Mirror, Shoulder, Signal

by Dorthe Nors, Misha Hoekstra (Translator)

A spikily funny, startlingly perceptive and beautifully written novel about modern life by the brightest light in Danish fiction

Sonja's over forty, and she's trying to move in the right direction. She's learning to drive. She's joined a meditation group. And she's attempting to reconnect with her sister.

But Sonja would rather eat cake than meditate.

Her driving instructor won't let her change gear.

And her sister won't return her calls.

Sonja's mind keeps wandering back to the dramatic landscapes of her childhood - the singing whooper swans, the endless sky, and getting lost barefoot in the rye fields - but how can she return to a place that she no longer recognizes? And how can she escape the alienating streets of Copenhagen?

Mirror, Shoulder, Signal is a poignant, sharp-witted tale of one woman's journey in search of herself when there's no one to ask for directions.

Genres: Fiction, Denmark, Danish, Contemporary, Book Club, Literary Fiction, Novels

172 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 2, 2016

About the author

Dorthe Nors is a Danish author and writer. She is the first Danish author to be published in the American magazine The New Yorker. She was born in 1970 and studied literature and art history at the University of Aarhus. After publishing three novels, she wrote Karate Chop, her collection of short stories, in 2008 and Minna Needs Rehearsal Space in 2013. She has seen her short stories in various publications, including The Boston Review, Harpers and The New Yorker, and has contributed to anthologies in Denmark and Germany. Having international acclaim, she lives in rural Jutland, Denmark.

From http://pushkinpress.com/author/dorthe...

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Nearly 3.5) Though it’s a bit unsatisfying as a story, ultimately I thought of this as an allegorical or cautionary tale about getting stuck. In that case, the novel’s title might serve as a clue to how to get out again: “mirror” – take a good look at yourself; “shoulder” – remember where you came from; and then “signal” – figure out small actions that indicate your willingness to change. For Sonja that’s the driving lessons, which symbolize true autonomy: once she gets her license she’ll be able to go wherever she wants. This novel probably won’t be for everyone (there isn’t all that much of a plot), but it’s a quick and offbeat read. It might just remind you of situations you’ve allowed to control you, and inspire you to find a way out.

See my full review at The Bookbag.

[Antonomasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

[4.5] Dorthe Nors is popular in Denmark, but sometimes it feels as if the only English-language readers who like her are a handful of publishers, prize judges (three nominations for this one!) and me. In fairness, a few other people on GR did like Minna Needs Rehearsal Space, a favourite of mine, published in the US in the collection So Much For That Winter - but Mirror Shoulder Signal was disliked by everyone I know on GR and in the blogosphere who read it because of its International Booker listing in 2017. Even a friend whom I thought would like Nors, as a writer of slightly awkward solitary female characters, abandoned Mirror Shoulder Signal.

For me, the writing has a texture that feels exactly like the mundane bits of life. This may seem odd to friends who’ve been reading my GR reviews for years, as I’ve also said that life and friends often feel to me like an early-to-mid Nicola Barker book; Barker can be zany and frenetic, and Nors rather minimalist. But there is something ineffable here which clicks: Nors, via her translator Misha Hoekstra, captures the precise feeling of everyday activities conducted alone at times when nothing especially remarkable is happening and mood is more or less in neutral. The English translations of Nors’ work use s-apostrophe a lot for “is” in narrative, contrary to most UK publishers’ style guides, and I think this adds to my sense of its sounding like inner experience - whereas to some readers, it may jar because it’s unusual.

And like Minna of the Rehearsal Space, I find Sonja relatable. Her inner thoughts during the conversations with the massage therapist she attends, essentially about managing conversations and modulating social distance; the way that working on other people’s writing (for her translating, for me editing or ghosting) can get under your skin; her attempts to connect with family members who just aren’t on the right wavelength to really get her; agreeing to go on an excursion that isn’t quite her sort of thing. The last perhaps isn’t fully explained, and so won’t chime with readers who don’t instinctively get it, but the decision reminded me very much of how, when I was younger and had just moved to a new place, I would go along to almost anything, even if it sounded dull... It was just obviously a good idea, treating it like first term at university. This interview with Nors may explain to some extent why her characters connect with me so well; she describes herself as “a strange combination of extrovert and introvert. I love to talk onstage, I’m happy talking to you now, and then I withdraw”. This seems like the way I feel, not midway between introvert and extrovert, but being both to some degree of extreme.

