initiative, in which
the non-theologian blesses the theologian.
Little attention is paid by scholars to Regine
after the point when Kierkegaard breaks off
their engagement, and hardly any at all from
the time of his death, but she herself does not
die until 1904, so she lives to see the modern
world. Her letters have afforded me the unique
opportunity to say something about her as an
independent woman. What sort of person is
she? What is going on in her mind? It surprised
me to find her so open in her letters, although
she had to choose her words very carefully since
letters would have been passed round the whole
family back then. She has often been presented
as a pretty little china doll, a mere ornament, but
her letters show her to be a reflective, amusing
individual with her own range of emotions, her
own dreams, opinions and riddles.
Regines gde (The Mystery of Regine) is a
long meditation on the nature of love. On
loving someone who is dead and gone, on
being limited in the ways one can express
ones love. There is a passion and a spirit
in these letters that has moved me; a search
for an explanation, for answers to existential
relationships, to ones relationship with
oneself, with God, with death and with this
man Kierkegaard. In Regines letters we are
presented with an individual of great sensibility
and a refreshing streak of self-irony.

A meditatio
the nature o
Joakim Garff, (born 1960), scholar and writer, has previously written the critically acclaimed biography of
Sren Kierkegaard, SAK, which has been translated into a number of languages. See also Books in Brief.

10

Sren Aabye Kierkegaard

With the publication of his book Regines gde

(The Mystery of Regine) on Sren Kierkegaards
erstwhile fiance, Regine Olsen, Joakim Garff can
now call himself the worlds only reginologist

n on
of love

11

Books i
DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE

A Modern
Robinsonade

Multi-narrative novel about

the artistic temperament

A blackbird trills a liquid song and all the living creatures

in the world fall into a trance. This is the starting point
for the latest book from Peter Adolphsen, in which every
human being and every animal is so it seems caught
in the midst of whatever move they were making when
the world came to a halt. Each one repeats this same
action again and again, as if in a loop, all except Mark. He
is one of the survivors who does not loop and can do as
he pleases: indulge himself, both materially and sexually.
But he gradually grows bored with this and as time
goes on he becomes more and more interested in what
actually happened when the blackbird trilled its song and in finding other survivors. In r 9 efter Loopet (Year 9
After the Loop) Peter Adolphsen (born 1972) has written
an off-beat, ultra-modern Robinsonade garnished with
women, weapons and a sprinkling of quantum physics.
Adolphsen made his literary debut in 1996 with the
critically acclaimed Sm historier (Small Stories) and
followed this up in 2000 with Sm historier 2 (Small
Stories 2) and in 2007 with En million historier (A Million
Stories). He has also published two novels, Brummstein
(2003) and Machine (2006).

A body of work that speaks of remarkable growth and

development. So wrote Weekendavisens reviewer
in 2009 of Julia Butschkows novel Apropos Opa, and
prophesied a sure and solid place for Butschkow on the
literary heights. In her latest work, Aber dabei, she picks
up the threads of her breakthrough novel in an account
of mental illness and a fragile artistic temperament
narrated by the various people associated with a senior
consultant on a psychiatric unit in Copenhagen. The
consultant cares for the sick while his wife stays home
and dreams of writing. But she is short on subject
matter. And so she is forever asking her husband about
his patients e.g. about the lawyer who talks nonstop
and propositions both staff and fellow patients. Julia
Butschkow (born 1978) published her first work,
the poetry collection Lykkekomplex (The Happiness
Complex), in 1997, but her real breakthrough came in
2009 with the novel Apropos Opa, which was nominated
for the Danmarks Radio Fiction Prize. More recently she
has published the collection of short stories Der er ingen
bjerge i Danmark (There Are No Mountains in Denmark)
(2011).

Peter Adolphsen

Julia Butschkow

r 9 efter Loopet (Year 9 After the Loop), Samleren 2013, 96 pp.

Previous titles sold to: France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands,
Norway, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States.
Foreign rights: Leonhardt & Hier Literary Agency, Anneli Hier,
anneli@leonhardt-hoier.dk

12

Aber Dabei, Samleren 2013, 170 pp.

Previous titles sold to: The Netherlands, Norway.
Foreign Rights: Gyldendal Group Agency, Sofie Voller,
sofie_voller@gyldendalgroupagency.dk

in brief
BOOKS IN BRIEF

Essays from the

author of Lucca

Love and
destiny

According to the French newspaper Le Monde Jens

Christian Grndahl is one of the greatest living Danish
writers. Grndahls works including the novels Lucca
(1998), Et andet lys (An Altered Light) (2002) and Fr vi
siger farvel (Before We say Goodbye) (2012) - have been
published in more than thirty countries. Now comes a
new book from Jens Christian Grndahl, a collection of
essays on art and literature where he considers the links
between life and work, between tradition and modernity,
referring in the process to Saul Bellow, Marcel Proust,
Odysseus, Patrick Modiano and Wim Wenders. Jens
Christian Grndahl (born 1959) published his first book
in 1985. In the years since then he has produced almost
a score of titles within various genres. In 2013 he will
be venturing into what is, for him, totally new territory
when he makes his debut as a childrens writer with a
read-aloud book for children of early primary school
age. In Med bedstemor i tidens labyrint (Travelling with
Granny through the Maze of Time) we are introduced to
Nina, a little girl who travels back through time with her
grandmother to Copenhagen at the time of the Second
World War. Illustrated by Lars Gabel.

A superb spring read, A fascinating, beautifully written

book. So said the press of Morten Brasks fictional
biography of one of the worlds greatest geniuses,
William Sidis perfekte liv (The Perfect Life of William
Sidi), published in 2011. Now comes a new novel from
Brasks hand, this time a realistic contemporary novel
about the beginnings of love and its end, about living with
both intense happiness and deep sorrow and about
making a decision, leaving the world behind and starting
afresh. That is what the first-person narrator of Brasks
En pige og en dreng (A Girl And A Boy) is destined to do
when he loses his young twins after years of loving and
battling with his darling Maya. He does not share her
burning desire to have children and build a family and
this eventually casts a shadow over their love for one
another until the day when the children, a boy and a girl,
are born. Morten Brask (born 1970) has written seven
books, including three works of fiction. He made his
debut as a writer of fiction in 2007 with the novel Havet i
Theresienstadt (The Sea in Theresienstadt) (2007) which
was nominated for the Prix du Roman Fnac in 2011.

Mo r te n

Brask

En pige og
en dreng
R

M A N

P O L I T I K E N S

Jens Christian Grndahl

Den sibiriske mne (The Siberian Moon), Lindhardt og Ringhof 2013, 160 pp.
Previous titles sold to: More than thirty countries. Foreign Rights:
Roger, Coleridge & White Literary Agency, London. info@rcwlitagency.com
Med bedstemor i tidens labyrint (Travelling with Granny Through the Maze
of Time), Carlsen 2013, 112 pp. Foreign Rights: Lindhardt og Ringhof,
Susanne Gribfeldt, susanne.gribfeldt@lindhardtogringhof.dk

F O R L A G

Morten Brask
En pige og en dreng (A Girl And A Boy), Politikens Forlag 2013, 225 pp.
Previous titles sold to: France, Greece, Italy.
Foreign Rights: Lars Ringhof Agency, Esthi Kunz, esthi@ringhof.dk

13

Books i
DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE

3x
Kierkegaard

2013 sees the 200th anniversary of the birth of

the Danish philosopher and writer Sren Aabye
Kierkegaard. Several books are being published
to mark the bicentennial (see also p. 8-11 in this
magazine). Joakim Garff, scholar and author of a
major Kierkegaard biography from 2000, SAK Sren
Aaby Kierkegaard. En biografi (SAK Sren Aabye
Kierkegaard. A Biography) has just published a book
about Regine Olsen, the woman to whom Kierkegaard
was at one time engaged. Garff has come into
possession of over a hundred hitherto unknown letters
written by Regine during her years in the West Indies
with her husband Johan Frederik Schlegel when he
was Governor-General out there. These letters, which
form the basis for his new book, Regines gde (The
Mystery of Regine), show her to be a woman of flesh

and blood, opinions and desires, and shed fresh light

on one of the most puzzling love affairs in Danish
history.
In his fictional biography of Sren Kierkegaard,
Stig Dalager paints an existential, psychological
picture of the world-renowned philosopher on his
deathbed, looking back on his life and on those
people who have touched it, while Oscar K. (see also
p. 32-37 in this magazine) presents his own unique
and utterly subjective view of Sren Kierkegaards
life in an illustrated novel which revolves around the
central themes of death and sex, mother and father
fixations, normality and absurdity, and in which the
Danish philosopher is brought into the present by
a young female quantum physicist. Illustrated by
Rasmus Svarre.

