Search results for ""Author Martin Aitken""

Set in rural Denmark in the early 20th century, A Change of Time tells the story of a schoolteacher whose husband, the town doctor, has passed away. Her subsequent diary entries form an intimate portrait of a woman rebuilding her identity, and a small rural town whose path to modernity echoes her own path to joyful independence.

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'A superb novel . . . A hugely powerful chronicle of lives lived on the edge' - Sunday Times, Books of the YearIn the tradition of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, an immensely powerful historical novel about the first encounters between Danish colonists and Greenlanders in the early eighteenth century, of brutal clashes between priests and pagans and the forces that drive each individual towards darkness or light.1728: The Danish King Fredrik IV sends a governor to Greenland to establish a colony, in the hopes of exploiting the country’s allegedly vast natural resources. A few merchants, a barber-surgeon, two trainee priests, a blacksmith, some carpenters and soldiers and a dozen hastily married couples go with him.The missionary priest Hans Egede has already been in Greenland for several years when the new colonists arrive. He has established a mission there, but the converts are few. Among those most hostile to Egede is the shaman Aappaluttoq, whose own son was taken by the priest and raised in the Christian faith as his own. Thus the great rift between two men, and two ways of life, is born.The newly arrived couples – men and women plucked from prison – quickly sink into a life of almost complete dissolution, and soon unsanitary conditions, illness and death bring the colony to its knees. Through the starvation and the epidemics that beset the colony, Egede remains steadfast in his determination – willing to sacrifice even those he loves for the sake of his mission.Translated from Danish by Martin Aitken, Kim Leine's The Colony of Good Hope explores what happens when two cultures confront one another. In a distant colony, under the harshest conditions, the overwhelming forces of nature meet the vices of man.

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Now in paperback, The Employees chronicles the fate of the interstellar Six-Thousand Ship. The human and humanoid crew members complain about their daily tasks in a series of staff reports and memos. When the ship takes on a number of strange objects from the planet New Discovery, the crew becomes strangely and deeply attached to them, even as tensions boil toward mutiny, especially among the humanoids. Olga Ravn’s prose is chilling, crackling, exhilarating, and foreboding. The Employees probes into what makes us human, while delivering a hilariously stinging critique of life governed by the logic of productivity.

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In the tradition of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, an immensely powerful historical novel about the first encounters between Danish colonists and Greenlanders in the early eighteenth century, of brutal clashes between priests and pagans and the forces that drive each individual towards darkness or light.1728: The Danish King Fredrik IV sends a governor to Greenland to establish a colony, in the hopes of exploiting the country’s allegedly vast natural resources. A few merchants, a barber-surgeon, two trainee priests, a blacksmith, some carpenters and soldiers and a dozen hastily married couples go with him.The missionary priest Hans Egede has already been in Greenland for several years when the new colonists arrive. He has established a mission there, but the converts are few. Among those most hostile to Egede is the shaman Aappaluttoq, whose own son was taken by the priest and raised in the Christian faith as his own. Thus the great rift between two men, and two ways of life, is born.The newly arrived couples – men and women plucked from prison – quickly sink into a life of almost complete dissolution, and soon unsanitary conditions, illness and death bring the colony to its knees. Through the starvation and the epidemics that beset the colony, Egede remains steadfast in his determination – willing to sacrifice even those he loves for the sake of his mission.Translated from Danish by Martin Aitken, Kim Leine's The Colony of Good Hope explores what happens when two cultures confront one another. In a distant colony, under the harshest conditions, the overwhelming forces of nature meet the vices of man.

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As clear and relentless as the cold air, Love unfolds over one winter's evening. Single mother Vibeke and her son Jon have just moved to a small, remote town in the north of Norway. Tomorrow Jon will be nine. As Vibeke gets changed after work, Jon wonders what surprises his mother has prepared for him. He leaves the house certain she will make him a cake. But preoccupied with concerns of her own, she too ventures out. Inextricably linked yet desperately at odds, mother and son make their lonely ways through the unforgiving night. Beautifully translated into English by Martin Aitken, this edition is the twenty-eighth international publication of Love. Hanne Orstavik's astonishing grasp of human fragility and her economy of form power this acknowledged masterpiece of Norwegian literature.

