Helle Helle is a Danish author, and I’ve seen her books around for years, but never actually read any of her books. I guess the main intriguing thing for me has been her cool name — yes, I’m that shallow.
I guess I bought this book at an airport in December 2014, but then never read it.
And… it’s amazing! It’s the most tense, nerve-wracking book ever, despite “nothing happens”. Helle Helle has mostly written short stories, and that’s really apparently in this novel — there’s not a sentence wasted.
I’m definitely going to get more of her books, but perhaps in Danish — I’ve got a Norwegian translation here. The translation (by Trude Marstein) is fine, but there’s some oddball word choices here and there that seem to land halfway between both intelligible Danish and intelligible Norwegian.
I don’t think Helle Helle has been translated to English much? Let’s see… Apparently just one novel. I’m also going to go ahead and guess that many readers dislike this novel because the protagonist isn’t exactly… “inspiring”? Right:
Det er svaert at blive foelelsesmaessigt involveret og investere i en hovedperson der virker saa uendeligt kedelig, passiv, usikker og ulykkelig.
So to sum up: this is an incrediably boring book.
Ned til hundene (2008) by Helle Helle (3.66 on Goodreads)