Joakim Garff

Historien om
Kierkegaards forlovede
og Schlegels hustru

Joakim Garff

Stig Dalager

Oscar K.

Regines gde (The Mystery of Regine),

Gads Forlag 2013, 500 pp. Previous titles
SOLD TO: Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands,
Norway, Poland, Sweden, United States.
Foreign Rights: Leonhardt & Hier Literary
Agency, Anneli Hier, anneli@leonhardt-hoier.dk

jeblikkets evighed (The Eternity of the

Moment), Lindhardt og Ringhof 2013, 208 pp.
Previous titles SOLD TO: France, Germany,
Italy, Sweden, United Kingdom. Foreign Rights:
Lindhardt og Ringhof, Susanne Gribfeldt,
susanne.gribfeldt@lindhardtogringhof.dk

Kbenhavnerfortolkningen
(The Copenhagener Interpretation),
Jensen & Dalgaard 2013, 104 pp. Previous
titles SOLD TO: Canada, Ireland, Norway,
Russia, Sweden. Foreign Rights: Jensen &
Dalgaard, jensen@jensenogdalgaard.dk

14

in brief
BOOKS IN BRIEF

r
dE

Love first
and foremost

When and why did we become afraid of aggression? An

excellent, and very big question, and one which Jesper
Juul, author of Dit kompetente barn (Your Competent
Child), asks himself in his new book Aggression. Et nyt
og farligt tabu? (Aggression. A New and Dangerous
Taboo?). Juul focuses specifically on pre-school children
and school children, an alarming number of whom are
being sent from nurseries and schools to all manner of
therapists simply for expressing anger or frustration.
And yet no research to speak of is being conducted
into the question of aggression. It is our own personal
perception of what constitutes over-aggressive and
hence unacceptable - behaviour that is changing; a
development which, according to long-time family
therapist Jesper Juul, does great damage, both
psychologically and socially, to our children. Because,
if we do not teach them to relate to and recognise their
own aggressive tendencies and differentiate between
the constructive and the destructive sorts while they are
still young, they will be even more aggressive and selfdestructive in their teens.

Jan Sonnergaard laid down several rules for himself

when writing his latest book. One was that he had to stay
for at least three months in each of the places in which
his stories were set and finish them on location. Another
was that he had to be completely familiar with every spot
mentioned in the stories, from the seediest brothel to the
most expensive Michelin-starred restaurant. Out of this
has come a book that deals, first and foremost with love,
and not just with romance and being in love, but with
jealousy and violence, charity and altruism, infidelity
and betrayal. Jan Sonnergaard (born 1963) made
his major breakthrough in 1997 with the short story
collection Radiator, which won him the status of leading
spokesman for the new raw Nineties realism. He went
on to complete a trilogy of short story collections with
Sidste sndag i oktober (Last Sunday in October) (2000)
and Jeg er stadig bange for Caspar Michael Petersen
(Im Still Afraid of Caspar Michael Petersen) (2003). In
2009 Jan Sonnergaard published his first novel, Om
atomkrigens betydning for Vilhelm Funks ungdom (On the
Significance of Nuclear War on Vilhelm Funks Youth).

Jesper Juul

so groartige neue Erzhlungssammlung

von alice Munro, einer der bedeutendsten autorinnen der gegenwart. himmel
und hlle: neun geschichten, scheinbar
alltglich-harmlos wie ein Kinderspiel und
doch von beklemmender abgrndigkeit.
immer sind es verstrickungen des gefhls,

aggression

die seltsamen, oft komischen Sehnschte

aggression

des menschlichen herzens und die leisen

Katastrophen, die Munro mit ihrem feinen
gehr fr zwischenmenschliche Misstne
aufsprt. und fast immer sind es die leben
von Frauen, die, wie in einem vexierspiegel
verschiedenen Blickwinkeln ausgesetzt,
in den widersprchlichen Mglichkeiten
ihres Schicksals erkundet werden wie in
der geschichte mit dem vielsagenden Titel
hasst er mich, mag er mich, liebt er mich,

Jesper Juul

hr.
en
r
,
ge-

Forbidden
aggression

hochzeit von dem seltsamen Schicksal

warum sie fr uns und

unsere Kinder notwendig ist

einer ltlichen hausangestellten, die, von

zwei biestigen Teenagern auf fatale weise
in die irre geschickt, dank ihrer willenskraft
ihrem verkmmerten dasein eine hchst
berraschende wendung zu geben vermag.
Schicksalhafte gefhlsbeziehungen, verdrngte Schuld, die heimlich weiterwirkt,
unentdeckte, jedoch in ahnungen stets
gegenwrtige Familienrtsel, trgerisch
unauffllige Momente

S.Fischer

Jesper Juul

Jan Sonnergaard

Aggression. Et nyt og farlig tabu? (Aggression. A New and Dangerous

Taboo?), Lindhardt og Ringhof 2013, 175 pp. PREVIOUS TITLES SOLD TO:
Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany,
Iceland, Italy, Korea, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Rumania, Slovenia,
Spain, Sweden, United States. Foreign Rights: Leonhardt & Hier
Literary Agency, Monica Gram, monica@leonhardt-hoier.dk

Otte opbyggelige fortllinger om krlighed og mad og fremmede byer

(Eight Edifying Stories of Love, and Food and Foreign Cities), Gyldendal
2013, 512 pp. Previous titles sold to: Germany, Hungary, Iceland, the
Netherlands, Serbia. Foreign Rights: Leonhardt & Hier Literary Agency,
Monica Gram, monica@leonhardt-hoier.dk

15

Books i
DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE

Danish crime series

Its good to see new titles this spring from a number

of Danish crime writers, all adding to their respective
series with style and assurance. Here we have, for
example, Lene Kaaberbl, presenting the second
volume of her projected trilogy on the Cadaver Doctor,
entitled Det levende kd (Living Flesh). In a backyard
in the small French provincial town of Varbourg a
grisly discovery is made: the badly mutilated body of
a young Italian prostitute. But Madeleine Karno, the
cadaver doctors assistant, does not buy the yellow
presss conjectures that a new Jack the Ripper is
at work. She does not believe that the mutilation of

the victim was entirely random with the greatest

precision someone has removed the young womans
womb and the unborn baby she had been carrying.
Susanne Staun, on the other hand, concerns herself
with a more modern, but no less grim world in the third
volume in her series on forensic pathologist Maria
Krause whose friend and colleague, Little John, has
just hung himself. Or did he? Was it an accident? Or
murder? Or suicide? The answer is to be found in Helt
til grnsen (To The Limit), the sequel to Dderummet
(The Death Room) (2010) which won the Harald
Mogensen Prize for best crime novel of the year and

Lene Kaaberbl

Susanne Staun

Det levende kd (Living Flesh), Modtryk 2013, 300 pp.

Previous titles sold to: More than twenty countries.
The Kadaverdoktoren (Cadaver Doctor) titles have so far been sold to Italy,
Norway, Spain, United States. Foreign rights: Lars Ringhof Agency,
Esthi Kunz, esthi@ringhof.dk

16

Helt til grnsen (To The Limit), Gyldendal 2013, 314 pp.
PREVIOUS TITLES SOLD TO: Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy,
the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden. Foreign Rights: Gyldendal Group
Agency, Sofie Voller, sofie_voller@gyldendal.dk

in brief
BOOKS IN BRIEF

Hilsen fra Rexville (Greetings From Rexville) (2011).

There is a new title, too, from Jussi Adler-Olsen, who
has reached volume five of his series on Department
Q and Detective Inspector Carl Mrck. Marco Effekten
(The Marco Effect) follows the fortunes of Marco, a
young boy led into a life of crime at an early age by his
Uncle Zola, a man regarded in many circles as highly
undesirable. As Department Q is drawn deeper and
deeper into the investigation of Zola, Carl Mrck finds
himself caught up in a web of crime and corruption
that stretches all the way from the Danish Ministry
of Justice to Africa. Eget ansvar (At Your Own Risk) is

01

02

03

04

05

06

07

32

33

34

35

35

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

the title of Elsebeth Egholms seventh crime novel

featuring journalist Dicte. This time, however, Dicte
is not working alone. She is helped by the central
character of Egholms last two thrillers, De tre hundes
nat (Three Dog Night) (2011) and De dde sjles nat
(Dead Souls), namely Peter Boultrup, the son whom
Dictes Jehovas Witness parents forced her to give
up for adoption when he was born. The relationship
between these two has never been easy, but when
Dictes daughter Rose Peters half-sister is
kidnapped, they both set out to find her, each working
from their own angle.