This sense of connection with the character meant that, unfairly, my provisional rating for the book would drop suddenly at times when she made bad decisions I wouldn’t have. (Examples that will only make sense if you’ve read it: Not talking to Jytte was something I’d have done in my twenties but I learned better how to deal with that kind of thing later. I couldn’t fathom why she ended up at Avedøre with Folke, despite her awareness; the trick with the bags of books was totally something I’d have done albeit I wouldn’t have volunteered to be in that situation in the first place. I was surprised that by 40 she hadn't accepted that driving with her medical condition might not be a good idea... but not everyone processes stuff at the same speed.) If I were a character in a book I would do things that might seem ridiculous too, just different things. And if she were a friend I would mostly just listen, so still 4.5.

There is enough nature-writing here to enhance enjoyment if you’re a fan of it, but not so much that it’s a primary component of the book: it feels like exactly the right amount to reflect someone who lives in a city but likes the countryside. And likewise there’s quite a bit of humour but probably not so much you’d call it a comic novel; it’s very sympathetic, it’s not making fun of Sonja. It’s a friendly sense of the ridiculous, as one might have about oneself or a good friend. (However, Nors certainly knows how to poke fun: Gösta Svensson, the bestselling Swedish crime writer whose violent novels Sonja translates, is roundly mocked. I only wish I knew the field better as I’d love to know who he’s based on. As it was, I imagined a more dapper Jo Nesbø.) And despite this being a book about mild social awkwardness, the minimalist writing has a way of making everything seem more orderly, and this makes reality seem a little easier to parse too.

Maybe I’ve talked it up too much here; I can’t really recommend Mirror Shoulder Signal, because it may well be a 2-star book for you as it was for several of my GR friends - but I liked it a lot. I was glad this list, self-imposed last year during Women in Translation Month, reminded me to read it - and I really want to get round to the remainder of Nors’ work available in English.

[Nat K · Rating 3 out of 5]

”Everything’s supposed to mean something else, everything’s supposed to be rising, tearing itself free of its wrappings, climbing up to some higher meaning; it’s supposed to get away from where it’s been. Reality will not suffice.”

A solid three ★s for me.

I don’t think I’ve read anything previously by a Danish Author, so this was a delightful treat.

This book is set in Copenhagen, where we meet Sonja as she embarks on obtaining her driver’s licence. Sonja is a translator of crime novels, a deep thinker who worries too much about other people’s feelings, and sufferers from vertigo (which impacts her daily life at odd moments).

A slow burning and slow moving story. But filled with many poignant and bittersweet moments.

In her forties and estranged from her sister, Sonja has lately been mulling over a reading given to her by a fortune teller when she was in her twenties. Is she where she “should be” at this point in her life?

City life is starting to get her down, and she ponders what her next move should be.

”There’s nothing in Copenhagen but people who are like people of every shape and size everywhere. Nothing more, nothing less, just people, and besides, they rarely meet anyone outside their segment anyway.”

There are moments of black humour as we join Sonja for her driving lessons and in her attempts to heal her vertigo via visits to holistic-hippy-trippy masseuse Emma.

For me, both the driving and vertigo are metaphors for deeper things going on in Sonja’s life. The new direction she wants to take and the things that are holding her back. I liked her character very much, she’s quirky and likeable.

”It’s hard to find clothes to fit the body you have, and it’s hard to find words to fit the people you love...”

While not a great deal happens in this book, that’s ok. It doesn’t take away from the enjoyment of reading it. That’s life. Momentous things don’t happen all the time. A lot of life is simply about getting from Point A. to Point B. and back again.

An enjoyable read.

Many thanks to GR friend Marc for posting his fab review (without which I would have missed out on this little gem).

Marc’s review can be found at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Menia · Rating 1 out of 5]

όποιος μου ξαναπει ότι οι Δανοί είναι οι πιο ευτυχισμένοι άνθρωποι στον κόσμο θα τον βάλω να φάει αυτό το βιβλίο. hygge και στα μούτρα σας ρεεεε
σε άλλα νέα, το διάβασα παρέα με την Εύη και της αφιερώνω το:
σοσόνι σοσονάκι
πάμε πιο γρήγορααα,
να δω να τρακάρεις
βάλε ταχύτητααααα

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Inexplicably longlisted now for two major translation prizes.

Sonja is over forty, a translator of Swedish crime fiction, unmarried and without children, now physically distant from her country upbringing and her parents, and emotionally distant from her married sister Kate who remains there and has a more conventional lifestyle of husband and children whereas Sonja realises her refusal to conform in her younger life is now affecting her later life.

Kate got everything she wanted Sonja thinks And in the order she wanted it. Kate’s never colored outside the lines

In many ways thinks Sonja Mum did me a diservice in believing I could just be myself. If I hadn’t been allowed to, then I’d be sitting here right now with the whole package, but that train’s left the station. And if anyone does, Mum should know that you have to adapt if you’re going to entangle yourself in an intimate relationship.

