'So clear is Ditlevsen's eye that it is impossible to tear yourself away' John Self, Guardian

An unforgettable collection of stories from the author of The Copenhagen Trilogy

'The most important thing is probably always precisely the thing you can't have. That's where all the happiness is'

In these brief, acid-sharp stories of love, marriage and family from one of Denmark's most celebrated writers, the ordinary events of everyday life - a wife anxious not to wake her husband, a little boy losing his father's beloved knife, a woman's obsessive longing for a yellow silk umbrella - become dark and disconcerting. Here Tove Ditlevsen explores yearning, fear and the elusiveness of that strange thing called happiness.

'The purity and dazzling insight of Ditlevsen's writing speaks for itself' Daily Telegraph

'Authentic, unforced and utterly lucid' Sunday Times

'Ditlevsen's wonderful and devastatingly bleak short stories simmer with melancholy and despair' Daily Mail

Translated by Michael Favala Goldman

About the Author
Tove Ditlevsen was born in 1917 in a working-class neighbourhood in Copenhagen. Her first volume of poetry was published when she was in her early twenties, and was followed by many more books, including her three brilliant volumes of memoir, Childhood (1967), Youth (1967) and Dependency (1971). She married four times and struggled with alcohol and drug abuse throughout her adult life until her death by suicide in 1978.

Reviews

Splendid short stories... the purity and dazzling insight of Ditlevsen's writing speaks for itself

-- Lucy Scholes * The Telegraph *
An intense reading experience... so clear is Ditlevsen's eye that it's impossible to tear yourself away from the fates of her characters, however grim -- John Self * Guardian *

These short stories show off her astonishingly precise prose

-- New Statesman * Ellen Peirson-Hagger *

A bracingly bleak selection of stories by the celebrated Danish writer Tove Ditlevsen... These are perfectly judged pieces: authentic, unforced and utterly lucid

-- Phil Baker * Sunday Times *
Ditlevsen's wonderful and devastatingly bleak short stories simmer with melancholy and despair ... Her prose is clear and spare, pared back to the essential task of describing the struggle for an unwon freedom from domestic despair and unsatisfactory marriages * Daily Mail *

The depths of desire and despair are Ditlevsen's subjects and illuminating them is her talent

* Monocle *
Ditlevsen's writing is crystal clear and vividly, painfully raw * The Paris Review *
A terrifying talent * The New York Times *
Her writing is incredible, so focused and clear. Not a word that doesn't need to be there -- Tracey Thorn



Book Information
ISBN 9780241537381
Author Tove Ditlevsen
Format Paperback
Page Count 192
Imprint Penguin Classics
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 145g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 11mm