46

47

48

49

50

51

52

54

55

56

57

58

59

60

61

62

63

64

00

E LS E B ETH

Jussi Adler-Olsens skildring af livet i buret er simpelthen ndendsfremkaldende helt frem til den spektakulre slutning grnseoverskridende.
Weekendavisen

jussi
adler-olsen
Politiinspektr Bent Isager-Nielsen
til Ekstra Bladet

05

Endnu et pletskud

04

Ekstra Bladet

Man kunne godt udtrykke et forsigtigt

hb om, at de henlagte sager med Mrck og co.
kunne g hen og blive en serie. Potentialet er fuldt
til stede.
Jyllands-Posten

03

Suvern

Romanen er konstant underholdende.

Grusom beskrivelse af en kvindes mareridt.

02

PRESSEN OM KVINDEN I BURET,

FRSTE BIND I SERIEN OM AFDELING Q

01

I to r har Adler-Olsen (...) vret fremtiden inden for den skandinaviske krimigenre.
Der Spiegel
06

Tidligere chefpolitiinspektr Per Larsen

til Ekstra Bladet

PRESSEN OM FASANDRBERNE,
ANDET BIND I SERIEN OM AFDELING Q

07

Adler-Olsen skriver originale krimier,

der p trods af deres dystre anliggender har en
Jyllands-Posten
befriende humor.

08

Jussi Adler-Olsens thriller holder stilen hele vejen

til den opsigtsvkkende og i srklasse voldelige
finale.
Weekendavisen

09

Fasandrberne er original og vellykket. (...) Adler-Olsen er en dygtig

plotkonstruktr, men ogs en strk skildrer af personer, steder og
miljer.
Politiken

10
11

Med andet bind i serien om Afdeling Q har Jussi Adler-Olsen skrevet en benhrd thriller () Den er kun for folk med strke nerver.
Wiener Zeitung

EGET A N SVAR
13

Uhh, hvor kan Jussi Adler-Olsen skrue

gode historier sammen! () Hj spnding og
knivskarpe karakterer med kant. Ekstra Bladet

14

Jussi Adler-Olsens historier om Afdeling

Q er noget af det bedste i dansk krimi i disse r.
Jyllands-Posten

15

Fandeme godt. En flaskepost med mareridt.

Fyens Stiftstidende
Velbekomme!

16

Med tredje bind om Afdeling Q i almindelighed og Carl

Mrck og Assad i srdeleshed bekrfter Jussi Adler-Olsen sin
position som en af landets bedste krimiforfattere.
Politiken

17

PRESSEN OM JOURNAL 64,

FJERDE BIND I SERIEN OM AFDELING Q

MARCO EFFEKTEN

18

Danmarks krimikonge. Fjerde bog om

Afdeling Q er rets bedste danske krimi.
Ekstra Bladet
hsblsende og brandspndende
melodrama af internationalt format. Politiken

20

Jussi Adler-Olsen skriver velgrende anderledes dansk

krimi. Tak for det.
Jyllands-Posten

F O R L A G
21

Hvis Danmark kun havde n krimiforfatter, mtte han

P OFyens
L I Stiftstidende
T I K E N
gerne hedde Jussi Adler-Olsen.

EGH

19

krimith riller

ELSE

12

E G ET ANSVAR

MARCO EFFEKTEN

PRESSEN OM FLASKEPOST FRA P,

TREDJE BIND I SERIEN OM AFDELING Q

omslag: eyelab.dk

jussi adler-olsen

Ekstra Bladet
JydskeVestkysten
Dagbladenes Bureau
Jyllands-Posten
Frederiksborg Amts Avis

22

06/12/12 12:02
23

MAT COVER. Print order: CMYK Partiel lak

Elsebeth Egholm

Marco Effekten (The Marco Effect), Politikens Forlag 2012, 505 pp.
Previous titles sold to: More than thirty countries.
Foreign rights: Politikens Forlag, Nya Guldberg, nya-guldberg@jppol.dk

Eget ansvar (At Your Own Risk), Politikens Forlag 2013, 432 pp.
Previous titles sold to: France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Japan, New
Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, United Kingdom.
Foreign Rights: Lars Ringhof Agency, Esthi Kunz, esthi@ringhof.dk

24

Jussi Adler-Olsen

25
26

17

DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE

Family
drama
and
cultural
critique

A picnic on a warm
summer day. A set of
grandparents coming
for tea. To most people
these might seem like
pretty straightforward
situations. But not for
the family in Suzanne
Brggers latest book
Til T (To T).

18

The adults cant push themselves

to do anything, neither to get
themselves out of the house nor to
find enough tea-cups and dont
even talk about the tea, which they
need to go out and buy because they
dont have any. And when are they
supposed to find the time to commit
suicide (mother) or go off to Asia
and save the world (stepfather)? The
familys three children stand in the
wings, observing the parents whom
they are far too young to look after,
although they do their very best to,
and so nothing happens. They never
do go on that picnic, or make that tea.
These two little, insignificant
but very concrete incidents take

place one summer in 1958, and in

Suzanne Brggers hands they are
developed into an associative train
of thought which in turn evolves
into a fable, one that puts the whole
ghastly set-up at a humorous,
allegorical distance. Because the
members of this family are all
named after characters from the
tales of Winnie-the-Pooh although

SUZANNE BRGGER

If Tigger wasnt so worried about Kangas instability he

would be able to see the chaos as an adequate response to the
family as a stage for play-acting. Nowhere in the world can you
make believe as much as you can in a family. A place of work?
You can resign. A friendship? You can end it. Neighbours?
You can move. But in a family youre forced to be hypocritical,
otherwise all hell will break loose. And a child cant be the one
to drop the bomb and be responsible for the divorce, failure,
homelessness and all the other mess that this brings in its wake.
At this dramatic level the family is a fantasy in which everyone
invests. If one member of the cast were suddenly to stop acting
their part or stop applauding, the illusion would collapse and
the family be ruined for all the others. And yet none of them
is aware that they are taking part in a joint performance, one
that is only apparent to outsiders. Every family has an inbuilt resistance to knowing what is actually going on: complex
strategies, designed to ensure that everyone remains equally
oblivious of the fact that they are all in the dark.
Extract from Til T (To T)

this doesnt change the fact that

they are all at loggerheads, their
relationships with one another
coloured by a climate of secrecy
and repression; or that their family
is teetering on the brink of the
precipice and none of them is
capable of handling the freedom
that goes hand in hand with modern
family life - in which no one seems
able to agree on anything.
Suzanne Brgger (born 1944) can
celebrate forty years as a writer in
2013. She published her first book,
Fri os fra krligheden (Deliver Us
From Love), in 1973 and she has
been a distinctive voice in Danish

literature and debate ever since,

not least thanks to works such as
Krlighedens veje & vildveje (Loves
Highways and Byways) (1975) and
Crme Fraiche (1978), but also to
more than twenty-five other titles
spanning a wide range of genres
and including the family chronicle
Jadekatten (The Jade Cat) (1997)
and, most recently, the essay Jeg
har set den gamle verden forsvinde
hvor er mine renringe? (I Have
Seen the Old World Vanish Where
Are My Earrings?) (2010).
Suzanne Brggers writing
walks the line between fiction
and reality, between novel, essay
and memoir. Brgger herself calls

Til T (To T) her fictional debut, her

jade kitten, reverting as it does so
squarely to first principles, picking
up a thread from the family theme
of Jadekatten, thus picking up also
from where she started: with a
protest against the stage-managed
sort of love that Suzanne Brgger
has described and attacked from
countless angles in her many works.

