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New Passengers
On her way to her first day of work at a high school in another town, a young woman meets a married man on the train. They begin an affair, a ride which proves as bumpy as her transition into the new job. Identifying more with her students than with her colleagues, she struggles to attain the authority expected from her as a teacher.
Funny, audacious, wry and innovatively minimalist, Høeg’s lyrical prose elicits the speed and immediacy of both train journeys and digital communication. Slow readers be warned: every line shimmers with quick-witted insight when Høeg casts a critical eye on conventional expectations pertaining to age, work, motherhood and female desire.
Winner of Bogforum’s Debutantpris, the prize awarded each year for the best debut work of literary fiction published in Denmark, the novel has also been adapted for the stage at the Royal Danish Theatre.
Funny, audacious, wry and innovatively minimalist, Høeg’s lyrical prose elicits the speed and immediacy of both train journeys and digital communication. Slow readers be warned: every line shimmers with quick-witted insight when Høeg casts a critical eye on conventional expectations pertaining to age, work, motherhood and female desire.
Winner of Bogforum’s Debutantpris, the prize awarded each year for the best debut work of literary fiction published in Denmark, the novel has also been adapted for the stage at the Royal Danish Theatre.
219 pages, Paperback
First published January 27, 2017
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987 people want to read
About the author
Tine Høeg
13 books121 followersTine Høeg debuterede med digtromanen Nye rejsende, der udkom i januar 2017 og vandt BogForums Debutantpris samme år.
Bogen har været månedsbog i Samlerens Bogklub og med i projektet KGL Dansk på Det Kongelige Teater.
Tine Høeg har derudover bidraget til diverse tidsskrifter og antologier - senest Høst & Søn-udgivelserne Jeg vælger uden filter og SKAM - og skrevet et lille poesihæfte og et radiodrama.
Hun er født i 1985, cand.mag. i dansk og filosofi og bor i København.
Bogen har været månedsbog i Samlerens Bogklub og med i projektet KGL Dansk på Det Kongelige Teater.
Tine Høeg har derudover bidraget til diverse tidsskrifter og antologier - senest Høst & Søn-udgivelserne Jeg vælger uden filter og SKAM - og skrevet et lille poesihæfte og et radiodrama.
Hun er født i 1985, cand.mag. i dansk og filosofi og bor i København.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 102 reviews
January 18, 2022
Translated by Misha Hoekstra from Tine Høeg's Danish original Nye rejsende (2017)
I’ve never expected to read a novel in free verse and even more surprising, to like it. I received this book as part of my past subscription to Republic of Consciousness Book Club. For different reasons, it took me almost a year to finally get to New Passengers.
In short, a young teacher starts a new job and while commuting by train she encounters a married man with who she begins a torrid affair. It is a very slim novel with only a few sentences on each page but the feeling that I got while reading were complex. It is a story about love, doubt, hurt, fear, hope, beginnings and endings.
I’ve never expected to read a novel in free verse and even more surprising, to like it. I received this book as part of my past subscription to Republic of Consciousness Book Club. For different reasons, it took me almost a year to finally get to New Passengers.
In short, a young teacher starts a new job and while commuting by train she encounters a married man with who she begins a torrid affair. It is a very slim novel with only a few sentences on each page but the feeling that I got while reading were complex. It is a story about love, doubt, hurt, fear, hope, beginnings and endings.
January 21, 2023
Translated by Misha Hoekstra from Tine Høeg's Danish original Nye rejsende (2017), which won the BogForums Debutantpris for debut novels, New Passengers, from small independent press Lolli Editions, is the latest novel from the wonderful Republic of Consciousness Book Prize.
It's a novel written in verse, or perhaps the 'flying verse' of the previously Booker International featured The Flying Mountain. The first person narrator begins the novel commuting to her first day of work as a teacher, when she meets a married man on a train:
I've bought a monthly pass
I've been assigned a new name
a teacher's name
comprised of four letters
from my first and last names
I've been given the code to the high school network
which is changed every six months according to the principle
summer16 winter16 summer17 winter17
I've been briefed
on the systems
it's by chance
we fall to talking on the train
my first day of teaching
I'm nervous and our legs
graze each other
when we sit down
you're a graphic designer at a travel agency
you're a commuter too
you're ten years older than me
you're married and father to a girl
The two begin an affair, which she marks by noting each of the times she sees him naked, the first time in the toilet of the train, and:
the third time I see you naked
I get a gash on my forehead
from a barbwire fence
when we squeeze into a shed
for storing yard waste
then it rains
semen blood summer drizzle
The story is told over five chapters marking the months of the school term from August to December. Part of the story is set at the school, the teacher's described by their 3-4 letter usernames (STAR, EMO, BROM), the pupils by their Christian names, and the narrator confronting her imposter syndrome as a teacher, not much older than her charges. This conversation with her sister:
well how’s it going with the teaching?
