Natalja's Stories

A brilliant, elegant, and playful novella newly in English by “one of Denmark’s most honored poets” (Publishers Weekly) Known primarily for her poetry, Inger Christensen (1935-2009) remains one of Denmark’s most distinguished and original authors. Natalja’s Stories, modeled after Boccaccio’s Decameron, takes an usual approach to the theme of migration by focusing on the shifting ground of meaning itself. It is a tale told to the narrator by her grandmother―about her mother, "abducted" by a Russian from Copenhagen: taken to Russia, she tries to flee the Revolution; she dies and her ashes are carried back to Denmark. But the story is told and retold in marvelous ways, digressing playfully (often hilariously), and involving murders and absurd characters, with wonderful repeating motifs and passages. Natalja’s Stories springs surprise after surprise, and as one Danish critic put it: “instead of a conventional heartbreaking story of loss and disaster, the book appears as a tantalizing account of a character seizing the moment, leaving the past behind, and becoming someone else―offering, in fact, a deconstruction of the usual take on migrant fate as a tragic narrative.”
ASIN: 0811239462
VSKU: BVV.0811239462.A
Condition: Acceptable
Author/Artist:Christensen, Inger|Newman, Denise
Binding: Paperback
Note: Any images shown are stock photographs and product may differ from what is shown.
Condition Notes: The item is very worn but is perfectly usable. Signs of wear can include aesthetic issues such as scratches, dents, worn and creased covers, folded page corners and minor liquid stains. All pages and the cover are intact, but the dust cover may be missing. Pages may include moderate to heavy amount of notes and highlighting, but the text is not obscured or unreadable. Page edges may have foxing age related spots and browning . May NOT include discs, access code or other supplemental materials.