Suzanne Brgger
Til T (To T), Gyldendal 2013, 207 pp.
Previous titles sold to: Finland, France,
Germany, Hungary, Japan, Latvia, the
Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Turkey,
United Kingdom. FOREIGN RIGHTS: Gyldendal
Group Agency, Sofie Voller,
sofie_voller@gyldendalgroupagency.dk

19

DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE

people of Southern Jutland, and especially

thoseTheliving
to the west of Gram had a special sense

of the transience of this world and were forever

reminding one another of that life was no joke.
When they raised their glasses in the local pub,
for example, they would say: Cheers, while were
friends. Because you never knew when somebody
might say the wrong thing remember that fight
last Saturday night? When fortune smiled on
them, whether they had had a win on the pools or
received a long awaited inheritance, they would
say: Aye, well, life could be worse. But even this
was said with a pensive note in the voice and a
face that betrayed no hint of happiness. There could
even be a certain anxiety and wistfulness bound up
with this recognition of the beauty of life, because
no one knew how long such a thing might last. Or
whether one deserved it.
Extract from Min snderjyske farm (Out of Jutland)

Allan Jensen is thirteen

years old. He has a farm
in Jutland, at the foot
of Gramby Hill, in the
very south of Denmark,
bordering on Germany.
Here he breeds rabbits,
while his sister reads
the works of Karen
Blixen, who had a farm
in Africa, at the foot of
the Ngong Hills, where
she grew coffee. And
there all similarity ends.
20

Because there is nothing exotic or

decadent about Allans youth and
childhood in the Danish provinces
in the 1960s. His family is about
as dysfunctional as it can possibly
be, skeletons tumble out of every
closet if you so much as brush
against them.
Why does no one want to have
anything to do with his father? Why
doesnt his sister live at home?
Why does his mother put up with it
all? These questions run through
Allans mind as he sees to himself
and his rabbits; as he grows and
enters puberty and as he dreams
of being far, far away, from Gramby
Bakke and his family.

You can believe whatever you

want to believe, Allan tells himself
and attempts to escape into a
bubble of dreams and fiction. But he
is forced to recognise that somehow
he has to come to terms with his
parents:
I had to face the fact that my
Dad was my real Dad. All things
considered it could have been a
lot worse. In the rabbit world there
were males and females that ate
their own young. You shouldnt ever
breed from those, folk said, there
was something wrong with their
genes. At least I hadnt been eaten,
nor had my brothers and sisters.
Min Snderjyske Farm (Out of

Erling Jepsen

A Tale
of
Fathers
and
Rabbits
Jutland) is a singular, bittersweet
and at times grotesque depiction
of a tiny community, a family and
the boy Allan who fights the good
fight with his rabbits, with his father
and with his own, quite universal,
coming-of-age loneliness. Erling
Jepsen pulls no punches in his
scathing expos of the mentality
of a small provincial town and
within a family that has turned
secretiveness and denial into a very
distinct art form.
Erling Jepsen (born 1956) made
his debut as a playwright in 1977
and had his big breakthrough as
a novelist in 2002 with Kunsten

at grde i kor (The Art of Crying

in Unison). This was made into a
film The Art of Crying which was
nominated for an Academy Award
for Best Foreign Language Film
in 2008. Since that first literary
success Jepsen has produced a
string of other works, among them
the novels Frygtelig lykkelig (Terribly
Happy) (Borgen 2004), which has
also been made into a film, Med
venlig deltagelse (Our Most Sincere
Condolences) (Borgen 2006) and
Hovedls sommer (Headless
Summer) (Peoples Press 2011),
the dramatised version of which
has just had its premier at Det
Kongelige Teater in Copenhagen.

Erling Jepsen
Min snderjyske farm (Out of Jutland),
Gyldendal 2013. 272 pp.
Previous titles sold to: Bulgaria, Czech
Republic, Germany, France, Iceland, Italy, the
Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden.
FOREIGN RIGHTS: Leonhardt & Hier Literary
Agency, Anneli Hier, anneli@leonhardt-hoier.dk

21

DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE

Recent
sol
a
22

RECENTLY SOLD

tly
ld
abroad
SEPTEMBER
2012
JANUARY
2013

23

DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE

Danish Fiction

ARMENIA
Guitank Publishing
Anna Grue
Dybt at falde

BRAZIL
Alaude
A.J. Kazinski
Svnen og dden
Cosacnaify
Karen Blixen
Babettes gstebud

CANADA

BookThug
Morten Sndergaard
Et skridt i den rigtige
retning

CHINA
Big Apple
Jussi Adler-Olsen
Journal 64

CROATIA

Nemo
Lotte & Sren Hammer
Svinehunde

Algoritam
Alen MekoviC
Ukulele-Jam

Record
Martin Jensen
Edbryder

CZECH REPUBLIC

Record
Martin Jensen
En bondes ord
Record
Martin Jensen
Kongens hunde

Albatros/Plus
Martin Jensen
Edbryder
Albatros/Plus
Martin Jensen
En bondes ord

BULGARIA

Albatros/Plus
Martin Jensen
Kongens hunde

Emas
Jussi Adler-Olsen
Kvinden i buret

Czech Radio
Anders Bodelsen
Gaven

Janet 45 Publishing
Carsten Jensen
Vi, de druknede

Czech Radio
Anders Bodelsen
En hrd dags nat

Czech Radio
Thorkild Hansen
Det lykkelige Arabien

Sinisukk
Sara Bldel
Kald mig prinsesse

Host
Jussi Adler-Olsen
Marco Effekten

FAROE ISLANDS

Host
Lotte & Sren Hammer
Ensomme hjerters klub
Host
Sren & Lotte Hammer
Pigen i Satans mose

EGYPT
Animar
Jakob Ejersbo
Eksil
Animar
Jakob Ejersbo
Revolution
Animar
Jakob Ejersbo
Liberty
Animar
Lotte & Sren Hammer
Svinehunde
Animar
Lars Husum
Mit venskab med Jesus
Kristus

Smith
Leif Davidsen
Min broders vogter

FINLAND
Gummerus
Jussi Adler-Olsen
Flaskepost fra P
WSOY
Anne Lise MarstrandJrgensen
Hvad man ikke ved

FRANCE
Actes Sud
Lotte & Sren Hammer
Ensomme hjerters klub
Autrement
Anders Bodelsen
Hndeligt uheld
Autrement
Anders Bodelsen
Rd september

ESTONIA

Buchet Chastel
Helle Helle
Dette burde skrives i
nutid

Eesti Raamat
Karen Blixen
Vinter-eventyr

Buchet Chastel
Janne Teller
Kom
Le Cherche Midi
Elsebeth Egholm
Vold og magt
ditions de lAube
Dan Turll
Mord-serien 1-12

Karen Blixen
Winters Tales, published in 1942, contains some of Karen
Blixens most famous stories. The Danish provinces
provide the backdrop for tales of a more tragically
wistful tone from Blixen, who delves right back into the
childhood and youth of her central characters in search
of the answer to the question of what it is that shapes a
persons identity. Karen Blixen, author of such works as
Seven Gothic Tales and Out of Africa, has been translated
into more than thirty languages.

24

ditions Grges
Morten Nielsen
Krigere uden vben
ditions dOrmesson
Hanne-Vibeke Holst
Kronprinsessetrilogien
JC Latts
A.J. Kazinski
Svnen og dden

RECENTLY SOLD

Danish Fiction

JAPAN

Jakob Melander
Even before publication a lot of interest was being
shown in first-time author Jakob Melanders
psychological thriller jesten (The House that Jack
Built) and it had already been snapped up by a
number of foreign publishers. Awarding it five stars
out of a possible six, one enthusiastic reviewer called
it a cool Copenhagen crime novel. In Melanders
novel a Second World War romance has disastrous
consequences, the reverberations of which are felt
even in modern-day Copenhagen, where a horrific
murder, later to be known as the Sandman case,
shocks the whole city.