she asks without glancing up
she puts the cap back on the marker
sets the paper down and cocks her head
like when she was a girl
I think it’s hard I say
sometimes I just can’t understand
how it happened
what?
that I’m somebody’s teacher
There is a light humour in the novel, and the broken lines can add some nice comic timing:
looking rather cool today
the mother smiles as we pass each other in the entry port
she carries a boy in her arms
there's a kindergarten
on the ground floor of my building
it's early in the morning
perhaps she thinks that I'm also
just dropping off a kid
thank you I say and feel happy
I put on this hat
on the train it strikes me that
she was tallking about the weather
But there is also a darker side to the novel - strikingly the narrator and her lover are never named, but his child Evy and wife, Maria, are, as she often imagines his life with them and increasingly her own imagined interaction with Evy.
This line was particularly striking read in Covid-era:
you kiss me although I have a cold
my germs spill into you
and then into Evy and Maria
next week all three of you are sick.
A quick read - although ostensibly 219 pages, in word count terms this is barely a novella, but a fascinating one. 3.5 stars rounded to 4
An extract:
https://static1.squarespace.com/stati...
It's a novel written in verse, or perhaps the 'flying verse' of the previously Booker International featured The Flying Mountain. The first person narrator begins the novel commuting to her first day of work as a teacher, when she meets a married man on a train:
I've bought a monthly pass
I've been assigned a new name
a teacher's name
comprised of four letters
from my first and last names
I've been given the code to the high school network
which is changed every six months according to the principle
summer16 winter16 summer17 winter17
I've been briefed
on the systems
it's by chance
we fall to talking on the train
my first day of teaching
I'm nervous and our legs
graze each other
when we sit down
you're a graphic designer at a travel agency
you're a commuter too
you're ten years older than me
you're married and father to a girl
The two begin an affair, which she marks by noting each of the times she sees him naked, the first time in the toilet of the train, and:
the third time I see you naked
I get a gash on my forehead
from a barbwire fence
when we squeeze into a shed
for storing yard waste
then it rains
semen blood summer drizzle
The story is told over five chapters marking the months of the school term from August to December. Part of the story is set at the school, the teacher's described by their 3-4 letter usernames (STAR, EMO, BROM), the pupils by their Christian names, and the narrator confronting her imposter syndrome as a teacher, not much older than her charges. This conversation with her sister:
well how’s it going with the teaching?
she asks without glancing up
she puts the cap back on the marker
sets the paper down and cocks her head
like when she was a girl
I think it’s hard I say
sometimes I just can’t understand
how it happened
what?
that I’m somebody’s teacher
There is a light humour in the novel, and the broken lines can add some nice comic timing:
looking rather cool today
the mother smiles as we pass each other in the entry port
she carries a boy in her arms
there's a kindergarten
on the ground floor of my building
it's early in the morning
perhaps she thinks that I'm also
just dropping off a kid
thank you I say and feel happy
I put on this hat
on the train it strikes me that
she was tallking about the weather
But there is also a darker side to the novel - strikingly the narrator and her lover are never named, but his child Evy and wife, Maria, are, as she often imagines his life with them and increasingly her own imagined interaction with Evy.
This line was particularly striking read in Covid-era:
you kiss me although I have a cold
my germs spill into you
and then into Evy and Maria
next week all three of you are sick.
A quick read - although ostensibly 219 pages, in word count terms this is barely a novella, but a fascinating one. 3.5 stars rounded to 4
An extract:
https://static1.squarespace.com/stati...
January 19, 2023
Despite Tine Høeg’s efforts to spice up a mega-cliché premise of New Passengers (2017) with sex scenes in train toilets and a novel in verse genre, I am afraid she did not save the day.