Sonja moved to Copenhagen with a childhood friend Molly, but Molly seems to have adopted more to life in the City, Sonja herself now feeling somehow marooned between country and City

“Everything she thought she’d grow into turned out to be as fallibly human as what Molly thought they were getting away from. But the place you come from is a place you can never return to. It no longer exists, Sonja thinks, trying to swallow a lump in her throat, and you your self have become a stranger

Her main interactions are with her part masseuse, part psychologist and two driving instructors.

Nor likes to (in her own words)

write books about middle-aged, childless women on the brink of disappearing—or you could say—on the brink of losing their license to live. If a woman has kids, she will always be a mother, but a woman who has chosen not to procreate and who now no longer is young and sexy is perceived by many as a pointless being.

The intention seems admirable, the execution (at least in this novel) clumsy. I did not feel able to understand Sonja’s character which surely is Nor’s aim.

Instead her struggles to learn to drive seemed to be largely a set of over laboured metaphors: fine with the theory by not the practice; inability to change gears and cession of the control to others; positional vertigo which in turn makes it hard for her to see her own blind spots and to turn around to appreciate the dangers from behind; and her job an excuse for a rather obvious heavy handed dig at Scandinavian Crime noir.

The book provides its own postscript to my review

“Can't you try and translate other authors?" asks Molly. "Some that mean something"

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I first heard of this book when it was on the Man Booker Prize International list this past year. I tried a few pages when I was speed dating books for my trip and just knew it wasn't right for that time. Then I listened to an episode of the Guardian Books Podcast where they spoke to the author and I really liked what she had to say; her intentions with the book. Featuring an older female character and not having it be about a relationship. A small life. I love small lives!

But what I loved in intention I didn't really see in the novel. There are fun ideas introduced (such as the "feels she should meditate but prefers cake!" sentiment on the publisher summary) that only come up briefly. Even the translation issue, where she is the primary translator of a successful Scandinavian crime writer, is just not given the attention it could be. So it becomes a novel about very little, unfortunately, too little.

[Left Coast Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for two reasons. The first munDane reason (har har) is I now find my professional life dominated by Danes, and I'd like to become a little less ignorant about the world my boss and coworkers live in. More importantly, one of my favorite books this year was Nors' memoir/travel book A Line in the World, and I wanted to try some of her fiction. A Line was about the sacrifices one makes to pursue a life in the arts; the distance at which the artist needs to hold her subject (in her case, Danish society) and the intense loneliness that can sometimes result.

This book explains why she's so lonely, and does it so well that parts of it are downright painful to read.

Yes, Mirror, Shoulder, Signal is fictional. But it's so precise in its details, so odd in which details are chosen for presentation, that it could hardly be anything other than autobiographical -- and to the extent her public life is known, it lines up with this book pretty well.

Emotional intelligence is all the rage these days, and this narrator ain't got any. But she's loaded with the better-known sort of intelligence, and has an enjoyable, illuminating way with a phrase:

If the panoramic experience of nature can be compared to drugs, then this is a wad of used nicotine gum.

Somehow, at some point, my own city is dragged into the proceedings:

A trace of incense is clinging to her, but it might as well be Magic Tree air freshener, bad cologne, a backseat blanket and gunk between her thighs. San Diego?

Not only is this a very personal story, but it has as its backdrop the discomfort felt by rural Danes when confronted with the mean streets of Copenhagen. American readers who have spent any time in this clean, cold, endlessly polite city may be baffled by the references to relentless noise and confusion. But Nors is simply describing things from her own point of view -- she grew up on a farm far from towns of any size at all, and she has lovely expressions like "the cow would no longer be out on the ice" to describe a bad situation being defused. And she knows stuff like

There are hairdressers there who sell farmers the hair they cut from the locals. Then the farmers put the hair in potato sacks and hang them on fence posts by the exclosures. Because human hair scares off deer. They don't like the smell.

Three stars or four? I enjoyed it, but it seemed almost like putting a camera in somebody's living room without their knowledge. Fun, maybe, but of the queasy sort. And if I hadn't read her excellent memoir first, I might be wondering who this woman is, and why I should care about her problems. But I know what she can do with her art, and I found myself caring very much.

[lucky little cat · Rating 2 out of 5]

For those who like their visits from the Black Dog accompanied by a side of blues. Brief, moody, and almost entirely plotless.


Forty-something Sonja lives in Copenhagen, but has become weary of the superficiality of her life there. She yearns for her farm-girl past back in the sticks in Jutland, but finds not even her family cherishes and remembers that past as she does. The book has plenty of gently ironic humor, but it's significantly outweighed by Sonja's Cassandra-ish presentiments of doom.

Most assuredly not recommended for holiday reading.