Hayakawa
A.J. Kazinski
Svnen og dden

LATVIA
Jumava
Hans Henrik Mller
Burgundia

THE NETHERLANDS
A.W. Bruna
Lotte & Sren Hammer
Pigen i Satans mose
De Geus
Christian Jungersen
Du forsvinder

Robert Laffont
Kristian Bang Foss
Dden krer Audi

Piper
Hanne-Vibeke Holst
Undskyldningen

Animus
A.J. Kazinski
Svnen og dden

GERMANY

Suhrkamp
Anne Lise MarstrandJrgensen
Hvad man ikke ved

ICELAND

btb Verlag
Janes Nielsen
Brahmadellerne
btb Verlag
Leonora Christina Skov
Frsteelskeren
Carls Books/
Bertelsmann
Kristian Bang Foss
Dden krer Audi

Weltbild
Jussi Adler-Olsen
Journal 64
Weltbild
Jussi Adler-Olsen
Washington dekretet

Bjartr
Naja Marie Aidt
Sten saks papir
Draumsyn
Kim Leine
Profeterne i
Evighedsfjorden

De Geus
A.J. Kazinski
Svnen og dden
De Geus
Jesper Stein
Uro
Karakter
Jakob Melander
jesten
Meulenhoff
Kaaberbl & Friis
Nattergalens dd

GREECE

Forlagi
Jussi Adler-Olsen
Journal 64

Club Bertelsman
Jussi Adler-Olsen
Journal 64

Ekdoseis
Kaaberbl & Friis
Drengen i kufferten

Forlagi
Jussi Adler-Olsen
Marco Effekten

NORWAY

Heyne Verlag
Steffen Jacobsen
Trof

Ekdoseis
Therese Philipsen
Den man elsker

Uppheimar
Sara Bldel
De glemte piger

Aschehoug
Jussi Adler-Olsen
Alfabethuset

Heyne Verlag
A.J. Kazinski
Svnen og dden

Livanis
A.J. Kazinski
Den sidste gode mand

ITALY

Aschehoug
Jussi Adler-Olsen
Marco Effekten

Kiepenheuer & Witsch

Jesper Stein
Uro

Livanis
A.J. Kazinski
Svnen og dden

Luchterhand
Naja Marie Aidt
Sten saks papir

HUNGARY

Metrolit
Alen MekoviC
Ukulele-Jam

Animus
Jussi Adler-Olsen
Flaskepost fra P
Animus
Jussi Adler-Olsen
Journal 64

Neri Pozza
Jakob Melander
jesten

Prometheus
Jussi Adler-Olsen
Marco Effekten

Aschehoug
Jussi Adler-Olsen
Og hun takkede guderne

Sonzogno
Anne Lise MarstrandJrgensen
Hvad man ikke ved

Aschehoug
Jussi Adler-Olsen
Washington dekretet

ISRAEL

Aschehoug
Jakob Melander
jesten

Kinneret
Kaaberbl & Friis
Drengen i kufferten

25

DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE

Danish Fiction

Dorthe Nors

Aschehoug
Jakob Melander
De berusedes vej

Beautiful faceted, haunting stories Dorthe Nors is

fantastic a rising star of Danish letters. So wrote
Pulitzer prizewinner Junot Daz of the Kantslag (Karate
Chop) stories which have been published in various
American magazines. The publication rights for the
complete Karate Chop collection have now been sold
coinciding neatly with the appearance of a new book
from Dorthe Nors: a novel entitled Minna mangler et
velokale (Minna Needs a Rehearsal Room).

Gyldendal Norsk Forlag

Kristian Bang Foss
Dden krer Audi
Gyldendal Norsk Forlag
A.J. Kazinski
Svnen og dden
Heinesen
Josefine Klougart
Stigninger og fald
Juritzen Forlag
Thorstein Thomsen
Sne p hendes ansigt
Oktober
Helle Helle
Dette burde skrives i
nutid
Oktober
Helle Helle
Forestillingen om et
ukompliceret liv med en
mand
Schibsted
Elsebeth Egholm
Tre hundes nat
Schibsted
Jesper Stein
Uro

SPAIN
Ediciones B
Lene Kaaberbl
Kadaverdoktoren
Maeva
Erik Valeur
Det syvende barn
Pamies
Julie Hastrup
En torn i jet
Siruela
Sara Bldel
Grnt stv

POLAND

Siruela
Sara Bldel
Kald mig prinsesse

Amber
A.J. Kazinski
Svnen og dden

SWEDEN

Sonia Draga
Kaaberbl & Friis
Et stille umrkeligt
drab

RUSSIA
AST Relese
Erik Valeur
Det syvende barn

SOUTH KOREA
Hyundaemunhak
Erik Valeur
Det syvende barn

Bonniers
Jussi Adler-Olsen
Alfabethuset
Bonniers
Jussi Adler-Olsen
Marco Effekten
Bonniers
Jussi Adler-Olsen
Washington dekretet
Ellerstrms
Pia Tafdrup
Salamandersol
Forum
Anne Lise MarstrandJrgensen
Hvad man ikke ved
Forum
A.J. Kazinski
Svnen og dden

26

Forum
Erik Valeur
Det syvende barn
Norstedts
Jesper Stein
Uro
Rmus
Morten Sndergaard
Et skridt i den rigtige
retning

TURKEY
Aspendos
Kaaberbl & Friis
Drengen i kufferten
Yapi Kredi Publishing
Inger Christensen
Udvalgte digte

UNITED KINGDOM
AmazonCrossing
Martin Jensen
Edbryder
AmazonCrossing
Martin Jensen
En bondes ord
AmazonCrossing
Martin Jensen
Kongens hunde
Harvill
Helle Helle
Dette burde skrives i
nutid
Nordvik Press
Klaus Rifbjerg
Den kroniske uskyld

UNITED STATES
AmazonCrossing
Martin Jensen
Edbryder
AmazonCrossing
Martin Jensen
En bondes ord
AmazonCrossing
Martin Jensen
Kongens hunde
AmazonCrossing
Erik Valeur
Det syvende barn
Atria
Lene Kaaberbl
Kadaverdoktoren
Graywolf Press
Dorthe Nors
Kantslag
Two Lines Press
Naja Marie Aidt
Bavian

RECENTLY SOLD

Danish Non-FICTION

ESTONIA

JAPAN

NORWAY

SPAIN

TEA Publishers
Jon Feilberg & Mogens
Andersen
Danmarks dyr og
planter

Cross Media Publishing

Co. Ltd.
Boris Kreilgaard
Management by
Football

Arneberg Forlag
Peter Heg, Jesper Juul
(et. al)
Empati

Cultura Ciclista
Lars Steen Pedersen
Riis

TEA Publishers
Jens H. Petersen
I svampenes rige

Patmos
Marie Melchior
Nr livet er en fest

FINLAND

THE NETHERLANDS

Talentum
Pernille Tranberg &
Steffan Heuer
Fake it!

Damon
Joakim Garff
SAK

Tammi
Lars Gejl
Kend fuglen

GERMANY
Beltz Verlag
Jesper Juul
Smil, vi skal spise
Christian Verlag
Isabellas store bog om
kkkenhaven
Murmann
Pernille Tranberg &
Steffan Heuer
Fake it!

Forte Uitgevers
Jesper Juul
Bonusforldre
KNNV
Jens H. Petersen
I svampenes rige
Kosmos Uitgevers
Christian Bitz & Arne
Astrup
Verdens bedste kur
Tirion
Lars Gejl
Fugle felthndbogen
Tirion
Lars Gejl
Kend fuglen

Cappelen Damm
Pia Bech Rydahl &
Pernille W. Lauridsen
Tweens
Cappelen Damm
WulffMorgenthaler
WuMo Julehfte
Fagbokforlaget
Svend Brinkmann
Det diagnosticerede liv
Lille Mne
Thomas Rode Andersen
Stenalderkost 87
paloopskrifter til det
moderne menneske
Pdagogisk Forum
Jesper Juul
Aggression

POLAND
Mind Dariusz Syska
Jesper Juul
Her er jeg! Hvem er du?
Mind Dariusz Syska
Jesper Juul
Pdagogisk
relationskompetence

SWEDEN
Historiska Media
Rasmus Dahlberg
100 rs katastrofer
Studentlitteratur
Svend Brinkmann
Det diagnosticerede liv
Syneidos
Charlotte Bech
Bliv naturligt gravid
Wahlstrm & Widstrand
Jesper Juul
Aggression

UNITED KINGDOM
Oxford University Press
Nudansk Ordbog 1
Princeton University
Press
Lars-Henrik Olsen
Dyr & Spor

UNITED STATES
North Atlantic Books
Jes Bertelsen
Nuets himmel
Princeton University
Press
Jens H. Petersen
I svampenes rige

Joakim Garff
Garff has a voice of his own an informal style and
conversational tone. So said John Updike, writing in
The New Yorker on publication of the English translation
of SAK Sren Aabye Kierkegaard. En biografi (SAK
Sren Aabye Kierkegaard. A Biography). Joakim
Garffs impressive work from 2000 has been translated
into eight languages and now, to tie in with this years
Kierkegaard bicentennial, a new revised version is
being published. Joakim Garff has also just published
Regines gde (The Mystery of Regine), which tells the
story of the strange love affair between the Danish
philosopher and his betrothed, Regine Olsen.

