DER HVOR DU IKKE VIL HEN – WHERE YOU DON’T WANT TO GO
By Astrid Saalbach
WHILE SIGRID IS cleaning up her house to get it done before she dies, her grandchild finds a stack of letters and newspaper clips, that not only reveals family secrets, but also casts a whole new light over her grandmother’s life and marriage.
SIGRID GROWS UP in a lovingly, well off family in Fåborg at the start of the 20th century. She greatly admires her aunt Anna, whom she is very close to. After a heartbreak Anna moves to Greenland. Her time in the cold north during the first World War changes both women’s lives and their destinies become unusually intertwined. In the harsh land in the north Anna works as a dentist, pulls oodles of rotten teeth out, sees many men suffering from nangierneq, the inuit word for kayak angst and women get arctic hysteria. Home in Denmark Sigrid dreams about what her life will bring her.
A HISTORICAL NOVEL about becoming a victim of too close family ties and about actions of love with unintentional consequences.
ABOUT THE BOOK
First published by Lindhardt og Ringhof, Denmark 2020
RIGHTS SOLD
Denmark, Gutkind
REVIEWS
A masterly family novel. (about family)
– Erik Svendsen, Jyllands-Posten
A powerful story about idolization and hatred.
– Lilian Munk Røsing, Politiken
The intertwined fate of two women is excellently depicted.
– Karen Syberg, Dagbladet Information
On the way through the 20th century [Astrid Saalbach establishes] a kind of repressive tour-de-force of an establishment condemnation of female frivolity.
– Jørgen Johansen, Berlingske
BOOKS
Fiction