[Paul Fulcher · Rating 2 out of 5]

With the job Sonja has, that’s something she knows quite well: language is powerful, almost magic, and the smallest alteration can elevate a sentence or be its undoing.

Book 4 from the 2017 Man Booker International longlist.

Dorthe Nors was better known (to me at least) in English as a writer of very-short-stories, notably for the collection Karate Chop, and novellas (Minna Needs Rehearsal Space), but she is also a novel writer and "Spejl, Skulder, Blink" originally published in 2016, has been translated into English by Misha Hoekstra.

The protagonist of Mirror, Shoulder, Signal is the forty-something Sonja, and the novel opens with her about to begin a driving lesson (hence the title).

Her teacher, initially, is the abrasive Jyffe who keeps seizing the initiative and taking control of the car, meaning 6 months in Sonja is still incapable of properly changing gear. Sonja also struggles with inherited otolithic (Benign Paroxysmal Positional) vertigo, which, amongst other effects, causes issues when she looks over her shoulder to check her blind spot.

By profession Sonja is a literary translator, having failed to become an author, and makes a living rendering into Danish the novel of the (fictional) Gösta Svensson, a best-selling Swedish writer of Steig-Larrsonesque violent crime thrillers (a crossword puzzle in sperm and maggots). Nors rather neatly skewers this too-easy target: his novels are based in the Sweden where weapons manufacturers lie and simmer beneath it all, and at a seminar for his translators Svensson tells them not only how to translate but also how to write crime fiction: “The Crime Commissioner ought to have a kwørk(*), an idiosyncratic penchant for chewing matchsticks or collecting toy cars,” as well as drink and family problems “preferably with a daughter.”.

(* his mangled pronunciation of “quirk”)

Sonja is originally from rural Jutland but now living in urban Copenhagen, but seemingly not at home in either (She’s standing on a side street in a capital city that won’t have anything to do with her, yet she’s also far away in the landscape.) She is single, un-married with a rather unsuccessful romantic history, her one serious partner, a German-Danish translator, having left her for a much younger and more pliable woman, and still in search of meaning in her life. (This article by Nors was useful in reading the novel: http://lithub.com/on-the-invisibility...). As Sonja reflects:

A narrow margin of uncertainty about the true nature of everything can create all manner of anxiety

The story follows her cack-handed attempts to learn to drive, as she switches from Jyffe to the driving-school head Folke, only to find that she has gone from an aggressive younger woman to a middle-aged man who, albeit married, hopes for companionship from the lessons: “I just want to learn to drive!” Sonja exclaims irascibly after one incident when he takes her on a scenic detour.

She also interacts with Ellen, her masseuse who wants to blur the line between physiotherapy and psychology and analyse the root cause of the knots in her muscles, her friend Molly who came with her to Copenhagen but seems to have found a more settled life, and her sister Kate who has remained in Jutland and who now, when Sonja rings, either gets her husband to answer the phone or pretends she is busy ('I’m just at the garden centre' is her favourite excuse). Reflecting on their relationship Sonja wonders:

When did their break start to show on the surface? A few years with separate lives and then a microscopic crazing in the enamel.

Sonja’s success as a translator is not duplicated in her own writing – she tried but failed to become an author – or in her written communication with her family. Her bin is full of letters screwed up and not sent: the things she cannot find the language to say and the people she most wants to say them to.

Indeed the novel is full of, to me rather clumsy, metaphors for Sonja’s life – Sonja’s role as a translator, her inability to select the correct gear, her vertigo and difficulty in checking her blind spot, Jodie Foster movies (Contact and The Accused), and Sonja’s fixation with migratory birds particularly whooper swans and also with helicopters (which speak to Sonja of yearnings and buoyancy).

Overall, a worthwhile read but one that for me failed to soar like Sonja’s swans and helicopters, although whether this is due to the translation or the original I cannot say. I wouldn’t expect to see this on the shortlist.

[jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book reminded me so much of Mrs. Dalloway! the longing memory of an unspoiled childhood (which was quite a bit spoiled, in fact, but oh the power of nostalgia to coat with gold leaf every pebble and every spike), the longing for connection with a beloved other woman (in this case, a sister), the fractured rhythm in which present jumps into past and back again, and if you don't pay attention you get lost. and all those associations -- plastic birds reminding our protagonist of beautiful real birds. the city, this mayhem of chaotic modernity that leaves no room for breathing, and living, and finding joy. finally, the men, all these men, allegedly something one should desire, in fact quite undesirable, physically suspect, repugnant.

look, the language alone here does marvels. some lines are breathtaking. it's poetry in prose. sonja's rich life as a child in nature, given to us with marvelous repetition, is truly something.

but what i liked best, what broke my heart most, is this longing for the love of another woman, this sister who got lost along the way because of a comment uttered one day that was the wrong comment and broke the relationship, it seems, irreparably.