Speaking of verse, if you regard poetry as a visual layout of the text only, with sentences broken into lines to look more sophisticated,
I mean
Something
Like that,
…you will find it in New Passengers. If you expect from poetry a bit more though, I am afraid you will seek it in vain here. There's a thin line between minimalistic and simplistic and I have the impression it has been crossed a few times in this novel.
Unfortunately, the only new thing I found in New Passengers was the word in the title. The plotline is painfully schematic. The narrator’s romance drama left me indifferent. By the way, I do not think the protagonist would mind my lack of interest, given how detached and aloof she is. To be honest, there were only two things I liked in Tine Høeg’s book: its elusive, melancholy atmosphere and some caricatured, subtly humorous portrayals of the narrator’s colleagues. They reminded me of Rita , a Danish TV series about an eccentric and rebellious teacher, which I binge-watched last year.
New Passengers won a prize for the best debut in Denmark in 2017 (BogForums Debutantpris) and an English PEN Award. If this is really where 'new' literature is heading, I am getting off the train in haste. Fortunately, some other destinations are still available.
Chair Car, Edward Hopper, 1965.
Speaking of verse, if you regard poetry as a visual layout of the text only, with sentences broken into lines to look more sophisticated,
I mean
Something
Like that,
…you will find it in New Passengers. If you expect from poetry a bit more though, I am afraid you will seek it in vain here. There's a thin line between minimalistic and simplistic and I have the impression it has been crossed a few times in this novel.
Unfortunately, the only new thing I found in New Passengers was the word in the title. The plotline is painfully schematic. The narrator’s romance drama left me indifferent. By the way, I do not think the protagonist would mind my lack of interest, given how detached and aloof she is. To be honest, there were only two things I liked in Tine Høeg’s book: its elusive, melancholy atmosphere and some caricatured, subtly humorous portrayals of the narrator’s colleagues. They reminded me of Rita , a Danish TV series about an eccentric and rebellious teacher, which I binge-watched last year.
New Passengers won a prize for the best debut in Denmark in 2017 (BogForums Debutantpris) and an English PEN Award. If this is really where 'new' literature is heading, I am getting off the train in haste. Fortunately, some other destinations are still available.
Chair Car, Edward Hopper, 1965.
September 8, 2020
I’m a firm believer of the axiom ‘less is more’ and New Passengers is proof of that. Despite the fact that this is a slim novel and is written in a readable style and can be tackled in one sitting, it contains enough complexity for the reader to ponder over.
The main premise is simple : a teacher meets a married man on a train and they start an affair. This is just a superficial summary as Høeg goes much deeper. Throughout the book we hear the inner thoughts of the woman : her feelings about this relationship, how it affects her workplace, she counts the times she sees the man naked, her feelings when she knows her connection to the man’s wife, her fear of being discovered.
Later as cracks finally show, the narrator commits some further actions which affect her badly.
The writing itself is not dissimilar to a poems. A few lines a page and yet these lines convey so much emotion and deep thinking that it is a wonder how so little on a page can contain so much clout.
Due to New Passengers style we readers have a role within book as we are passengers ourselves. We are sitting back and observing in a voyeuristic manner all the problems the main protagonist is going through. Not only that, we are hopping into her psyche and watching all the comings and goings. We travel with this woman to school, home, everywhere and yet we cannot do anything but set back and watch the whole thing.
Intelligent, powerful and poignant, New Passengers is an excellent portrayal of the psychological problems that can beset people in certain situations, here is a look into the human mind which no psychology textbook would even dare to go.
Many thanks to Lolli Editions for providing a copy of New Passengers
The main premise is simple : a teacher meets a married man on a train and they start an affair. This is just a superficial summary as Høeg goes much deeper. Throughout the book we hear the inner thoughts of the woman : her feelings about this relationship, how it affects her workplace, she counts the times she sees the man naked, her feelings when she knows her connection to the man’s wife, her fear of being discovered.
Later as cracks finally show, the narrator commits some further actions which affect her badly.
The writing itself is not dissimilar to a poems. A few lines a page and yet these lines convey so much emotion and deep thinking that it is a wonder how so little on a page can contain so much clout.
Due to New Passengers style we readers have a role within book as we are passengers ourselves. We are sitting back and observing in a voyeuristic manner all the problems the main protagonist is going through. Not only that, we are hopping into her psyche and watching all the comings and goings. We travel with this woman to school, home, everywhere and yet we cannot do anything but set back and watch the whole thing.
