The acclaimed Danish poet Tove Ditlevsen's autobiographical Copenhagen
Trilogy ("A masterpiece" --The Guardian) continues with
Youth. Following Childhood, this second volume finds the young
author consumed in trials by fire that only fuel her relentless passion
for artistic freedom--placing her on a devastating and destructive path
recounted in the final volume, Dependency.
Forced to leave school early, Tove embarks on a checkered career in a
string of low-paid, menial jobs. But she is hungry: for poetry, for
love, for real life to begin. As Europe slides into war, she must
navigate exploitative bosses, a Nazi landlady, and unwelcome sexual
encounters on the road to hard-won independence. Yet she remains
ruthlessly determined in the pursuit of her poetic vocation--until at
last the miracle she has always dreamed of appears to be within reach.
Youth, the second volume in the Copenhagen Trilogy, is a strikingly
honest and immersive portrait of adolescence, filled with biting humor,
vulnerability, and poeticism.