there is nothing our protagonist wants more than her sister. she can pinpoint the exact time when she broke the relationship.

but then, as she tells about her past, their common childhood, it becomes clear that this idyllic bond was never there was it, it was never there. sonja and kate were really never close. they belonged to different worlds.

there is something to be said for the role sex has here. sonja is almost asexual, having gone miserably through the rites of forced heterosexuality in the past and feeling no need, now, of men. she likes the company of her women friends, but they too have changed, have become so taken by the sexual carousel. there is no talking, nothing to talk about.

and then there is this other man, the author of the novels sonja translates for a living, the paragon of men who use women and dispose of women, both in fiction and in real life.

i too long for my sisters. i'm glad this review is in english in a site they don't visit and a language they don't read cuz i too have tried to rebuild what was never there to start with, and never stop longing for it, and i never stop trying.

(p.s. the translation by Misha Hoekstra is really fantastic; and there is a lot of intra-danish stuff that i entirely missed, for obvious reasons)

[Elina · Rating 1 out of 5]

Μέγιστη μπούρδα!!! Απορώ γενικώς για τα αστεράκια που πήρε. Κρύο, άνευρο, ανούσιο σύγχρονο βορειοευρωπαικό ανάγνωσμα. Στο εξώφυλλο διαφημίζουν ότι θυμίζει Γούντυ Άλεν γι αυτό το διάλεξα απ τη δημοτική βιβλιοθήκη να το διαβάσω. Εκείνος που το έγραψε αυτό, έχει διαβάσει ή παρακολουθήσει ποτέ τον Γούντυ Άλεν; Μην τα κάνουμε κι όλα ίσωμα βρε παιδιά....

[Christian Dalager · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jeg er fan af Dorthe Nors. På den lidt stille måde.
Ingen skrigen, ingen tshirts, ingen breve, ingen plakater og ingen førsteudgaver.
Det her er bare så godt, at jeg i al fredsommelighed har støbt en 1:1 messingfigur af hende som jeg danser uhysterisk rundt om.

[Vanessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

Mirror, Shoulder, Signal follows a forty-something woman named Sonja, who is struggling in various aspects of her life. She is struggling to learn to drive and grow in confidence on the roads of Copenhagen. She is struggling to get her sister to actually speak to her over the phone. She's struggling with the holistic airy-fairy diagnoses of her masseuse with regards to her mental state and well-being. She's just struggling in general. And to be honest? That's about it. This book is not plot driven by any means, rather choosing to focus in on one particular character, and her relationship with herself, her family, and her life at a pivotal age bracket for women.

But I honestly did really enjoy this book. Dorthe Nors's writing is simple and to the point - there's nothing showy or flowery here, and you're not going to be blown away by the prose. What I did find was that the prose felt comfortable, lighthearted, funny at times but melancholy at others. The chapters are fairly short, and while the book is not a page-turner in terms of plot, it did have me turning the pages quickly and easily. I was able to dip in and out of this book with no problems at all, and thoroughly enjoyed escaping into Sonja's world and life in Copenhagen for a while. Having visited Copenhagen last year, it was also really nice to be reading a book set in a place that I was familiar with, and I didn't have any issues picturing Sonja's driving lessons or her life in the city.

I don't think this will win the Man Booker International Prize, because although it was incredibly enjoyable for me to read, I don't think it's good enough to be a literary prize winner. Which is a shame, because it's probably the book I've enjoyed the most out of the longlist (and shortlist now) so far. I think you will be able to tell by the synopsis if this is the kind of book for you, and if you think it is, then by all means pick it up. I'd love to check out more of Dorthe Nors's work in the future.

[Bronwen Griffiths · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. A story of loneliness and alienation. Quite strange in its way. I notice that the reviews are very mixed and I can imagine this is a book which wouldn't suit all readers. There's no 'big' story but it's so wonderfully observed, surreal and warm-hearted.

[Eleanor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sonja is forty and has never learned to drive. Now, living in Copenhagen and working as a translator of Swedish crime fiction into Danish, she’s going to learn. But the project doesn’t start out well—her instructor, Jytte, barks instructions and makes her anxious—and when she asks to switch instructors, she’s landed with the driving school owner himself, Folke, a man of disconcertingly present sexuality. Nor is all going well in other parts of Sonja’s life: her sister, Kate, won’t return her phone calls; her parents are rapidly aging in a rural part of Denmark that seems to be dying along with its old farming inhabitants; and her oldest friend, Molly, is drifting further and further away from her.

