Childhood, Youth, Dependency

The Copenhagen Trilogy

De: Tove Ditlevsen, Tiina Nunnally - translator, Michael Favala Goldman - translator

Narrado por: Stine Wintlev

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

Reseñas de la Crítica

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 (John Self)

Mordant, vibrantly confessional... A masterpiece

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 (Alex Preston)

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 (Lucy Scholes)

Wrenching sadness and pitch-black comedy ... Sharp, tough and tender (Boyd Tonkin)

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

Despite the darkness that haunts these three books, they shine with Ditlevsen's honesty and humanity ... Her work, seemingly so simple, has the miraculous quality of a life perceived in perfect clarity. Despite the author's untimely death, The Copenhagen Trilogy is a powerful - and uplifting - testament of survival (Erica Wagner)

As in much of the best autofiction, the protagonist's weakness is counterpoised by the strength of her voice ... [Ditlevsen speaks] beyond the cruel and disappointing figures she encounters to us, her readers, awaiting her in another time and another place (Lara Feigel)

Eerily beautiful

Tove Ditlevsen (1917-1976) was a celebrated Danish author, whose autobiographical works, 'Childhood', 'Youth' and 'Dependency' (sometimes translated as 'Gift') are known together as 'The Copenhagen Trilogy'. It is beautifully read here by Stine Wintlev, whose gentle voice goes well with the elegant prose.

From a very young age, Ditlevsen is in search of the kind of structure that will allow her to write, which is what she loves to do. In the beginning, no one takes her interest very seriously, but eventually her talent is recognized and rewarded. To the best of her abilities, she tries to put together all that’s needed to fulfill her personal and professional aspirations, defying social conventions when she must, but ‘something’ seems to be always missing. This absent piece of the puzzle, this vacuum, goes unnamed throughout her memoirs. She never points at it explicitly, yet it’s palpable. There is a constant sense of instability and foreboding. Like the main character of a fairy tale, who is destined to lose her innocence, Ditlevsen disregards alarming signs of looming danger and is cast into a world of strange darkness. She shares her experiences in a style that is surprisingly delicate and light, almost magical, and a pleasure to read (or listen to). Her story takes place during a tumultuous time in Denmark, but her memoirs are mostly focused on the personal.

Like I said, I enjoyed Wintlev's narration a lot, but found it a little slow at first, so I played it at x1.1. This is probably a matter of taste. I played later chapters at the regular speed. She's a native Danish speaker, so she has no problem reading the few bits that are in that language.