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Childhood, Youth, Dependency

The Copenhagen Trilogy

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Childhood, Youth, Dependency

By: Tove Ditlevsen, Tiina Nunnally - translator, Michael Favala Goldman - translator
Narrated by: Stine Wintlev
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About this listen

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

 Art & Literature Authors Women

Critic Reviews

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)
All stars
Most relevant
Interesting story of life in Copenhagen around WW2 but barely including it. Beautifully & practically descriptive & perfectly narrated, no sugar coating, some heartbreaking parts around mistaken reasons for abortion & drug dependency that both imply a deep inner hole dug for all the wrong reasons & a lifetime of trying to fill that hole with no awareness of the real connection why… a superbly clever author

Beautifully written & narrated.

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