Nordkraft by Jakob Ejersbo

Translated from the Danish by Don Bartlet

• Helsingin Kaupunginkirjasto / Helsinki City Library, Finland
• Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker, Denmark
• Sølvberget KF - Stavanger Bibliotek og Kulturhus, Norway

Publisher of Nominated Edition
McArthur & Company ISBN 1552784614

Nordkraft is a novel in three parts about a group of young people living in Aalborg, (a town in Northern Jutland, Denmark) in the first half of the 1990's. It is about dreamers, junkies, pushers, cynics, and bewildered parents who can only just keep their heads about water, so long as they don't look back.

Junkie Dogs: Maria is a "pusherfrau" and smuggles hash for Asger who owns the rottweilers named Tripper and Twister. She is on a regular run from Aalborg to Christiania in Copenhagen - it is all about to go pear-shaped. And it isn't helped by the appearance of a pig's skin, Ulla's breasts, the police and the Iranian deserter.

The Bridge: Allan has been to sea and has returned home with a large scar on his forehead after a fire on board. He has one ambition: he does not want to fall back into the lifestyle he abandoned a couple of years before. But his past is threatening to catch up with him and Maja, whom he has fallen passionately in love with, doesn't really believe him.

Funeral: One of the friends dies of an overdose. The others meet at the wake and are confronted with their common pasts. In the course of the day old wounds are torn open, and new prospects beckon.

Jakob Ejersbo is a trained journalist. He has published a collection of short stories entitled Superego. Nordkraft is his first novel.