The Trouble with Happiness

So clear is Ditlevsens eye that it is impossible to tear yourself away John Self, Guardian

An unforgettable collection of stories from the author of The Copenhagen Trilogy

The most important thing is probably always precisely the thing you cant have. Thats where all the happiness is

In these brief, acid-sharp stories of love, marriage and family from one of Denmarks most celebrated writers, the ordinary events of everyday life - a wife anxious not to wake her husband, a little boy losing his fathers beloved knife, a womans obsessive longing for a yellow silk umbrella - become dark and disconcerting. Here Tove Ditlevsen explores yearning, fear and the elusiveness of that strange thing called happiness.

The purity and dazzling insight of Ditlevsens writing speaks for itselfDaily Telegraph

Authentic, unforced and utterly lucidSunday Times

Ditlevsens wonderful and devastatingly bleak short stories simmer with melancholy and despairDaily Mail

Translated by Michael Favala Goldman