If that makes this sound like a romantic comedy or a fluffy piece of relationships fiction, it’s not. It isn’t full of gloom, either, though: the prevailing mood of Mirror, Shoulder, Signal is a kind of gentle melancholy. Sonja constantly drifts back in her thoughts to the safe place at the centre of her parents’ rye field, where she loved to hide. She fantasises about the huge skies of the countryside, the whooper swans. She tries to find green spaces in Copenhagen that will satisfy her need for landscape: “it looks like a piece of wilderness, but it isn’t, it’s Valby Park.” What the book seems to be trying to explore is how a woman—a person, really, but Sonja’s womanhood is important, I think—can come adrift. It’s not dramatic; she isn’t drinking too much or spending too much money or wandering around talking to herself. But she is very, very lonely nonetheless.

Nors works at showing us that loneliness through clean, clear, present-tense sentences. She isn’t verbose, though we get no sense of superhuman restraint in the prose either; it doesn’t feel minimalist, although it sort of is. In a way this makes it difficult to write about: I can sense the details of the book slipping from my memory, though I read it less than a week ago. The ending, though, is perfect: hopeful without sentimentality, allowing for love but not equating love with magic. And the love comes from a most unexpected place, one that made me smile with surprised delight. You’ll have to read it to see what I mean.

[Neil · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a book about Sonja learning to drive. It's a struggle to make it sound more interesting than that. Somehow I never really engaged with the main protagonist and a book is always a struggle when that happens.

It's probably just me, but it all seemed a bit artificial. Sonja can't select the right gear when driving, she has trouble with her blind spot, she suffers from a specialised form of vertigo. All these seem to be rather obvious metaphors for her general struggles with life.

Book 10 of 13 for me from the Man Booker International Prize long list. I'll be surprised if it keeps its position as 10th on my list.

[Jerrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a deep dive into a character that was quirky at times, but always very human and real. A woman in her forties tries to learn to drive. During this time, she thinks on her past when she was an odd child to the time when she is an odd adult. I liked that she didn’t feel bad about herself, but was accepting of her strangeness. The book is meandering and somewhat plotless, though, which doesn’t work for me. Good narration.

[Philip Shaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nors is the writer we need, right now, in every country and in every language. Between and inside each line, her command over the creation of time—past, present, wishing for future—is rarely seen as much as felt. With an economy that belies the depths of her considerations, this story is at its—sometimes fluttering, other times racing—heart, that of wanting to know more of what is already known. And, the last chapter... is a thing of perfect beauty. Not a beauty that can be taken out of context because the context is what Nors wraps her moment in, the words in, and it made me feel with each sentence, all that Nors wanted to express, while conjuring all in me that my past and presents weren't waiting to admit but did so without resistance. I read those short, perfect, last pages a half dozen times, like playing a new favorite song I couldn't get enough of.

[Pedro · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Bendecidos sean los mansos"

Sonja se ha venido del campo de Jutland a Copenhague en pos de un crecimiento, que a sus cuarenta años descubre como un sueño vano. En serena soledad trabaja en sus traducciones, lidia con su vértigo posicional y hace un curso para aprender a manejar. Con una muy buena narración se construye una historia delicada, inteligente y frágil como su protagonista.
Una novela que, en medio del vértigo del mundo, introduce una pequeña luz. Excelente.

[Evi]

Η σαραντάχρονη Σόνια που είναι και μεταφράστρια αστυνομικών βιβλίων επιδιώκει να βρει το νόημα της ζωής κάνοντας διαλογισμό, παρακολουθώντας μαθήματα οδήγησης και προσπαθώντας να τα ξαναβρεί με την αδερφή της.

Όμως η Σόνια προτιμά να φάει ένα γλυκό αντί του διαλογισμού, η δασκάλα οδήγησης δεν την ενθαρρύνει, ενώ η αδερφή της την αποφεύγει συστηματικά.

Ανατρέχοντας στα παιδικά της χρόνια διαπιστώνει ότι επιθυμεί να απομακρυνθεί από τη Στοκχόλμη.

Το βιβλίο της Dorthe Nors αποτελεί ένα μεταφορικό ανάγνωσμα. Η συγγραφέας παρομοιάζει τη ζωή της πρωταγωνίστριας με την οδήγηση. Στα μαθήματα οδήγησης η Σόνια δυσκολεύεται να αλλάξει ταχύτητα στο αυτοκίνητο και γενικά να το οδηγήσει. Κατ' επέκταση, δυσκολεύεται ν' αλλαξει πλώρη στη ζωή της, φοβάται να αφεθεί ελεύθερη, να πάει ψηλά και να προχωρήσει.