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You'll tell her your darkest secretsSusan Svendsen has an unusual talent. She is an expert in finding out secrets. People feel compelled to confide in her and unwittingly confess their innermost thoughts. Her whole life, she has exploited this talent, but now her family is in jeopardy and there is a prison sentence hanging over her head.Then Susan gets a timely offer from a former government official: use her power one more time and have all charges dropped. But there are some powerful people determined to stop her.

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Jussi Adler-Olsen's internationally bestselling Q series returns with Redemption, a gripping treat for all fans of the Scandinavian crime thriller. 'For those suffering withdrawals from The Killing' The Times __________A letter in blood, a horrifying disappearance. . . Two boys, brothers, wake up tied and bound in a boathouse by the sea. Their kidnapper has gone, but he'll be back. They cannot escape . . .In Copenhagen's cold cases division Carl Mørck has received a bottle. It holds an old and decayed message, written in blood. It is a cry for help from two boys. Is it real? Who are they and why weren't they reported missing? Can they possibly still be alive?He needs to find out, and fast . . . Praise for Adler-Olsen:'The new "it" boy of Nordic Noir' The Times'Engrossing' Sunday Express'Adler-Olsen's fascination with abnormal psychology once again pays off' Sunday Times

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In these glittering, very funny stories, the acclaimed Danish writer Dorthe Nors sketches ordinary lives taking unexpected turns: a son's love for his father is tested when he suddenly discovers its fragility; a woman in an abusive relationship seeks to better understand the choices she has made; a man with dreams of self improvement is haunted by deceit; and a daughter watches on silently as her mother's search for meaning ends in madness. Blending compassion with dark delight, Nors conjures up a flawed, unsettlingly familiar world with each cautionary glance - as fresh moments of wonder, romance and frail beauty are unexpectedly infiltrated by depravity, isolation and despair.

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"Klougart has an unusual ability to create phrases, images and a language that you long to stay in and remember forever."-Dagens Nyheter "One can speak of unbearable beauty, but one can also speak of a linguistic beauty that makes it possible to bear the unbearable."-Politiken In this genre-bending apocalyptic novel Josefine Klougart fuses myriad literary styles to breathtaking effect in poetic meditations on life and death interspersed with haunting imagery. Her experimental novel asks readers to reconsider death, asserting sorrow and loss as beautiful and necessary aspects of living. Hailed as "the Virginia Woolf of Scandinavia," Klougart mixes prose, lyric essay, drama, poetry, and images to breathtaking effect in her writing, and Of Darkness marks the arrival of a wholly new literary talent in world literature. Josefine Klougart (b. 1985) made her literary debut in 2010 with the novel Rise and Fall, which was nominated for the prestigious Nordic Council Literature Prize. Her third novel, One of Us is Sleeping, forthcoming from Open Letter Books in summer 2016, was also nominated for a Nordic Council Literature Prize, making her the youngest author ever nominated twice for this prominent prize. Her fourth and most recent novel, Of Darkness, appeared in Denmark in 2014 to universal critical acclaim and became a massive bestseller in Denmark and Norway. Translator Martin Aitken has won numerous awards for his translations of Danish literature, and he is currently working with Karl Ove Knausgaard to translate the final volume of My Struggle and his nonfiction.

