Wild Swims by Dorthe Nors

This is a collection resplendent with longing. In these compact pages, people meet without actually connecting, travellers set off but never seem to find home. We meet them on the fjords of Norway, in the bustle of Los Angeles, and among the lights of Copenhagen. Outsiders yearn to be on the inside, insiders are desperate to be free. A writer befriends an ex-lover’s mother. An elderly man offers his body to aging women. A woman’s childhood memories of wild swimming draw her back to the water.

In prose that is both elegantly spare and saturated with emotion, Dorthe Nors shines a light into forgotten corners and conjures darkness where it’s least expected. Her characteristic sharpness and sense of humour is ever-present, catching us when the melancholy threatens to come too close. Love, cruelty, friendship, and loneliness are all here, in these stories that brim with life.

(Pushkin Press)