Intelligent, powerful and poignant, New Passengers is an excellent portrayal of the psychological problems that can beset people in certain situations, here is a look into the human mind which no psychology textbook would even dare to go.
Many thanks to Lolli Editions for providing a copy of New Passengers
July 14, 2019
I Tine Høegs debut “Nye rejsende” følger vi en ung, nyansat gymnasielærerindes første halve år som underviser. Første arbejdsdag forelsker hun sig hovedkulds i en mand – som er gift og har et barn – i toget (ak ja, som om det at skulle stå bag katederet og tage lærerrollen på sig ikke var svært nok i forvejen!). Hovedpersonen – jeg-fortælleren – pendler mellem København og Næstved, og toilettet bliver de første mange gange stedet, hvor jeg’et og manden dyrker pendlersex (det er sådan et dejligt ord): “første gang jeg ser dig nøgen:// togtoilet// et sted mellem København og Næstved// jeg har ikke prøvet// at ville have nogen på den måde før”. Herfra krydsklipper bogen mellem gymnasiet og gymnasielle aktiviteter – introtur, (dansk)undervisning, fester m.m. – og møder med den gifte mand (hvis navn der ligesom fortællerens er ukendt) i og udenfor toget samt tanker og fantasier om denne(s liv).
Det er svært ikke at læse togpendlingen som et billede på hovedpersonens overgang fra ung til voksen, hvor hun på gymnasiet i starten har svært ved både at føle sig som en voksen (“jeg kan ikke kende min egen stemme/når jeg står ved katederet og taler”) og at opføre sig som én (“hej guys siger jeg efter ferien/ hej darlings hej cuties hej kids”). At pedellen samtidig forveksler hende for at være en elev, gør ikke det hele meget lettere. Sigende for hovedpersonens mellemtilstand er det også, at hun af og til står af på halvvejen (med eller uden mand) eller slet ikke dukker op på gymnasiet.
Bogen har ingen genrebetegnelse på forsiden, men er (vel), hvad man vil kalde en roman på vers: den beretter om et sammenhængende forløb i linjer som knækket over. Nogle steder er der dobbelt linjeafstand, hvilket dels tvinger læseren ned i tempo og dels til helt bogstaveligt at læse “mellem linjerne” – udfylde de tomme linjer, hvor der ikke står noget. Med konsekvent brug af små bogstaver og manglende tegnsætning er det ligeledes op til læseren selv at bestemme tekstens temperament.
Høeg benytter sig af forholdsvis enkle virkemidler, men sikkert, og bogens styrke ligger netop i ikke at ville forklare og fortolke alting. I stedet lader hun handlingen udfolde sig i et ligefremt, nøgternt og økonomisk sprog – men stadig med tilpas mange informationer til at læseren selv kan digte med. Hun har en god, komisk timing (herunder velplacerede linjebrud) og sans for det underspillede. For eksempel lyder det syvende møde med manden fra toget som følger:
Det er svært ikke at læse togpendlingen som et billede på hovedpersonens overgang fra ung til voksen, hvor hun på gymnasiet i starten har svært ved både at føle sig som en voksen (“jeg kan ikke kende min egen stemme/når jeg står ved katederet og taler”) og at opføre sig som én (“hej guys siger jeg efter ferien/ hej darlings hej cuties hej kids”). At pedellen samtidig forveksler hende for at være en elev, gør ikke det hele meget lettere. Sigende for hovedpersonens mellemtilstand er det også, at hun af og til står af på halvvejen (med eller uden mand) eller slet ikke dukker op på gymnasiet.
Bogen har ingen genrebetegnelse på forsiden, men er (vel), hvad man vil kalde en roman på vers: den beretter om et sammenhængende forløb i linjer som knækket over. Nogle steder er der dobbelt linjeafstand, hvilket dels tvinger læseren ned i tempo og dels til helt bogstaveligt at læse “mellem linjerne” – udfylde de tomme linjer, hvor der ikke står noget. Med konsekvent brug af små bogstaver og manglende tegnsætning er det ligeledes op til læseren selv at bestemme tekstens temperament.
