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Into a Star

Into a Star

Summary

Intimate and devastating, a luminous debut novel about untimely grief and the resilience of the human heart, inspired by the author's own experiences

'Three in the bed. One not yet born, another dead, and I'm alive.'

Puk is 26 years old, preparing for the birth of her second child, when her husband has a heart attack while out running. She leaves their toddler with a friend and dashes to the hospital, where Lasse lies unresponsive in a coma. He dies a few hours later.

Into a Star follows Puk and her young family in the first year after this tragedy, which has shattered the ordinary life she imagined for them. As the days turn to weeks and months, Puk's second son is born, her sister moves in, her relationship with her in-laws fractures and evolves. She reckons daily with her memories of Lasse: how they met and fell in love, their adventures, their dreams for the future. And she navigates the miraculous, brutal, overwhelming days of early parenthood alone.

Into a Star is a luminous meditation on loss and renewal. With remarkable dignity, candour and attention to human detail, Puk Qvortrup invites us into the hardest moments of her life. And she reveals, amid the devastation, a powerful, life-affirming thread of hope.

Reviews

  • Into A Star is written with an immediate simplicity that it's impossible to resist. A private tragedy reminiscent of Joan Didion in The Year of Magical Thinking and Blue Nights. But Puk Qvortrup writes younger, more exposed, more from the body
    Svenska Dagbladet

About the author

Puk Qvortrup

Puk Qvortrup is a journalist, teacher and author. Her debut novel, Into A Star, was published in Denmark in 2019. Her second novel, Man and Child, was published in 2022, and she is currently working on her third. She lives in Aarhus with her husband and four children.
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