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The future is no more, and eternity has begun.'Enormously compelling’ The Times'Knausgaard is among the finest writers alive' New York TimesIt is 1986 and Syvert Løyning has returned from military service to his mother's home in southern Norway. One night, he dreams of his late father, and the next morning can't shake him from his mind. Searching through his father's belongings for clues and connections, Syvert finds a cache of letters that leads to the Soviet Union, and to a half-sister, Alevtina, he didn't know he had.Several decades later, in present-day Russia, he will meet her - just as a mysterious new star appears in the sky...From internationally bestselling author Karl Ove Knausgaard, The Wolves of Eternity is the new book in a visionary series that begins with The Morning Star. Expansive, searching and deeply human, it questions the responsibilities we have toward one another and ourselves - and the limits of what we can understand about life itself.‘So engrossing and entertaining that I crammed in its 800 pages like a glutton devouring a box of chocolates… I was mesmerised throughout this book. The translation is also excellent. More, please’ Spectator'Captivating' Financial Times

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FROM THE 10 MILLION COPY, NO. 1 BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE DEPARTMENT Q SERIESA GRIPPING TREAT FOR FANS OF SCANDANAVIAN THRILLERSOne boy is on the run from an international conspiracy . . .Over three years ago, a civil servant vanished after returning from a work trip to Africa. Presumed dead, his family still want answers.It's up to Department Q, Denmark's cold cases department, to find out the truth. But what Detective Carl Morck doesn't know, is that the key to the investigation is right here in Copenhagen . . . Fifteen-year-old Marco Jameson is tough, smart and very suspicious of police. Sleeping rough and hiding in the shadows is his way of life. But what does he know worth killing for - and will the police find him before whoever he is running from?Praise for Jussi Adler-Olsen:'The new 'it' boy of Nordic Noir' The Times'Gripping story-telling' Guardian'As impressive as it is unnerving' Independent

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Idealistic, misguided Morten Falck is a newly ordained priest sailing to Greenland in 1787 to convert the Inuit to the Danish church. A rugged outpost battered by harsh winters, Sukkertoppen is overshadowed by the threat of dissent; natives from neighboring villages have united to reject Danish rule and establish their own settlement atop Eternal Fjord. As Falck becomes involved with those in his care-his ambitious catechist, a lonely trader's wife, and a fatalistic widow he comes to love-his faith and reputation are dangerously called into question.

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When Halland is found murdered almost right outside his door, his widow, Bess, is of course the prime suspect. She isn't worried about that, though, but about the daughter she abandoned years ago. As the police investigate, the slightly cantankerous Bess instead follows a trail of her own regrets and misapprehensions. Atmospheric and haunted by the uncanny, The Murder of Halland is anything but your typical whodunnit. It won Denmark's most important literary prize, Den Danske Banks Litteraturpris, and its English translation was longlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Prize. Pia Juul has published five books of poetry, two short story collections and two novels. Martin Aitken is a translator living in rural Denmark.

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A young mother speaks to her second born child. Since the drama of childbirth, all feels calm. The world is new and full of surprises, even though dangers lurk behind every corner; a car out of control, disease ever-present in the air, the unforgiving speed of time. She tells of the times before the child was born, when the world felt unsure and enveloped in darkness, of long nights with an older lover, of her writing career and the precariousness of beginning a relationship and then a family with her husband, Bo. A portrait of modern motherhood, THE CHILD is a love story about what it means to be alive and stay alive, no matter how hard the journey.

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The future is no more, and eternity has begun.'Enormously compelling’ The Times'Knausgaard is among the finest writers alive' New York TimesIt is 1986 and Syvert Løyning has returned from military service to his mother's home in southern Norway. One night, he dreams of his late father, and the next morning can't shake him from his mind. Searching through his father's belongings for clues and connections, Syvert finds a cache of letters that leads to the Soviet Union, and to a half-sister, Alevtina, he didn't know he had.Several decades later, in present-day Russia, he will meet her - just as a mysterious new star appears in the sky...From internationally bestselling author Karl Ove Knausgaard, The Wolves of Eternity is the new book in a visionary series that begins with The Morning Star. Expansive, searching and deeply human, it questions the responsibilities we have toward one another and ourselves - and the limits of what we can understand about life itself.‘So engrossing and entertaining that I crammed in its 800 pages like a glutton devouring a box of chocolates… I was mesmerised throughout this book. The translation is also excellent. More, please’ Spectator'Captivating' Financial Times