Τι είναι αυτό που θα τη βοηθήσει να λειτουργήσει χωρίς φόβο και πρακτικά; Πώς θα αφεθεί ελεύθερη; Θα επιδιώξει άραγε να αιωρηθεί με θέα τη ζωή της ή θα μείνει "καρφωμένη" στην ανιαρή και ανούσια καθημερινότητα της;

Διαβάζοντας κανείς το βιβλίο της Dorthe Nors αναλογίζεται τη δική του ζωή. Τι είναι αυτό που μας κρατάει πίσω; Τι μας κόβει τα φτερά; Η αλλαγή περιβάλλοντος θα μας βοηθούσε άραγε; Η συναναστροφή με ήρεμους και μη τοξικούς ανθρώπους θα επέφερε κάποια βελτίωση; Τι είναι αυτό που μας καθιστά στάσιμους, αναποφάσιστους και άτολμους;

[Dana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stvarno mi se dopala Sonja. Čitav roman počiva na njoj i njenim nastojanjima da razume svoju ulogu u sopstvenom životu, da mu da smisao koji je smislen za nju, a ne u skladu sa onim što se smatra da u njenim godinama u Kopenhagenu danas smisao treba da bude. Ko može da razume Sonju i/ili da se poistoveti sa njom, uživaće u knjizi i biće mu u mislima i nakon završetka, kao meni.

[Rochelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sonja is the first in her family to have gone to university. She moved from her small rural hometown to the bustle of Copenhagen where she translates popular Swedish crime novels for a living. She has very fond memories of her rural childhood. Her parents sold and moved off the farm Sonja once called home and as a 40 year old, single woman she's has no sense of where her life is going, no vision of her future.

Sonja has no close friends, and no romantic relationships. Her parents are dead and her sister (who reads the crime novels Sonja translates) avoids her calls. She’s having driving lessons but worries she’ll never learn to drive on her own. Her instructor won’t let her change gears - she cannot “shift” for herself. Sonja’s life is without direction (except in the almost comedic moments when her driving instructor is yelling “turrigh!” and “turleff!”). She also has a hereditary condition, a type of postural vertigo. When her head gets into a particular position, she loses her balance and the world spins around her. Her grip on the wide world seems tenuous at times.

While Sonja has done well for herself, what she doesn’t have is happiness. She’s truly trying, but what her fellow city dwellers deem a fun time doesn’t bring Sonja joy.

In spite of (or perhaps because of) Sonja's ennui her story is deliciously fun. I cringed and I giggled. The metaphors are simple, the characters are amusing and nothing and no one is ever quite as straightforward as they seem.

This novel was on my radar after it was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize for Literature in 2017. I loved it. Nors packed a lot in to this quiet, clever book and Sonja is an enchanting character. I think the feelings she experiences in the novel would be familiar to a lot of people - adulthood can feel very hard at times!

In the audio edition Kate Rawson's rendering is well matched to Misha Hoekstra's translation. Her performance is nicely paced, clear and her character performances are perfect. The quality is as good as I ever hope for. All in all, this is an excellent audio production.

I'm extremely grateful that Audible Studios picked this one up - it's an absolute gem. I enjoy reading books from all over the globe, but frequently I'll look for a book only to find it hasn't been made into audio (or, it has, but not in English). I'd been looking out for this one and it definitely lived up to my high expectations. I was very excited to read the novel and I'm looking forward to reading it again.

If you're interested in more reviews of books by women in translation check out #WomenInTranslation or #WiTreviews on Twitter.

[Bellezza · Rating 1 out of 5]

I shouldn’t be so intolerant of Sonja, a woman in her forties who just wants to learn to drive. Or, more specifically, to properly shift.

There was a time when I could drive a stick shift on any autobahn in Germany, but ever since having a small panic attack on 294 outside of Chicago a few years ago, I’ve been reluctant to go on any toll road whatsoever. So you’d think I’d be patient with this character’s weaknesses.

But, as I made my way through the book I just wanted to slap her.

She translates the fictional Swedish author Gösta Svensson’s crime novels, all the time wincing about the blood and semen descriptions, and nursing her aching wrists.

She complains about her driving instructor, Jytte, who seems boorish enough to make anyone nervous. But when Folke, the owner of the driving school, hears Sonja’s complaint and offers to teach her himself, she worries that he’ll attack her in the backseat.

She wears unpopular yellow clogs because the red are sold out. She has positional vertigo. She likes to sit in a field of rye. And, she doesn’t get along with her sister, Kate.

“In a lot of ways, thinks Sonja, Mom did me a disservice in believing I could just be myself. If I hadn’t been allowed to, then I’d be sitting right now with the whole package, but that train’s left the station. And if anyone does, Mom knows that you have to adapt if you’re going to entangle yourself in an intimate relationship. Kate knows that too. And Dad.” (p. 107)

Mirror, Shoulders, Signal is interesting enough in its own way, if you feel like reading a big long whine until you come to the last fifteen pages, but how it managed to be on the Man Booker International Prize long list surprises me.