Høeg benytter sig af forholdsvis enkle virkemidler, men sikkert, og bogens styrke ligger netop i ikke at ville forklare og fortolke alting. I stedet lader hun handlingen udfolde sig i et ligefremt, nøgternt og økonomisk sprog – men stadig med tilpas mange informationer til at læseren selv kan digte med. Hun har en god, komisk timing (herunder velplacerede linjebrud) og sans for det underspillede. For eksempel lyder det syvende møde med manden fra toget som følger:
syvende gang jeg ser dig nøgen// mit køkken// formiddag// sådan et underligt lys/ da du er gået// og en duft af noget sødt/fra posen på bordet// du har haft kage med// en pik en kage en hjerne et hjerte/ har du haft med// og efterladt kagen.Selve handlingen er måske lidt spinkel og slutningen uforløst. Men stadig: en lovende debut.
September 17, 2020
I received this book as part of my subscription to The Republic of Consciousness book club which, through the course of 2020 (which is when I joined), has provided me with a good number of books that I have very much enjoyed reading. This book, presented to us in free verse, is a far quicker read than you expect because there is a lot of white space. I sometimes wonder when I read books like this (I’m not sure it is quite as innovative as the blurb suggests) whether it is poetry I am reading or whether the author has simply chopped up the lines in unusual places and added some gaps. I may be being a bit facetious, though, because the layout here does encourage you to read the book with a certain rhythm.
The set up for the novel (more of a novella based on word count) is simple. On her first day in a new teaching job our unnamed protagonist meets an also unnamed married man on the train (one way in which she is the new passenger of the title) and they begin an affair. We follow the course of the teaching job and the affair through the school term from August to December.
But our protagonist is also a new passenger in adult life, struggling for confidence partly because she is only just older than some of her students. Her struggle to come to terms with her new way of life leads to a darker side to the story. Whilst both our protagonist and her lover are unnamed, his wife and child are identified for us and our protagonist starts to fantasise situations involving both of them, an involvement in their lives, especially the life of Evy, the daughter. There’s a sense in which the named Maria and Evy represent “real life”, something which our unnamed characters struggle with and both the lack of name and blank verse add a sense of unreality to the story. The minimalism in the writing makes it feel dream-like and as though the story is trying to get away from you at times.
Anyway, you will need to read the book to find out how the affair and the job play out (I imagine you can make a good guess, though). I did enjoy the experience of reading the book, but I am not sure how long it will stay with me.
The set up for the novel (more of a novella based on word count) is simple. On her first day in a new teaching job our unnamed protagonist meets an also unnamed married man on the train (one way in which she is the new passenger of the title) and they begin an affair. We follow the course of the teaching job and the affair through the school term from August to December.
But our protagonist is also a new passenger in adult life, struggling for confidence partly because she is only just older than some of her students. Her struggle to come to terms with her new way of life leads to a darker side to the story. Whilst both our protagonist and her lover are unnamed, his wife and child are identified for us and our protagonist starts to fantasise situations involving both of them, an involvement in their lives, especially the life of Evy, the daughter. There’s a sense in which the named Maria and Evy represent “real life”, something which our unnamed characters struggle with and both the lack of name and blank verse add a sense of unreality to the story. The minimalism in the writing makes it feel dream-like and as though the story is trying to get away from you at times.
Anyway, you will need to read the book to find out how the affair and the job play out (I imagine you can make a good guess, though). I did enjoy the experience of reading the book, but I am not sure how long it will stay with me.
October 8, 2020
More Danish Minimalism perhaps Not So Hygge
Review of the Lolli Editions paperback (September 2020) translated from the Danish language original Nye rejsende (New Travellers) (January 2017)
Perhaps if I hadn't previously read Dorthe Nors' So Much for That Winter (2016), also excellently translated by Misha Hoekstra, where the 2 minimalist novellas are one consisting of household lists and the other of tweet-like headlines, the stark format of New Passengers might have held some interest. But it just came over as more of the same type of minimalism, just not as humorous or inventive.
Instead the story of a new college teacher starting an affair with a fellow commuting passenger on their daily train was just tiresome and at points rather disturbing i.e. when she seems to fantasize about stalking her lover's wife and child. It seemed as if it might at least have been heading towards some sort of dramatic confrontation, but then it just fizzled out.
I read New Passengers as the October 2020 book perk from my support of The Republic of Consciousness Prize for small independent publishers.
Trivia and Confession
I may have had some preconceived bias and/or cognitive dissonance with this reading. I appreciate each of the Republic of Consciousness selections for their unique character and diversified selection. However, at the same time, the publisher of this selection is "Lolli Editions" and the word "lolli" in my heritage language of Estonian means "stupid" or "silly".
