A beautifully intimate novel from award-winning Danish novelist, Helle Helle
This should be written in the present tense. But it isn't.
Dorte should be at uni in Copenhagen. But she's not.
She should probably put some curtains up in her new place.
And maybe stop sleeping with her neighbour's boyfriend.
Perhaps things don't always work out the way they should.
*Nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize 2015*
'Why does one always read Helle Helle's books about the seemingly humdrum lives of lonely, sleepless women in the back of beyond with the kind of obsession normally reserved for well-turned thrillers?' Politiken
Helle Helle is arguably Denmark's foremost contemporary novelist and its most popular. She has been awarded many prizes, including the Danish Critics' Prize, the Danish Academy's Beatrice Prize, and the P.O. Enquist Award. She was recently given the Lifetime Award of the Danish Arts Council.
Her work has been translated into thirteen languages. This is her first novel to be translated into English.
Martin Aitken is the acclaimed translator of numerous novels from Danish, including works by Peter Hoeg, Jussi Adler-Olsen and Pia Juul, and his translations of short stories and poetry have appeared in many literary journals and magazines. In 2012 he was awarded the American-Scandinavian Foundation's Nadia Christensen Translation Prize.
Title: This Should Be Written in the Present Tense
Author: Helle, Helle
ISBN: 9780099587477
Binding:
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
Publication Date: 2015-11-05
Number of Pages: 192
Weight: 0.3584 kg
Helle Helle's simple, to-the-point prose cuts to the quick...it's refreshing to find such an intimate book that leaves something for the reader to writer in their own mind...This Should be Written in the Present Tense is a contemporary classic in the making -- Emma Nicklin * Stylist *
Helle has enchanting gifts as a storyteller... This Should Be Written in the Present Tense possesses an immediacy that tenderly and consistently compels. * New York Times Book Review *
A book with all the bigness hidden away -- John Self * Guardian *
This Should Be Written in the Present Tense may sound like just another bildungsroman, but it's surprisingly devoid of ego, and deeply thoughtful * Paris Review *
Compelling * Emerald Street *
