Read and discuss Scandinavian literature in translation as part of our Nordic Book Club, now online! Each month we select a novel from some of the best Nordic literary voices. Discussions have typically taken place the last Tuesday of the month at Scandinavia House but will now be taking place bi-weekly as an online meeting.
Book club participants will all appear online at the start of the meeting when they log in so that they are able to take part in the conversation. For participants who would prefer not to be visible onscreen, see an easy tutorial online here on how to set a profile image that will appear onscreen instead.
On October 5, we’ll be discussing the new novel Wild Swims by Danish author Dorthe Nors (Karate Chop; Mirror, Shoulder, Signal), out in translation by Misha Hoekstra from Graywolf Press.
In 14 effervescent stories, Wild Swims plumbs the depths of the human heart, from desire to melancholy and everything in between. Here are portraits of men and women full of restless longing, people who are often seeking a home but rarely finding it: A lie told during a fraught ferry ride on the North Sea becomes a wound that festers between school friends. A writer at a remote cabin befriends the mother of an ex-lover. Two friends knock doors to solicit fraudulent donations for the cancer society. A woman taken with the idea of wild swims ventures as far as the local swimming pool.
Described as “mesmerizing, addictive” (The Associated Press), Nors explores the core of human conflict with her characteristic concision, restraint, and offbeat humor.