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Experience a major new literary universe in the making'I read The Morning Star compulsively and stayed awake all night after finishing it' Brandon TaylorNine lives will be forever changed . . .One long night in August, Arne and Tove are staying with their children in their summer house in southern Norway. Kathrine, a priest, is flying home from a Bible seminar, questioning her marriage. Journalist Jostein is out drinking for the night, while his wife, Turid, a nurse at a psychiatric care unit, is on a nightshift when one of her patients escapes.Above them all, a huge star suddenly appears blazing in the sky, and so begins a series of mysterious events. For these six, and three others, life is about to become ever more surprising and unruly...'Brilliant storytelling' Independent'Addictive' Daily Telegraph'Captivating' Observer

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A brilliantly wide-ranging essay collection from the author of My Struggle, spanning literature, philosophy, art and how our daily and creative lives intertwine.In the Land of the Cyclops is Karl Ove Knausgaard's first collection of essays to be published in English, and these brilliant and wide-ranging pieces meditate on themes familiar from his groundbreaking fiction.Here, Knausgaard discusses Madame Bovary, the Northern Lights, Ingmar Bergman, and the work of an array of writers and visual artists, including Knut Hamsun, Michel Houellebecq, Anselm Kiefer and Cindy Sherman.These essays beautifully capture Knausgaard's ability to mediate between the deeply personal and the universal, demonstrating his trademark self-scrutiny and his deep longing to authentically see, understand, and experience the world.'Knausgaard is among the finest writers alive' New York Times

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Lying at the bottom of his apartment stairs, a postman is found dead. At first glance, his death appears to be a tragic accident. However, when Detective Superintendent Konrad Simonsen is called to investigate, he notices that something doesn’t add up. Did he fall? When life-sized images of a vanished girl are discovered plastering the walls of the dead man’s attic, the case takes a new and sinister turn. Who is she? Could she be alive? Soon the homicide team find themselves delving into the past, but as they approach the truth, Simonsen is forced to confront long-hidden skeletons in his own cupboard.

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From the international phenomenon Karl Ove Knausgaard, the extraordinary final volume of 'the most significant literary enterprise of our times' (Guardian).* Karl Ove Knausgaard's dazzling new novel, The Morning Star, is available to pre-order now *In this final novel in the My Struggle cycle, Karl Ove Knausgaard examines life, death, love and literature with unsparing rigour and begins to count the cost of his project.The End reflects on the fallout from the earlier books, with Knausgaard facing the pressures of literary acclaim and its often shattering repercussions. It is at once a meditation on writing and its relationship with reality, and an account of a writer's relationship with himself - from his ambitions to his doubts and frailties.'Epic... It creates a world that absorbs you utterly' Sunday Times'Compulsively addictive' Daily Telegraph'My Struggle has strong claim to be the great literary event of the twenty-first century' Guardian'A mesmerising, thought-provoking and genuinely important work of art' Spectator

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When Mathilde’s stepfather dies in Denmark, she is plagued by worries about the potential death of her American father on the other side of the Atlantic. In a desire to catalog her love for, and memories with, her father, Mathilde travels to America and writes a novel about their relationship that she has always known she should write. Lone Star is about distances: the miles between a father and daughter; the detachment between Mathilde’s Danish upbringing and her American family; the separation of language; and the passage of time between Mathilde’s adulthood and the summers she spent as a child in St. Louis. These irrevocable gaps swirl as Mathilde voyages to meet her father in Texas to explore a relationship that still has time to grow. At once a travelogue and family novel, Lone Star occupies the often-mythologized landscape of Texas to share a story of being alive and claiming the right to feel at home, even across the ocean.

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