In December, the club decided to read a wintry book which just happened to be from Denmark, a country we hadn’t read yet. Because we chose this book (Smilla’s Sense of Snow) based upon the topic & not the country, we didn’t follow our normal procedure of including a variety of books from the country written by native authors or books related to the country. Check out the list below of 10 great reads related to Denmark along with notes indicating why they aren’t included in our official list of Danish reads.
Happy reading!
Written by an author from Ireland:
“When the oil and gas ran out, civilisation collapsed. Now, centuries later, mankind is once again beginning to discover the secrets of the past ... starting with clockwork.
In a future Denmark, the King’s clockmaker becomes enmeshed in a web of court intrigue and undertakes a fateful journey to the Far North, where he encounters many strange phenomena that challenge his rational nature.
Kingdom of Clockwork is a science fiction/steampunk novel by Billy O’Shea. The story takes place in a quasi-medieval society that arises in Scandinavia after the new Dark Ages. Lacking fossil fuels and knowledge of past technology, the new kingdoms of the northern lands can only draw upon the power of the wind, which they store using clockwork. But the King of Kantarborg has a plan to mine other secrets of the past, and weaves a young court clockmaker into his dangerous schemes.
Kingdom of Clockwork has been described as ‘alternate history, historical fantasy and steampunk.’ It is a quirky, intriguing, slightly whimsical tale of reason, magic and human cunning. The story combines real Scandinavian history and locations with flights of fancy, both literal and metaphorical.”
Written by a Danish author about a conquered England:
“The first in the bestselling Danish series of historical mysteries
The newly crowned King Cnut of Denmark has conquered England and rules his new empire from Oxford. The year is 1018 and the war is finally over, but the unified kingdom is far from peaceful.
Halfdan’s mixed lineage—half Danish, half Saxon—has made him a pauper in the new kingdom. His father, his brother, and the land he should have inherited were all taken by the new king’s men. He lost everything to the war but his sense of humor. Once a proud nobleman, Halfdan now wanders the country aimlessly, powered only by his considerable charm and some petty theft. When he finds an unlikely ally in Winston, a former monk, he sees no reason not to accept his strange invitation to travel together to Oxford. Winston has been commissioned to paint a portrait of the king at the invitation of his new wife, and the protection of a clever man like Halfdan is well worth its price in wine and bread.
But when the pair’s arrival in court coincides with news of a murder, the king has a brilliant idea: Why not enlist the newly arrived womanizing half-Dane and the Saxon intellectual to defuse a politically explosive situation? The pair represents both sides of the conflict and seem to have crime-solving skills to boot. In their search for the killer, Halfdan and Winston find seduction, adventure, and scandal in the wild early days of Cnut’s rule.”
Written by an author born in the US:
A NY Times Notable Book, & winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Fiction as well as the Rosenthal Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters
“Based on the real-life story of Einar Wegener, a Danish artist who 70 years ago became the first man to be medically transformed into a woman—long before the much better-known case of Christine Jorgensen.
This tender portrait of marriage asks: What do you do when the person you love has to change? It starts with a question, a simple favor asked by a wife of her husband while both are painting in their studio, setting off a transformation neither can anticipate. Uniting fact and fiction into an original romantic vision, The Danish Girl eloquently portrays the unique intimacy that defines every marriage and the remarkable story of Lili Elbe, a pioneer in transgender history, and the woman torn between loyalty to her marriage and her own ambitions and desires. The Danish Girl’s lush prose and generous emotional insight make it, after the last page is turned, a deeply moving first novel about one of the most passionate and unusual love stories of the 20th century.”
Written by an author from Sweden:
“The Royal Physician's Visit magnificently recasts the dramatic era of Danish history when Johann Friedrich Struensee—court physician to mad young King Christian—stepped through an aperture in history and became the holder of absolute power in Denmark. His is a gripping tale of power, sex, love, and the life of the mind, and it is superbly rendered here by Sweden's most acclaimed writer.
A charismatic German doctor and brilliant intellectual, Struensee used his influence to introduce hundreds of reforms in Denmark in the 1760s and had a tender and erotic affair with Queen Caroline Mathilde, who was unsatisfied by her unstable, childlike husband. And yet, his ambitions ultimately led to tragedy.
This novel is a compelling look into the intrigues of an Enlightenment court and the life of a singular man.”
Note: Known in some countries under a slightly different title: The Visit of the Royal Physician.
Written by a Danish author about Kenya:
“In December 1913, after marrying Bror Blixen, Baroness Karen Blixen (pen name Isak Dinesen) of Denmark boarded a steamship in Naples bound for East Africa, beginning one of the more intriguing adventures undertaken by a 20th-century woman.
Out of Africa is her memoir of her years in Africa, from 1914 to 1931, on a four-thousand-acre coffee plantation in the hills near Nairobi. She had come to Kenya from Denmark with her husband, and when they separated she stayed on to manage the farm by herself, visited frequently by her lover, the big-game hunter Denys Finch-Hatton, for whom she would make up stories ‘like Scheherazade’ [the female storyteller from the Arabic One Thousand and One Nights].