[Marc · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this to be a remarkable portrait of a person who to an outsider might seem unremarkable. Sonja is over 40 years old and lives a very internal and lonely life, remembering the past and how you can't go back. She has a chronic issue with vertigo that hits her when she positions her head in certain positions and is learning to drive for the first time. And she translates the Swedish novels of a violent crime writer for a living. But there is so much more there. This novel moved me. And it made me remember that every human being has so much going on under the surface that others can't possibly know.

[John Hatley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I might say that this is a book about loneliness, about living alone in a big city. That may be true, but it is also a book about finding oneself - and being true to oneself. I really enjoyed it.

[Orbi Alter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Temom mi je bio iznimno blizak i sve skupa se pretvorilo u jako ugodno iznenadjenje s obzirom da sam naslov uzela potpuno na blef. Autorica ima bas ugladjen smisao za dinamiku i bez obzira sto je roman gotovo cijeli unutarnji monolog, procitala sam ga u dahu. Stil je njezan i prozracan, mogla sam se staviti u cipele glavnog lika, a cak donedavno i iste frustracije dijelile. Jako simpaticno

[Pascale · Rating 2 out of 5]

Each chapter in this story is delightful, but the whole left an odd taste in my mouth. Sonja, a singleton who makes a modest living from translating Swedish crime fiction (but can still afford a weekly massage: this is Denmark after all!) is trying to work her way through a mid-life crisis by taking her driving test. Alas, her first instructor, racist and vindictive Jytte, is a lousy teacher who in fact doesn't even belong on the road. Sonja amazes herself by having the gumption to report Jytte to her boss Folke, who takes her in hand. Sonja is so confused about her own feelings and about men in general that she can't figure out whether Folke is coming on to her, nor how she feels about it if he is. She's just as skittish with her masseuse Ellen, a caricature of the New Age junky, who tries to recruit her for her meditation group. Finally, she spends hours moping about the fact that her sister Kate, who has remained put in Jutland instead of moving to Copenhagen, won't even talk to her on the phone anymore. When you read what Sonja wants to tell her, you understand why. Although she once aspired to become a cosmopolitan intellectual, Sonja has failed to make any friends in the capital and obsesses about the new owner of the family farm, Bacon Bjarne, who has turned the human-sized property into a soul-less hog farm. In the last section of the book, Sonja clings to a fellow Jutlander she's met by chance on a train and decides to return to her native province for good. While the first chapters are humorous with an eery, nostalgic edge to them, the story lacks development. Sonja strikes me as somebody who has failed to adapt and her decision to go back to small-town life feels like a solution of last resort rather than a brave embrace of her roots. Based on the blurbs and colorful jacket design, I envisaged a much more upbeat or at least bitter-sweet book. In fact Sonja is no shy, goofy girl who will blossom with just a little TLC, and ultimately it does the book no favors to suggest it's that kind of a story. Sonja comes from a cultural backwater where mothers don't hug their children and boys "court" girls by showing them their dick. The smartest thing she's done is leave that world behind, and for me her decision to go back can only mean defeat.

[Anetq · Rating 4 out of 5]

Det startede neurotisk, og jeg var skeptisk: Sonja vil (måske) bare lære at køre bil, men får ikke lov at at skifte gear, for det er lettere hvis kørelæreren Jytte bare ordner det for hende...
Jeg frygtede at skulle trækkes med ren neurotik hele romanen (jeg er simpelhen ikke neurotisk og synes bare de skal tage sig sammen!) Jeg hader hovedpersoner, der ikke kan holde livet ud, men intet gør for at ændre sin situation (Peter Seebergs Fugls føde føltes af den grund som den længste roman, jeg nogensinde har slæbt mig igennem, og den er kun på 126 sider!!)
Men der er udvikling i romanen og handling - og Nors kan skrive. Det er sjovt, absurd realisme og samtidig en indfølt skildring af Sonjas fremmedgørelse i byen, angsten og længslen hjem til kornet i Jylland.

[Cat · Rating 1 out of 5]

(1.5*) taking a nap would have been a more productive use of my time than reading this book.

This story fits firmly in the category of "books that take you on a meandering, seemingly aimless journey where the plot is clearly secondary to the protagonist personal and emotional development and realisations". These books are very hit and miss.

This was a definite miss.

The book had objectively pretty good writing, the message of the story was solid and I found the main character to be relatable in some aspects but god was this book boring. It's almost impressive how a relatively light book under 200 pages could be so dull.

I'm glad this book is over to be honest.

[Lena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Humoristiskt om ensamhet, tillbakahållen ilska och om att försöka hitta sig själv.