Author(s): Stine Pilgaard

Novel | Translated fiction | Denmark | Humour & Satire

A young mother follows her partner to a rural community in West Jutland, Denmark, where he teaches at the local school for adult education. Isolated, she is forced to find her way in a bewildering community and in the inscrutable conversational forms of the local population.

A young woman relocates to an outlying community in West Jutland, Denmark, and is forced to find her way, not only in the bewildering environment of the residential Folk High School, where her partner has been hired to teach, but also in the inscrutable conversational forms of the local population. And on top of it all, there's the small matter of juggling her roles as mother to a newborn baby and advice columnist in the local newspaper. In this understated and hilarious novel, Stine Pilgaard conjures a tale of venturing into new and uncharted land, of human relationships, dilemmas, and the ways and byways of social intercourse.

“A charming and funny novel. … The buzz of people coming and going through the pages, and the warmth and wit of the narrator’s voice, make it a pleasure to be in her company.”
The Guardian

“Stine Pilgaard’s novel is a charming chamber work, focusing on a handful of characters in a relatively isolated location, from the perspective of a protagonist struggling to find her own place in society. Her advice columns make for a fascinating contrast with the stories of her life, and a few unlikely narrative payoffs make these seemingly distanced aspects more connected than you’d expect.”
Words Without Borders

“Hunter Simpson’s translation is playful, funny, and colorful without being showy, rendering the world of a Folk High School in West Jutland with warmth and precision and the voice of the novel’s witty fish-out-of-water narrator with panache.”
Jury, Leif and Inger Sjöberg Prize for Translation, 2021

“Small communities love their inside jokes, which become all the more (and paradoxically) hilarious if an outsider takes them seriously. Pilgaard’s smart, layered parody will make you laugh without knowing exactly why, and then will keep you laughing at your self-consciousness.”
VERONICA RAIMO, author of The Girl at the Door

“A different and refreshing novel. It’s wise, funny and sad by turns and has a powerful sense of place.”
Daily Mail

“Stine Pilgaard has written a captivating novel … She has accomplished the tour de force of offering us a book that is both hilarious and metaphysical at the same time.”
Le Monde

“A gentle observational comedy. … Pilgaard draws out a great deal of warmth and humour from the narrator’s attempts to connect with the locals.”
The Herald

“A master of irony lays down her weapons. A deliciously crumbly novel oozing with awkward love.”
Weekendavisen

“A sheer delight: Stine Pilgaard has penned a perfect comedy about normalcy.”
Dagbladet Information

“The book of the year. An absolutely fabulous novel about adjusting to midlife in the back of beyond.”
Jyllands-Posten

“Stine Pilgaard has a pronounced talent for parody. She can write in such a way as to make you laugh out loud, bringing our embarrassments out into the open, capturing the absurdities of everyday life. Her dialogues are natural and precise, her language clear and succinct, and her references plain and recognizable. But beneath the lightness of her prose hides something beyond comedy and rhetoric.”
Berlingske

“Another Pilgaard pearl. Too funny for words and at the same time so keenly intelligent in its depictions. You love her characters to bits and understand their faltering steps on the road to community so well. A book you’ll cherish reading—again and again and …”
SØNDAG

“Stine Pilgaard’s crisp prose and supreme timing can be spotted fifty books away. It’s an exquisite pearl of a book, wonderfully funny, playful, and subtle in its crafting. But don’t be mistaken: beneath the humor there’s a worldly-wise voice with a finely honed ability to put into words all that’s profound and beautiful and good about life. This is one of the best works of Danish literature I’ve read in ages.”
Litteratursiden

“The Land of Short Sentences is a tragicomic genre hybrid including advice columns, højskole songs, and a thoroughly maladapted, infinitely charming narrator. The book’s disasters are small, and it is a situational comedy that gives us a break from world events. But it is not cozily escapist or trivial; it is a consolation, a reminder of something common, comical, and troublesome that persists while dramatic global events take place: the fact that people need people, no matter how awkward it can be. Dear Stine Pilgaard. I would like to say congratulations on the award, but also: thank you for the book. Because it made it a little easier to live, without lying about it being easy. Because it lingered with irresistible joy on all the little inconveniences that make up the social landscape. Because it made it much easier to be a weirdo who ventures across the boundaries of others with the best of intentions.”
LINEA MAJA ERNST, Weekendavisen