Wild Swims

Reviews / Votes

Lyrical stream-of-consciousness prose is intercut with short, blunt sentences... Misha Hoekstra's translation delicately renders Nors's intensity, along with her subtlety * Times Literary Supplement * How slippery the work of the Danish writer Dorthe Nors is, how it sideswipes and gleams... The sense of simultaneous, furious upwelling into text and retraction into shame or reticence gives the stories a powerful undercurrent, as if they were constantly wrestling with themselves. -- Lauren Groff * New York Review of Books * Cool, razor-sharp stories by a brilliant Danish writer... A brainy collection perfectly constructed to put you on edge. * Kirkus Reviews * Here are fourteen short stories that crisscross borders, both emotional and geographic, while exploring and inhabiting various threshold zones, either directly or by allusion. Often darkly comic and unsettling, Nors's work is always intense, always intuitive, and rich with thought. * Necessary Fiction, Recommended Reading 2021 * In fourteen effervescent stories, Dorthe Nors plumbs the depths of the human heart, from desire to melancholy and everything in between. * Entropy Magazine, Best Fiction Books of 2021 * Nors's writing creeps up on you, and then overwhelms you with its emotional power. She is a master -- Chris Kraus, author of I Love Dick Dorthe Nors is fantastic! -- Junot Diaz Reading Nors's work, one is reminded of the thrills and dangers of living -- Yiyn Li Nors's reinvention of experimental fiction is marvellous * Guardian * They have that sense of life of them... within four pages, she takes you through an extraordinary life - makes you feel exhausted but invigorated -- John Self * BBC Radio 4 Open Book * Lyrical stream-of-consciousness prose is intercut with short, blunt sentences... Misha Hoekstra's translation delicately renders Nors's intensity, along with her subtlety * TLS * Nors writes important modern women's fiction . . . she gives back agency and centrality to older women' * Financial Times * There are bottomless lakes in these brilliantly uneasy stories, and cold, 'unknowable' landscapes, creaking with snow and ice, as in her spare, elegant prose Nors eavesdrops on the inner lives and complicated emotions of her yearning characters * Daily Mail * There's something about the deceptive simplicity of Dorthe Nors's stories that floors me * Red (Online) * An unflinching eye makes the new queen of Danish literature stand out * Big Issue * Dorthe Nors is a writer of moments-quiet, raw portraits of existential meditation, at times dyspeptic, but never unsympathetic * Paris Review 'What We're Loving' * A stunningly original new voice from Denmark... Dorthe Nors has the fabulous talent (...) of restraint... A major new voice in European literature * Booktrust * One of Denmark's most inventive and acclaimed contemporary writers * Bookanista * Throughout, remarkable characters and wonderful lines emerge from the artful prose. This is worth downing in one sitting. * Publishers Weekly *