Review of the Lolli Editions paperback (September 2020) translated from the Danish language original Nye rejsende (New Travellers) (January 2017)
Perhaps if I hadn't previously read Dorthe Nors' So Much for That Winter (2016), also excellently translated by Misha Hoekstra, where the 2 minimalist novellas are one consisting of household lists and the other of tweet-like headlines, the stark format of New Passengers might have held some interest. But it just came over as more of the same type of minimalism, just not as humorous or inventive.
Instead the story of a new college teacher starting an affair with a fellow commuting passenger on their daily train was just tiresome and at points rather disturbing i.e. when she seems to fantasize about stalking her lover's wife and child. It seemed as if it might at least have been heading towards some sort of dramatic confrontation, but then it just fizzled out.
I read New Passengers as the October 2020 book perk from my support of The Republic of Consciousness Prize for small independent publishers.
Trivia and Confession
I may have had some preconceived bias and/or cognitive dissonance with this reading. I appreciate each of the Republic of Consciousness selections for their unique character and diversified selection. However, at the same time, the publisher of this selection is "Lolli Editions" and the word "lolli" in my heritage language of Estonian means "stupid" or "silly".
October 29, 2017
Virkelig fin og fint fortalt bog om min egen verden - gymnasielærerverdenen. Masser af genkendelighed i forhold til lærerklicheer og ugidelige elever - usikkerhed i forhold til lærerrollen og uendelige gentagelser i arbejdet. Også fint spor med affæren, som hovedpersonen møder i toget og søsterens bryllup. Humoristisk og minimalistisk fortalt!
March 9, 2024
artėjant pabaigai darėsi baisu skaityti ir labai labai neramu dėl pagrindinės herojės. debiute mažiau humoro ir lengvumo, nei antroje autorės knygoje "tour de chambre", visas pasakojimas dygliuotas lyg ta viela, į kurią veikėja persibrėžia kaktą sekso kažkokioj pakrūmėj metu. knyga labai koncentruota ir perteikia aistros svaigulį, destrukciją, siaubingą sąžinės graužatį, neviltį, artėjančią prie lengvos beprotybės.
pagrindinė veikėja įsidarbina danų k. mokytoja vienoje gimnazijoje ir jau pirmą dieną, važiuodama traukiniu į gimnaziją, susipažįsta su vedusiu vyru, kuris turi vaiką. įvyksta cheminė reakcija ir užsimezga romanas. visa tai pasakojama lakoniškai, tiksliais trumpų eilučių potėpiais, bet įtampa nejučia auga, pučiasi kaip kokia mielinė tešla, kol viskas sprogsta... beje, labai gerai perteiktas girtumas, kaip euforija ir nevaldoma energija perauga į kažką košmariško, trūksta plionkė. be galo patiko pabaiga, labai tapybiška-kinematografiška, tiesiog pamačiau ją.
įdomu, kad autorė rašė šį romaną pati dirbdama danų mokytoja gimnazijoje. ojojoj, kas verda tų mokytojų galvose :)
pagrindinė veikėja įsidarbina danų k. mokytoja vienoje gimnazijoje ir jau pirmą dieną, važiuodama traukiniu į gimnaziją, susipažįsta su vedusiu vyru, kuris turi vaiką. įvyksta cheminė reakcija ir užsimezga romanas. visa tai pasakojama lakoniškai, tiksliais trumpų eilučių potėpiais, bet įtampa nejučia auga, pučiasi kaip kokia mielinė tešla, kol viskas sprogsta... beje, labai gerai perteiktas girtumas, kaip euforija ir nevaldoma energija perauga į kažką košmariško, trūksta plionkė. be galo patiko pabaiga, labai tapybiška-kinematografiška, tiesiog pamačiau ją.
įdomu, kad autorė rašė šį romaną pati dirbdama danų mokytoja gimnazijoje. ojojoj, kas verda tų mokytojų galvose :)
October 23, 2021
"the tenth time I see you naked
you meet a mother from Evy's swim class
on your way out of my courtyard
you have to invent something
you're nervous
you don't want to meet at my place anymore.
we revert to the train
you tell Maria
your hours have changed
we take a very early departure
with almost no passengers
and more stops
I can't use chapstick
or scented body lotion
they leave traces on your clothes"
Translated from the Danish by Misha Hoekstra, Tine Høeg's debut novel is written in free verse and the candid narrative stretches over a school term of five months. Both the young protagonist and the older man are unnamed while everyone else is known by first names and all her colleagues by their usernames. The book is sparse in style; there's lots of white space and verses are not clustered. It's also really readable, the lines have a very natural flow and do not feel like prose with line breaks. I easily finished it in under two hours.
