Childhood, Youth, Dependency

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

Following one woman's journey from a troubled girlhood in working-class Copenhagen through her struggle to live on her own terms, The Copenhagen Trilogy is a searingly honest, utterly immersive portrayal of love, friendship, art, ambition and the terrible lure of addiction, from one of Denmark's most celebrated twentieth-century writers.

'Utterly, agonisingly compulsive ... a masterpiece' Liz Jensen, Guardian

'Sharp, tough and tender ... wrenching sadness and pitch-black comedy ... Ditlevsen can pivot from hilarity to heartbreak in a trice' Boyd Tonkin Spectator

'Astonishing, honest, entirely revealing and, in the end, devastating. Ditlevsen's trilogy is remarkable not only for its honesty and lyricism; these are books that journey deep into the darkest reaches of human experience and return, fatally wounded, but still eloquent' Observer

'The best books I have read this year. These volumes slip in like a stiletto and do their work once inside. Thrilling' New Statesman

© Tove Ditlevsen 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

Critics Review

  • To get it out of the way: these are the best books I have read this year Childhood has the simple declarative sentences of Natalia Ginzburg and the pervasive horror of a good fairy story

    New Statesman
  • Mordant, vibrantly confessional… A masterpiece

    Guardian
  • Semi-miraculous, raw and poignant … Radiates the clear light of truth and stands as the ultimate victory of a life that must have felt, in the living of it, like a defeat

    Observer
  • Intense, elegant … Ditlevsen’s portrait of Vesterbro in the Twenties has something of the same texture of Elena Ferrante’s description of the poor Neapolitan neighbourhood in which her heroines grow up

    The Daily Telegraph
  • Wrenching sadness and pitch-black comedy … Sharp, tough and tender

    Spectator
  • Ditlevsen’s taut, simple prose shines a light on what life and love were like for working-class women in 20th century Copenhagen. Elena Ferrante fans, take note

    Stylist

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