Ditlevsen makes this darkest of all material fascinating, perversely likable and occasionally revelatory. She’s a brilliant writer and formidable thinker

Guardian

Reading <i>Vilhelm’s Room</i>, the final novel from the great Danish writer Tove Ditlevsen, what hits you first is how wonderful her sentences are […] Ditlevsen’s unusual way of seeing the world, and her sprightly humour, run throughout this short book, […] which now appears in English for the first time in a spirited translation by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell […] A beguiling, often confounding novel from one of the 20th century’s most original writers

Observer

The unforgettable final novel from the great Danish writer and author of The Copenhagen Trilogy


‘Recently escaped a long, unhappy marriageaged 51, but youthful in spiritwonderful son, aged 15 – household literary namesummerhouselarge flat in the city centretemporarily incapacitated by a nervous breakdownprefers a motorist.’

Vilhelm is gone; the room where he and Lise once loved each other will soon be destroyed. When Lise places a lonely hearts advert in the newspaper, she sets off a train of tragicomic events that culminates in an annihilating, inevitable finale. Tove Ditlevsen’s final novel is a masterful conclusion to a great work of writing: a blackly funny and devastating tour-de-force that pulses with life even as it journeys towards death.

Translated by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell

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Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9780241628980
Publisert
2025-09-04
Utgiver
Penguin Books Ltd
Vekt
180 gr
Høyde
216 mm
Bredde
137 mm
Dybde
14 mm
Aldersnivå
01, G, 01
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
160

Forfatter

Biografisk notat

Tove Ditlevsen (Author)
Tove Ditlevsen was born in 1917 in a working-class neighbourhood in Copenhagen. Her first volume of poetry was published when she was in her early twenties, and was followed by many more books, including the novels The Faces and Vilhelm's Room and her autobiographical masterpiece, Childhood (1967), Youth (1967) and Dependency (1971). She married four times and died by suicide in 1976.

Sophia Hersi Smith (Translator)
Sophia Hersi Smith is a translator living in Copenhagen. Together with Jennifer Russell, she has translated fiction and poetry by Danish writers such as Olga Ravn, Tove Ditlevsen and Solvej Balle.

Jennifer Russell (Translator)
Jennifer Russell is a translator living in Copenhagen. Together with Sophia Hersi Smith, she has translated fiction and poetry by Danish writers such as Olga Ravn, Tove Ditlevsen and Solvej Balle.