The Trouble with Happiness cover art

The Trouble with Happiness

and Other Stories

Preview
Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Get unlimited access to bingeable podcasts.
Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Trouble with Happiness

By: Tove Ditlevsen, Michael Favala Goldman - translator
Narrated by: Stine Wintlev
Try Standard free

Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $21.99

Buy Now for $21.99

About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

A newly married woman longs, irrationally, for a silk umbrella; a husband chases away his wife's beloved cat; a betrayed mother impulsively sacks her housekeeper. Underneath the surface of these precisely observed tales of love, marriage and family life in mid-century Copenhagen pulse currents of desire, violence and despair, as women and men dream of escaping their conventional roles and finding freedom and happiness - without ever truly understanding what that might mean.

© Tove Ditlevsen 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

Anthologies & Short Stories Classics Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Short Stories World Literature Marriage Happiness

Critic Reviews

Ditlevsen's writing is crystal clear and vividly, painfully raw
A terrifying talent
Her writing is incredible, so focused and clear. Not a word that doesn't need to be there (Tracey Thorn)
A beautifully written, resilient and relatable chronicle for the marginalized' (praise for Childhood, Youth, Dependency) (Patti Smith)
Utterly, agonisingly compulsive . . . A masterpiece' (praise for Childhood, Youth, Dependency)
All stars
Most relevant
Brilliant, familiar threads in foreign settings, each story intimate, personal & unique yet those fine strands are specific in recognition - & masterfully & delicately tie this Collection of short stories together. Narration was so perfect

Unique, beautifully narrated

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.