Journey in Blue

by Stig Dalager

Translated from the Danish by John Mason

Journey in Blue is an acclaimed fictional recreation of the life and works of the fairy-tale writer Hans Christian Andersen by a rising star of contemporary Danish literature.

Hans Christian Andersen is on his deathbed. Doses of morphine cause his brain to oscillate between dreamy states and fleeting moments of clarity. The complex and elastic mind that drives his personality and his work wrestles with his own perceived fate as stranger in the world, his longing for love and his religiosity.

To believe in his own talent to the extent that Andersen has done and to have lived so one-dimensionally has left him socially deficient and isolated. There is also torment: although internationally renowned, he was rejected in his own country until late in his life when a leading Danish literary critic discovered his fairytales, and confirmed their importance to his fellow countrymen. As Andersen’s death approaches, his memories grow more vivid and material, yet at the same time fairytale-like. In this remarkable novel, Stig Dalager takes the reader on a journey through the mind, body, spirit and works of one of the truly great names in world literature.

(From Publisher)

STIG DALAGER (born in 1952) is the author of novels, poetry and story collections as well as plays, television and film scripts. One of Denmark’s most distinguished writers, his internationally known works include the Sarajevo play I Count the Hours and The Dream, both premiered at the famous La Mama Theatre in New York. His novel Two Days in July about Claus von Stauffenberg and the plot to kill Hitler is soon to be filmed. Dalager’s play Lord and Shadow, an interpretation of H.C.Andersen and his world, was staged at the Scena Theatre in Washington, D.C. This year the play will be staged in New York, Rome, Moscow, Warsaw and Beijing.