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1980s: Ready for a relationship of intense connection?
1980s: Ready for a relationship of intense connection?
At her father’s art exhibition, fourteen-year-old Tanja is introduced to Eg. Handsome and grey-eyed, he is a friend of her parents, a man who makes his living with words and sees something extraordinary in her. Soon, letters begin to arrive at her home in the Swedish forest. Pages spinning a private fairytale dreamed up just for her, inviting Tanja into a love that promises escape from her lonely childhood.
But when the two finally meet, Tanja steps through a door into an adult experience from which there is no return, where desire and excitement soon give way to shame and control. Years later, now a poet herself and armed with the language to name what happened, she uncovers a box of Eg’s letters coated with mildew and begins to read.
Copenhagen
The story heavily critiques the bohemian, upper-class artistic circles of 1980s Copehagen. This is where adults are too absorbed in their own social lives, artistic pursuits, and liberal norms to notice anything that is going on around them.
Sweden is mentioned but only the forest and even that is vague.
This book looks at a case of grooming children and the ongoing global #MeToo literary movement. When published in Denmark, the book sparked widespread cultural discussions about adult accountability, historical trauma, and the blind spots of the 1980s.
Destination/Location: Denmark, Sweden Author: Ulrikka S. Gernes Departure: 1980s
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