Sonja, a forty-something crime fiction translator, finds herself newly single and disenchanted with her job. She seeks new directions in life, starts long-overdue driving lessons, attempts to reconnect with her sister, and even joins a meditation group. However, as she struggles with the car gears, she realises that change is not easily achieved.
Ida Jessen’s novel, “A Change of Time,” is written as a collection of diary entries, letters, poems, and songs. It tells the story of a female schoolteacher in rural Denmark during the 1920s, who strives to re-start her life following the death of her husband.
“Last Night in Nuuk” – also published as “Crimson” – by Niviaq Korneliussen tells the story of a group of young LGBTQ+ friends living in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland. It is a novel about queer identity, self-discovery, and societal judgment, in a small, conservative society.
“The Prophets of Eternal Fjord” is a historical novel set at the end of the 18th century in Greenland. It follows a young and naive Danish missionary who sails to Greenland with the mission to convert the Inuit to Christianity. However, the local people resist Christianisation and colonisation. Some establish an alternative settlement at Eternal Fjord, far from the reach of the Danish State and Church, where they practice a blend of shamanic rituals and Christian beliefs. The protagonist gradually realises that this rival settlement is actually closer to the ‘true’ version of Christianity than the teachings he is supposed to impart.
Dorte is a student at the University of Copenhagen. She should be studying, but she isn’t. She shouldn’t be sleeping with her neighbour, but she is. She leaves Copenhagen and moves to Glumsø, a small town in the Danish province of Zealand. Along the way, she has random encounters with various side characters and visits her aunt, her only emotional anchor, who runs the local smørrebrød (sandwich) shop.
“We, the Drowned” is an epic tale about sailors from the Danish port town of Marstal, who conquer the seas and – sometimes – return home. It chronicles Denmark’s early modern history and the country’s relationship with the sea, beginning in 1848 and ending after the Second World War.
Knud grows up in the small village of Nykøbing Falster in south-eastern Denmark during the 1960s. Although the Second World War has ended, the Germans are still despised by the Danes. With a German mother, Knud’s childhood is strikingly different from that of other children in the village. He is bullied, and his mother is shunned and insulted by the locals.
“The Exception” follows the story of four women working for a small Danish non-profit organisation that publishes information on genocide and war crimes. When one of them receives a life-threatening email, she initially suspects it to be the work of a Serbian war criminal she has just written an article about. However, things quickly spiral out of control, leading everyone to suspect each other.
In the novel “Nordkraft,” Jakob Ejersbo follows three young people in the Danish city of Aalborg as they struggle with drug addiction in the early 1990s.
Irene Beckman, a 56-year-old woman, appears to have it all: a thriving career as a lawyer, a stable marriage, two children, and a beautiful house in Copenhagen. But when her marriage unexpectedly collapses and she learns that her father was not her biological parent, she sets off to Vienna and Ljubljana in search of her real father.