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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