Princeton Architectural
Press LLC
Jrn Utzon
Arkitekturens
tilblivelse og virke
Sterling
Thomas Rode Andersen
Stenalderkost 87
paloopskrifter til det
moderne menneske

27

DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE

Danish CHILDRENS BOOKS

BRAZIL

Janne Teller

Geracao Editorial
Maren Weischer
Sdan begyndte Verden

A teenage novel of Nobel prize standard is how one

Swedish critic described Janne Tellers award-winning
novel from 2000. Intet (Nothing) a story about
everything and nothing, about a plum tree and the kids
of class 7A, who no longer know whether anything is
worth doing gets to grips with a number of the really
big existential questions of life. Publication rights have
been sold to more than twenty countries, including
Germany, where more than 200,000 copies have been
sold since it was published there in 2010.

Lemos
Elin Bing
Lige noget for mig

CHINA
Guangzhou Brigt Book
Publishing Co. Ltd
Cecil Bdker
Silas og den sorte
hoppe
King in Culture
Flemming Quist Mller
Cykelmyggen Egon
King in Culture
Jakob Martin Strid
Mimbo Jimbo
King in Culture
Jakob Martin Strid
Mimbo Jimbo har det
sjovt
King in Culture
Jakob Martin Strid
Mimbo Jimbo laver
kunst
King in Culture
Jakob Martin Strid
Mimbo Jimbo og de store
elefanter

CZECH REPUBLIC
Stabenfeldt
Charlotte Glahn (red.)
Heste er det
allerbedste

FAROE ISLANDS
Bkadeild Froya
Lrarafelags
Bent Haller
Grnsebrn
Bkadeild Froya
Lrarafelags
Janne Teller
Intet

Bkadeild Froya
Lrarafelags
Kim Fupz Aakeson
& Niels Bo Bojesen
Vitello ridser en bil
Bkadelid
Kim Fupz Aakeson
& Niels Bo Bojesen
Vitello vil have en far

FINLAND
Stabenfeldt
Charlotte Glahn (red.)
Heste er det
allerbedste

GERMANY
Arena Verlag
Sabine Lemire
365 ting du kan lave med
dit barn
Boye Verlag
Jakob Martin Strid
Da lille Madsens hus
blste vk
Hanser
Janne Teller
Fortllinger
Jacoby & Stuart
Brur Oskarsson
Den flade kanin
Stabenfeldt
Charlotte Glahn (red.)
Heste er det
allerbedste

Morten Drr
Amir is fed up with school. He cant be bothered
copying letters, and he doesnt like the alphabet, so he
makes up his own, with drawings instead of letters. But
his Mum and Dad dont understand this alphabet so
they cant read his notes nor can they find him on
the day that he suddenly goes missing. Amirs alphabet
(Amirs Alphabet) is the fourth book in writer Morten
Drrs series on new Danish children. These books,
illustrated by Peter Bay Alexandersen, are suitable for
reading aloud to children in the younger classes and
for older children to read themselves.

28

Thienemann
Ida-Marie Rendtorff
Kloden under vand 1-3
Urachhaus Verlag
Bodil Bredsdorff
Min slagsbror

HUNGARY
Kolibri
Jakob Martin Strid
Den utrolige historie
om den kmpestore
pre

RECENTLY SOLD

Danish CHILDRENS BOOKS

Stabenfeldt
Charlotte Glahn (red.)
Heste er det
allerbedste

Front Forlag
Lars Bgeholt Pedersen
Edderkopper

JAPAN

Front Forlag
Morten Drr
Den anden Freja

Fukuinkan Shoten
Publishers Inc.
Ib Spang Olsen
Mosekonens bryg

Front Forlag
Peter Gotthardt
Elverdronningens brn
7-8

Fukuinkan Shoten
Publishers Inc.
Ib Spang Olsen
Det lille lokomotiv

Front Forlag
Peter Gotthardt
Den magiske falk 3-4

LATVIA
Jumava
Sissel Be & Peter
Madsen
Troldeliv 8

Mangschou
Benni Bdker
Infernus 1-2
Mangschou
Ida-Marie Rendtorff
Kloden under vand 1-3

NORWAY

Samlaget
Lene Kaaberbl
Vindheks 3-6

Aschehoug
Lars Bgeholdt
Pedersen
FC fodboldvenner 1-2

Stabenfeldt
Charlotte Glahn (red.)
Heste er det
allerbedste

RUSSIA
KompasGid
Janne Teller
Intet

SOUTH KOREA
Hyeonamsa Co. Ltd.
Jakob Martin Strid
Den utrolige historie
om den kmpestore
pre

SWEDEN
Berghs Frlag
Kim Fupz Aakeson
& Niels Bo Bojesen
Vitello bygger en
monsterflde

Nypon
Kre Bluitgen
Trkldet
Nypon
Morten Drr
Amirs alphabet
Opal
Lars Bgeholdt
Pedersen
FC fodboldvenner 1-2
Rabn & Sjgren
Lene Kaaberbl
Vildheks 3-6
Stabenfeldt
Charlotte Glahn (red.)
Heste er det
allerbedste

SWITZERLAND

Ekholm & Tegebjer

Peter Madsen
& Thierry Cappezone
Tegn og Fortl

ditions La Joie de Lire

Kim Fupz Aakeson
Jeg begyndte sdan set
bare at g

Hjulet
Kim Fupz Aakeson
& Cato Thau Jensen
Farmanden

TURKEY

Cappelen Damm
Kirsten Sonne Harild
Pony & Co 1-5

Gnisigi Publishing
Janne Teller
Intet

Maren Weischer
Sdan begyndte verden (How The World Began) is the
story of science told for children. It describes how
the universe came into being with the Big Bang and
how it evolved from the first stars; how the world
began and how life first formed on Earth; how
mankind developed into the people we are today, into
families and into the very child who, in clear and
instructive words and pictures, is given here a scientific
explanation of the beginning of all things.

29

DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE

C ontact
imm e diat

Danish poet Morten

Sndergaard can now
also call himself a
pharmacist.

30

In a quite unique poetry project he

has produced a word pharmacy
consisting of ten medicaments,
contained within ten pill boxes,
each one representing a different
word class or part of speech: Inside
each box is a poem disguised as
an information leaflet explaining
how to take the medicine and
how to deal with side-effects or
overdosage. One is also urged

to contact a poet immediately

should one experience even the
slightest ill effects when using the
prescribed part of speech! Morten
Sndergaard himself describes his
project as a democratic work aimed
both at linguistic connoisseurs and
those who are just starting to learn
the ways of words schoolchildren,
for example. WordPharmacy is an
actual, physical object available

MORTEN SNDERGAARD

ontact a po e t
diat e ly

as a travel set or an honest-togoodness medicine cabinet. It

has been translated into English,
German, French, Russian,
Norwegian, Welsh and Greek.
Morten Sndergaard (born 1964)
broke onto the Danish literary scene
in 1992 with the collection of poems
Sahara i mine hnder (Sahara in
my Hands) and has twice been

nominated for the Nordic Council

Prize for Literature. His latest poetry
collection Fordele og ulemper ved
at udvikle vinger (The Pros and Cons
of Developing Wings) (2013) takes
his work with word classes a stage
further in a more lyrical form, with
each section of the book relating
in different ways to one of the ten
parts of speech.

Morten Sndergaard
Ordapotek (WordPharmacy).
PREVIOUS TITLES SOLD TO:
Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Norway,
Russia, Sweden, United Kingdom, Wales.
FOREIGN RIGHTS:
Gyldendal Group Agency, Sofie Voller,
sofie_voller@gyldendalgroupagency.dk

31

DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE

32

CLASSICS IN NEW GARB

Classics
in new garb
Can you imagine Goethes young Werther
as a graffiti artist? Hamlet in sunglasses
and black T-shirt? Or Don Quixote astride
a tractor called Rosinante with Sancho
Panza riding alongside on an old moped?
Ask writer Oscar K. and illustrators
Dorte Karrebk and Lilian Brgger
this and the answer will be a loud,
resounding yes. Because these
three have, in fact, used (almost)
every trick in the book, so to speak,
in their work on the new Illustrated
World Literature series.
It is the Danish Teachers
Associations own publishing house,
Dansklrerforeningens Forlag,
which, with a boxed set of six fully
illustrated classics, has allowed a
slice of world literature to escape
from the sealed chamber it normally
inhabits. The aim of the series is to
introduce young readers to such
diverse works as Dostoyevskys
Crime and Punishment, Cervantes
Don Quixote, Raymond Chandlers
The Big Sleep, Voltaires Candide:
Photo: Timme hovind

33

DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE

or, the Optimist and Shakespeares
Hamlet. In a fine balance between
words and pictures these
canonised, not to say almost sacred
texts, have been taken lovingly
in hand and brought up to date
by writer and illustrators. Does
this show a shameless disregard
for our literary heritage? Or a
refreshing lack of over-reverence
for the classic works, one which is
possibly necessary if they are to be
rendered accessible to modern-day
children and young people? And
what use, if any, to kids today is the
tale of a prince or an impoverished
petty nobleman from the early
seventeenth century, a hapless
optimist from the eighteenth
century or a failed student from the

nineteenth century? Is this simply a

case of adults trying to spoon-feed
them a bygone cultural ideal?