Her account of her African adventures, written after she had lost her beloved farm and returned to Denmark, is that of a master storyteller, a woman whom John Updike called ‘one of the most picturesque and flamboyant literary personalities of the century.’”
Written by an English author:
“A bold new novel from the author of Restoration and The Way I Found Her
In the year 1629, a young English lutenist named Peter Claire arrives at the Danish court to join King Christian IV's royal orchestra. From the moment when he realizes that the musicians have to perform in a freezing cellar underneath the royal apartments, he understands that he's come to a place where the opposing states of light and dark, good and evil, are waging war to the death. Designated the king's ‘Angel’ because of his good looks, he finds himself falling in love with the young woman who is the companion of the king's adulterous and estranged wife, Kirsten. With his loyalties fatally divided, how will Peter Claire find the path that will realize his hopes and save his soul?
With a sure, alchemical touch and the narrative finesse that always turns her histories into a kind of magic, Rose Tremain has fashioned a rich, provocative historical romance as pungent as Denmark's salty air. This is a tale of opposites: light and darkness, tenderness and violence, music and silence.”
Written by a Welsh author about Denmark & Europe:
“Ken Follett and the intrigue of WWII—’a winning formula’ (Entertainment Weekly) if ever there was one. With his riveting prose and unerring instinct for suspense, the #1 NY Times bestselling author takes to the skies over Europe during the early days of the war in a most extraordinary novel. . .
It is June 1941, and the war is not going well for England. Somehow, the Germans are anticipating the RAF's flight paths and shooting down British bombers with impunity. Meanwhile, across the North Sea, eighteen-year-old Harald Olufsen takes a shortcut on the German-occupied Danish island of Sande and discovers an astonishing sight. He doesn't know what it is, but he knows he must tell someone. And when he learns the truth, it will fall upon him to deliver word to England—except that he has no way to get there. He has only an old derelict Hornet Moth biplane rusting away in a ruined church—a plane so decrepit that it is unlikely to ever get off the ground . . . even if Harald knew how to fly it.
Written by an English author:
“Short-listed for Best Contemporary Romance at the Romantic Novelists’ Association Romance of the Year Awards
Welcome to the little cafe in Copenhagen where the smell of cinnamon fills the air, the hot chocolate is as smooth as silk and romance is just around the corner…
‘An irresistible combination of Danish happiness and hygge in one un-put-down-able story.’ - Sunday Times bestseller Katie Fforde
Publicist Kate Sinclair’s life in London is everything she thought she wanted: success, glamour and a charming boyfriend. Until that boyfriend goes behind her back and snatches a much sought-after promotion from her. Heartbroken and questioning everything, Kate needs to escape.
From candles and cosy nights in to romantic late-night walks through the beautiful cobbled streets of Copenhagen, Kate discovers how to live life ‘the Danish way’. Can the secrets of hygge and happiness lead her to her own happily-ever-after?
Everybody loves Julie Caplin…
‘A fantastic, huggable, hilarious and addictive read.’ - The Writing Garnet
‘It’s all about the feels…I absolutely loved it’ = The Cosiest Corner
‘Sweet, funny and deliciously heart-warming’ - Frankly, My Dear…
‘I've already read it again since I finished it… a true sign of how much I enjoyed it’ - Life Appears”
Written by an author from the UK:
“'A hugely enjoyable romp through the pleasures and pitfalls of setting up home in a foreign land' - The Guardian
When she was suddenly given the opportunity of a new life in rural Jutland, journalist and archetypal Londoner Helen Russell discovered a startling statistic: the happiest place on earth isn’t Disneyland, but Denmark, a land often thought of by foreigners as consisting entirely of long dark winters, cured herring, Lego, and pastries.
What is the secret to their success? Are happy Danes born, or made?
Helen decides there is only one way to find out: she will give herself a year, trying to uncover the formula for Danish happiness. From childcare, education, food and interior design (not to mention 'hygge') to SAD, taxes, sexismm and an unfortunate predilection for burning witches, The Year of Living Danishly is a funny, poignant record of a journey that shows us where the Danes get it right, where they get it wrong, and how we might just benefit from living a little more Danishly ourselves.”
Written by an author from England:
“Shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award
’The charmer of the summer.’ - NPR
’Warm-hearted, clear-minded, and unexpectedly spellbinding, Meet Me at the Museum is a novel to savor.’
- Annie Barrows, co-author of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
In Denmark, Professor Anders Larsen, an urbane man of facts, has lost his wife and his hopes for the future. On an isolated English farm, Tina Hopgood is trapped in a life she doesn’t remember choosing. Both believe their love stories are over.
Brought together by a shared fascination with the Tollund Man, subject of Seamus Heaney’s famous poem, they begin writing letters to one another. And from their vastly different worlds, they find they have more in common than they could have imagined. As they open up to one another about their lives, an unexpected friendship blooms. But then Tina’s letters stop coming, and Anders is thrown into despair. How far are they willing to go to write a new story for themselves?