So Much for That Winter
Dorthe Norse, Misha Hoekstra (translation)In "Days," a woman in her late thirties records her life in a series of lists, giving shape to the tumult of her days -- one moment she is eating an apple, the next she is on the floor, howling like a dog. As the details accumulate, we experience with her the full range of emotions: anger, loneliness, regret, pain, & also joy, as the lists become a way to understand, connect to, & rebuild her life. In "Minna Needs Rehearsal Space," a novella told in headlines, an avant-garde musician is dumped via text message. Fleeing the indignity of the breakup & friends who flaunt their achievements in life, career, & family, Minna unfriends people on Facebook, listens to Bach, and reads Ingmar Bergman, then decamps to an island near Sweden, "well suited to mental catharsis."
A cheeky nod to the listicles & bulletins we scroll through on a daily basis, So Much for That Winter explores how we shape and understand experience & the disconnection & dislocation that define our twenty-first-century lives, with Nors's unique wit & humor.
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Dorthe Nors is the author of the story collections Wild Swims & Karate Chop; four novels, including Mirror, Shoulder, Signal, a finalist for the Man Booker International Prize; & two novellas, collected in So Much for That Winter. She lives in Denmark.
www.dorthenors.dk