Illustration: Lilian Brgger

Illustration: Dorte karrebk

One of the people behind the series,

chairman of the Danish Teachers
Association Jens Raahauge,
explains that the initial idea for it
sprang from the firm belief that
the classic literary works have
something relevant to say to any
reader, of any time, about absolutely
fundamental social situations: that
young Werthers lovesickness is
universal and something with which
tender, unrequited hearts in 2013
can easily identify; that in a world
of cultural clashes and conflicts
Hamlet can provide the fodder for
a discussion on how to act when

ones family or friends have been

hurt or wronged; that Don Quixotes
inability to differentiate between
fact and fiction has direct bearing
on the modern teenagers world of
computer games and reality shows.
Armed with this conviction they
push off with a number of what Jens
Raahauge describes as appetizers.
The point is not to tempt readers
into reading complete works in their
original languages; not that they
absolutely have to understand all of
the background or be given in-depth
explanations. The point is to make
young readers want to come up
with the explanations themselves,
to make world literature accessible
to all young people and to show
them that it can be interesting

In vain I reach my hands out for her in the morning, in vain

I feel for her at night in my bed when a happy, innocent dream
has fooled me into believing that she is near, that I am holding
her hand, covering it with a thousand kisses. When, half-dazed
with sleep, I reach out for her and wake with a heavy heart, I
weep inconsolably over my bleak future.
(Extract from The Sorrows of Young Werther)
34

CLASSICS IN NEW GARB

Illustration: Lilian brgger

(and fun) to get to know the great

figures of literature. The language
style of the original works has
been retained in these retellings,
just as the characters and the
problems confronting them stay
true to the originals. The modern
element is provided primarily by
the illustrations - and the layout,
which has been played with and
experimented with in such a way
that the pictures act as a bridge
between the classic texts, so rooted
in tradition, and young modern
readers: a new generation which,
with these six illustrated and freshly
interpreted classics, is presented
with its very own versions of some
great works of world literature.

Illustration: Lilian brgger

35

DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE

Illustration: Dorte karrebk

Hamlet is alone, despising himself for still not

having avenged his fathers death. Is he a coward?
Why does no one call him a villain or bash his head
in? He is a miserable wretch who cannot act, but
only talk and talk, because he is a pigeon-livered
rascal who cannot even burn with rage over the wrong
that has been done if he did, all the hawks in the
country would have picked clean the bones of that
treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain Claudius!
Revenge! Revenge!
Extract from Hamlet
36

CLASSICS IN NEW GARB

This gentleman read so much and slept so little

that his brain dried up completely and his wits
along with it. In the end nothing in the world was
as real to him as the inventions and fancies of the
knights. And he made up his mind to go out into the
world and do all the things that he had read about
in his books. He would become a knight errant and
right all the wrongs in the world, expose himself to
peril and danger and win honour and fame. And
perhaps, he thought to himself, be made an Emperor
as a reward.
(Extract from Don Quixote)

Illustration: Lilian Brgger

Illustration: Dorte karrebk

About the Illustrated World Literature (Classics) series

Oscar K., alias Ole Dalgaard, has
allied himself with illustrator
Lilian Brgger to produce
retellings of Dostoyevskys Crime
and Punishment, Goethes The
Sorrows of Young Werther and
Cervantes Don Quixote. Along with
illustrator Dorte Karrebk he
has given the same treatment to
Raymond Chandlers The Big Sleep,
Voltaires Candide: or, the Optimist
and Shakespeares Hamlet. The

boxed set also includes a volume

on reading world literature. This
book, entitled Don Erudito and
also written by Oscar K., is not
however illustrated. All of these
titles are published as a set by
Dansklrerforeningens Forlag.
Publishing rights have so far
been sold to Norway, Russia and
Sweden, while Oscar K.s other
works have, in addition, sold to
Canada and to Ireland. Oscar K.

and Dorte Karrebk have also

collaborated on a retelling of
the Bible, Biblia Pauperum Nova,
published by Forlaget Alfa work,
described by the newspaper
Politiken as nigh on flawless,
which was nominated for the 2012
Politiken Prize for Literature.

For information on foreign rights please

contact Dansklrerforeningens Forlag,
forlag@dansklf.dk

37

DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE

A nne C a t h r ine
Rie b ni t z s k
y

LEIN KIM
E

J ak o b
M a r t in
Strid

Prizes and
nominations for
the prophets
Kim Leine

Photo: Anne-Sophie Fischer Kalckar

38

2012 has been Kim Leines year.

With Profeterne i Evighedsfjorden
(The Prophets of Eternal Fjord),
his mammoth novel about the
wide realm of Denmark in the late
eighteenth century stretching
from the streets of Copenhagen
to the trading posts of Greenland
- won him brilliant reviews, a solid
position on the bestseller lists and a
host of award nominations. And now
they are showering down on him
the awards, that is. First the Danish
Booksellers own prize, the Golden
Laurels, then the Weekendavisen
Prize for Literature, voted for by
the newspapers readers and
finally the daily Politikens prize.
So, only six years after publication
of his first book, Kim Leine now
joins the exalted ranks of writers
such as Jens Christian Grndahl,

Helle Helle, Christian Jungersen

and Jakob Ejersbo. As the literary
critic for Weekendavisen said when
presenting the award: Readers
adore Kim Leine. Possibly because
at a time when so much anaemic
literature is being published he
is heretic enough to tell a grand,
sweeping story. And this spring
may well bring more prizes Leines
way. He is also nominated for the
Nordic Council Prize for Literature
and for the 2013 Berlingske Tidende
Readers Book Award. It comes
as no great surprise that Kim
Leine should have gained such
ascendancy with his novel about a
meeting of cultures, for good and ill
- a book that has been described as
a masterpiece and a milestone. It
tells the story of a young Norwegian,
Morten Falck, who studies theology

AWARDS

Ursula
Andkjr
Olsen

za
u
o
S
e
d
S u ne mid tSch en
Mads
in Copenhagen then takes up a post
in Greenland. But he finds it difficult
to adapt to life there, especially
when a rebellion breaks out among
the Christian Greenlanders and
he finds himself torn between
following the Greenlandic dreams of
freedom and enforcing the laws of
Denmark.
Kim Leine (born 1961) made
his literary debut in 2007 with the
novel Kalak, following this with
Valdemarsdag (Valdemars Day) in
2008 and Tunu in 2009.

Profeterne i Evighedsfjorden (The Prophets of

Eternal Fjord), Gyldendal 2012, 525 pp.
Previous titles sold to: France, Germany,
Hungary, Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands,
Norway, Rumania, Spain, Sweden, United
Kingdom, United States. Foreign Rights:
Gyldendal Group Agency, Sofie Voller, sofie_
voller@gyldendalgroupagency.dk

First Novel Award

to former soldier
Anne-Cathrine
Riebnitzsky

Photo: Sara Skytte

Absolutely brilliant this was

the verdict of the chairman of
the judges, on awarding the
BogForum First Novel Award to
Den Stjlne vej (The Stolen Road)
by Anne-Catherine Riebnitzsky.
That Anne-Cathrine Riebnitzsky
gives us such insight into her
characters - even the villains - is
quite an achievement. In this, her
first novel, Riebnitzsky describes
the dramatic events experienced
by three individuals during the
war in Afghanistan. One of these is

39

DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE

Den stjlne vej (The Stolen Road),

Politikens Forlag 2012, 320 pp.
Foreign Rights: Politikens Forlag, Nya
Guldberg, nya-guldberg@jppol.dk

Jakob Martin Strids Den utrolige

historie om den kmpestore
pre (The Incredible Story of the
Enormous Pear) has been warmly
received by readers and critics alike.
In words and wonderful pictures this
tells the story of two friends who
find a seed that grows overnight

