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The Faces

  • Imprint: Penguin Classics

  • ISBN: 9780241391914

  • Length: 144  Pages

  • Dimensions: 198mm x 8mm x 129mm

  • Weight: 112g

  • RRP: £8.99

The Faces

'One of Denmark's most celebrated writers' New Statesman

From the acclaimed author of the Copenhagen Trilogy, a searing, haunting novel of a woman on the edge, portrayed with all the vividness of lived experience.

Copenhagen, 1968. Lise, a children's book writer and married mother of three, is increasingly haunted by disembodied faces and voices. She is convinced that her husband, already extravagantly unfaithful, will leave her. Most of all, she is scared that she will never write again. Yet as she descends into a world of pills and hospitals, she begins to wonder, is insanity really something to be feared, or does it bring a kind of freedom?

'Ditlevsen explores the surprising contours of Lise's experience: from her point of view, madness can be funny, soft and secure, and far more enlightening than the "reality" it struggles to evade' The New York Times

Translated by Tiina Nunnally

  • Imprint: Penguin Classics

  • ISBN: 9780241391914

  • Length: 144  Pages

  • Dimensions: 198mm x 8mm x 129mm

  • Weight: 112g

  • RRP: £8.99

Reviews

  • The fact that Ditlevsen was herself one of insanity's intimates does much to explain this book's harrowing authenticity. But The Faces - in Tiina Nunnally's very deliberate, close-to-the-nerve translation - rises above a case study because, working from the inside, Ditlevsen is able to explore the surprising contours of Lise's experience: from her point of view, madness can be funny, soft and secure, and far more enlightening than the "reality" it struggles to evade

    The New York Times

  • A searing but never sensational account of a usually hyped theme - the struggle of the artist to do her work, without guilt about family or the outside world. Admirably without self-pity, and often ironic, Ditlevsen is a voice to heed

    Kirkus

  • these are the best books I have read this year 'Praise for the Copenhagen Trilogy'

    John Self, New Statesman

  • Mordant, vibrantly confessional... A masterpiece 'Praise for the Copenhagen Trilogy'

    Guardian

  • Wrenching sadness and pitch-black comedy ... Sharp, tough and tender 'Praise for the Copenhagen Trilogy'

    Boyd Tonkin, Spectator

  • An inspired pick, especially for those readers whose introduction to Ditlevsen's work has been the Copenhagen Trilogy

    Paris Review

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About the Author

Tove Ditlevsen

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 her three brilliant volumes of memoir, Childhood (1967), Youth (1967) and Dependency (1971). She married four times and struggled with alcohol and drug abuse throughout her adult life until her death by suicide in 1978.

Tove Ditlevsen

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Extracts

An extract from Tove Ditlevsen's 'The Trouble with Happiness'

Translated into English for the first time, this short story from one of Denmark's most celebrated writers unveils the dark and disconcerting side of the ordinary events of everyday life.
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Recommendations

Oscars 2021: the books behind the films

Watched The Father and wondering what to see next? May we humbly suggest a book instead – several, actually, inspired by the year's most celebrated films.
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Features

Tove Ditlevsen: Why it's time to discover Denmark's most famous literary outsider

‘The Billie Holliday of poetry’ was ignored by the male establishment, but her pioneering autofiction is finally being recognised around the world

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