Childhood, Youth, Dependency

Author: Ditlevsen, Tove ISBN: 9780241457573 Publisher: Penguin UK Year first published: 26 Jan 2021 Pages: 384 Format: Paperback / softback The classic Danish trilogy hailed as a masterpiece on publication in English last year - now in a single volume in Penguin Modern Classics Growing up in a working-class neighbourhood in Copenhagen, Tove feels that her childhood is made for a completely different girl. As 'long, mysterious words begin to crawl across my soul', she comes to understand that she has a vocation that will define her life. Her path seems assured, but she has no idea of the struggles ahead - love affairs, wanted and unwanted pregnancies, artistic failure and destructive addiction. As the years go by, the central tension of Tove's life comes into painful focus: the terrible lure of dependency, in all its forms, and the possibility of living freely and fearlessly - as an artist on her own terms.