40

into an enormous pear. Even before

the ink was dry on the illustrations
this book had been snapped up by
several international publishers
and since then Jakob Martin Strid
(born 1972) has been awarded the
Danish Crown Prince and Princesss
Award for his work as a childrens
writer, a career that got off to a flying
start in 1999 with the publication of
Mustafas kiosk (Mustaphas Kiosk).
In their motivation of the award the
Crown Prince and Princess cited,
among other things, the unique
quality of Jakob Martin Strids work,
its humour and relevance and the
quirky and easily recognisable
style that constitutes the essence
of the colourful stories we know
from Mustaphas Kiosk, Lille fr
(Little Seed), Min mormors gebis (My
Grandmas False Teeth) and this
year Den utrolige historie om den
kmpestore pre (The Incredible
Story of the Enormous Pear). With
his subtle eye for the key topics of
our times he succeeds in combining
wisdom with an occasionally
reckless, but always gentle wit.
Den utrolige historie om den kmpestore
pre (The Incredible Story of the Enormous
Pear), Gyldendal 2012, 99 pp. Previous titles
sold to: China, Faroe Islands, Finland, France,
Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Korea,
the Netherlands, Norway, Rusland, Sweden,
United Kingdom. Foreign Rights: Gyldendal
Group Agency, Louise Langhoff Koch, louise_
langhoff_koch@gyldendalgroupagency.dk

A huge step forward for Danish

poetry this was just one of
many compliments paid to Ursula
Andkjr Olsens seventh collection
of poetry, Det 3. rtusindes hjerte
(The Heart of the 3rd Millenium), for
which she was awarded this years
Montana Prize for Literature. This
collection has been hailed as a new
departure in Olsens writing. Here,
in stringent, monumental form,
she reworks painful experiences
of separation and union and
introduces them into a sphere that
is as political as it is human.
You are in me as
I am all the world, fruit
of the garden. And warmth,
protection, food
and transport
So we must be parted before we
can meet, we are
as one, and so must come apart.
That we may meet.
I am all you are, I am warmth,
protection, food

Photo: Rolando Diaz

Crown Prince and

Princesss Award to
childrens book
Jakob Martin Strid

Poet receives
Montana Prize
Ursula Andkjr
Olsen

Photo: Morten Holtum

Malika, a modern, well-educated

woman who secretly teaches other
women to read. On the home front
she is struggling to come to terms
with the fact that her husband
has taken another wife a girl of
just thirteen who regularly meets
Javeed, a boy from the street who
has been raped by a policeman
and whom Malika sets out to help.
Anne-Cathrine Riebnitzsky (born
1974), is a graduate from the Danish
Writers School, but she is also a
Russian language officer with the
Danish Army who worked at the
Danish embassy in Moscow before
being sent to Afghanistan, first as
a soldier and later as an advisor
to the Danish Ministry of Foreign
Affairs. She has previously written
a work of non-fiction entitled
Kvindernes krig (The Womens
War) about the lives of women in
Afghanistan. In 2011 the First Novel
Prize was awarded to Erik Valeur for
his crime novel Det Syvende Barn
(The Seventh Child).

AWARDS

Photo: thomas-a.com

Prize for book on

Blixen Sune de
Souza SchmidtMadsen

Foreign Rights: Pia Juul: Tiderne Skifter,

Claus Clausen, tidernskifter@tiderneskifter.dk
Kristian Bang Foss, Harald Voetmann:
Gyldendal Group Agency, Jenny Thor, jenny_
thor@gyldendalgroupagency.dk

Nominees for the

Nordic Council
Prize for Literature

Photo: Gonzalo Bar

En lille bog om Blixen (A Little Book About

Blixen), Lindhardt og Ringhof, 233 pp.
Foreign Rights:
Lindhardt og Ringhof, Susanne Gribfeldt,
susanne.gribfeldt@lindhardtogringhof.dk

The Danish Critics Guild has

nominated the following three
titles for its 2012 Critics Prize.
According to the press release
issued by the members of the
Guild, these three are all notable
for their great literary merit. The
nominees are Pia Juul for the short
story collection Af sted, til stede
(Out of Place, In Place), Tiderne
Skifter 2012, Kristian Bang Foss
for the novel Dden krer Audi
(Death Drives an Audi), Gyldendal
2012, and Harald Voetmann for the
novel Kdet letter (The Flesh Lifts),
Gyldendal 2012.

Photo: KAROLINA ZAPOLSKA

The 2012 Georg Brandes Prize

was presented to En lille bog om
Blixen (A Little Book About Blixen)
by Sune de Souza SchmidtMadsen. This guide to Karen
Blixens universe and her brilliant
gift for storytelling is the most
beautiful introduction anyone
could have. So said the reviewer
in the newspaper Politiken on the
publication of this book, which
weaves the different strands of
Karen Blixens persona - the artist,
the woman and the myth - into a
vivid account of her amazing life
and the captivating tales to which
it gave rise.

Photo: Morten Holtum

Nominees for
Critics Prize

Det 3. rtusindes hjerte (The Heart of the 3rd

Millenium), Gyldendal 2012, 213 pp.
Foreign Rights: Gyldendal Group
Agency, Sofie Voller, sofie_voller@
gyldendalgroupagency.dk

This years Danish nominees for the

Nordic Council Prize for Literature
are Josefine Klougart and Kim
Leine. Young Josefine Klougart
(born 1985) is nominated for the
second time for her novel n af
os sover (One Of Us Is Sleeping),
Rosinante 2012. Klougarts previous
books have been sold to Norway
and Sweden. Kim Leine (born
1961), broke onto the literary scene
in 2007 with the autobiographical
novel Kalak, and made his big
breakthrough to a much wider
audience with Profeterne i
Evighedsfjorden (The Prophets of
Eternal Fjord), Gyldendal 2012,
which has been awarded the
2012 Golden Laurels, the Danish
booksellers prize for the best
book of the year, and the 2012
Weekendavisen Prize for Literature.
Foreign Rights:
Gyldendal Group Agency, Sofie Voller,
sofie_voller@gyldendalgroupagency.dk

41

DANISH LITERARY MAGAZINE

Support
ScHemes
The Danish Arts
Councils Committee
for Literature works
to promote familiarity
with 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
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 childrens
literature translated by professional translators.
There are four annual application deadlines.

Nordic translation Fund: inter-Nordic translations

Application
guidelines, deadlines
and electronic
application forms
may be obtained at
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 four annual application deadlines.

Travel grants for translators

Professional translators may apply for travel
grants in connection with specific translation
projects as well as for supplemental linguistic and
cultural training.
There are four annual application deadlines.

SUPPORT SCHEMES

SAMPLE
Translation
Fund
International
research
programme

General
funds

Translation
Fund

DANISH ARTS COUNCIL

SUPPORT SCHEMES

NORDIC
Translation
Fund

Travel grants
for
translators

Promotion
grants
Literary
exchange
fund

Literary exchange fund

General funds

Support may be provided to defray travel and

hotel expenses in connection with a Danish
authors 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.
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
Councils Committee for Literature 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 Councils
Committee for Literature has earmarkedspecial
funds to cover the cost of printing and
production forforeign publishers wishing to
publish Danish illustrated childrens 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 four annual application deadlines.

Contact: The Danish Arts Councils Committee for Literature, litteratur@kunst.dk, www.kunst.dk

43

The Danish Arts Council works to promote art

in Denmark and Danish art abroad.
The Danish Literature Centre is the adminstrative arm
of The Danish Arts Councils Committee for Literature.
www.danisharts.dk

Organisations
Danish Writers of Fiction and Poetry

The Danish Writers Association

was founded in 1991 and has approx. 200 members

is Denmarks oldest professional association for writers

and translators. It was founded in 1894 and has approx.
1350 members. The association includes the
Danish Translators Association.

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

df@danskforfatterforening.dk / www.danskforfatterforening.dk

The Danish Publishers Association

is a trade association for Danish booksellers.

The association has approx. 380 members and
represents 90% of all Danish booksellers.

(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.

ddb@bogpost.dk / www.boghandlerforeningen.dk

danskeforlag@danskeforlag.dk / www.danskeforlag.dk

The Danish Booksellers Association

Danish Literary Magazine is published by The Danish

Arts Councils Committee for Literature. The magazine is
published twice annually: for the London Book Fair in April
and for the Frankfurt Book Fair in October.
danishlit e rary magazine. dk