Vilhelm's Room

‘Recently escaped a long, unhappy marriage – aged 51, but youthful in spirit – wonderful son, aged 15 – household literary name – summerhouse – large flat in the city centre – temporarily incapacitated by a nervous breakdown – prefers a motorist.’

Vilhelm is gone; the room where he and Lise once loved each other will soon be destroyed. When Lise places a lonely hearts advert in the newspaper, she sets off a train of tragicomic events that culminates in an annihilating, inevitable finale. Tove Ditlevsen’s final novel is a masterful conclusion to a great work of writing: a blackly funny and devastating tour-de-force that pulses with life even as it journeys towards death.

Translated by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell