For February, the Nordic Center Book Club is reading Childhood, the first volume in Tove Ditlevsen’s The Copenhagen Trilogy. This is a slight volume, but packs an emotional wallop! You may find yourself reading the entire trilogy.
Tove knows she is a misfit whose childhood is made for a completely different girl. In her working-class neighborhood in Copenhagen, she is enthralled by her wild, red-headed friend Ruth, who initiates her into adult secrets. But Tove cannot reveal her true self to her or to anyone else. For “long, mysterious words begin to crawl across” her soul, and she comes to realize that she has a vocation, something unknowable within her―and that she must one day, painfully but inevitably, leave the narrow street of her childhood behind.
Our next meeting is Thursday February 13th, 1pm at the Nordic Center. See you there, and happy reading.