So the two main characters are new passengers embarking on a journey whether it be the teaching or the affair. They're covering fresh ground, generating experiences. The readers can also be seen as passengers who are moving along the river of their lives, witnessing their decisions. Unobtrusively, travel forms a focal part of the narrative-the daily trains, the Europe trips. It is more than going from Place A to Place B, a movement towards mistakes and maturity. The novel had humor, depth, poignancy. Another excellent Lolli offering.
(I received a finished copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.)
February 8, 2018
Endelig fik jeg læst den her helstøbte og underholdende digtroman. Den er hurtigt læst, og jeg slugte den, men mange af billederne er så stærke, at de rammer med tilbagevirkende kraft – både de brutalt pinlige og de meget præcise, smukt økonomiserede øjebliksskildringer. Det er sådan en bog, hvor sætningerne bliver ved med at dukke op i én og lave smuk uorden.
October 29, 2020
I’ve come across translator Misha Hoekstra’s work before, more specifically his translation of ‘Mirror, Shoulder, Signal’ by Dorthe Nors, a novel that was shortlisted for the Booker International Prize in 2017 (the winner was David Grossman’s ‘A Horse Walks Into A Bar’ – translated by Jessica Cohen). Nors’ novel introducing us to Sonja, a loner in her forties, single and really wanting to get her driver’s license. The mirror, shoulder, signal theme not simply her driving, it was used as a prompt for looking at the past (mirror), the present (shoulder), and the future (signal).
And there are some parallels with Dorthe Nors’s novel and Tine Høeg’s book, specifically the loneliness, the uncertainty of the future, the reflections on the past but a story deeply rooted in the present.
‘New Passengers’ is a prose verse novel, covering about five months in our unnamed protagonist’s life (August to December). On her first day of work, as a teacher, our protagonist meets a married man on the train and they begin an affair, here’s the opening page:
For my full review go to https://messybooker.wordpress.com/202...
And there are some parallels with Dorthe Nors’s novel and Tine Høeg’s book, specifically the loneliness, the uncertainty of the future, the reflections on the past but a story deeply rooted in the present.
‘New Passengers’ is a prose verse novel, covering about five months in our unnamed protagonist’s life (August to December). On her first day of work, as a teacher, our protagonist meets a married man on the train and they begin an affair, here’s the opening page:
For my full review go to https://messybooker.wordpress.com/202...
December 21, 2021
Elskedeelskedeelskede. Har både læst det hele i dag, og bagefter lyttet til halvdelen på lydbog, bare for at få det hele igen, fordi jeg ikke kunne få nok.
January 4, 2022
Så fin en fortælling. Tine Høeg er bare eminent med det alfabet der.
August 3, 2025
Táto útla kniha pôsobí, že je písaná vo veršoch.
Myšlienky a vety pôsobia trochu netradične a jednoducho, ale povedia čo treba.
Nahota, telesné pachy, sex vo vlaku, v kríkoch ale aj v posteli a na zemi v kuchyni a zároveň to nie je len o sexe.
Je tam ten pocit, že by sa to nemalo ale súčasne to je také pochopiteľné.
Myšlienky a vety pôsobia trochu netradične a jednoducho, ale povedia čo treba.
Nahota, telesné pachy, sex vo vlaku, v kríkoch ale aj v posteli a na zemi v kuchyni a zároveň to nie je len o sexe.
Je tam ten pocit, že by sa to nemalo ale súčasne to je také pochopiteľné.
September 8, 2025
“Přistoupili, prosím” bych si nikdy nekoupila, nebýt nadšených recenzí na Instagramu.
Je to kniha útlá, a pro mě je většinou těžký se na útlý knihy naladit dřív, než přijde poslední strana.
Je to kniha připomínající svou formou poezii. A já poezii nečtu, děkuju pěkně, básně na mě bohužel nijak zvlášť nepůsobí.
A přesto se mě příběh dotkl hlouběji, než jsem čekala.
Je to kniha o všedním trápení nepříliš naplněný lásky. O hledání svýho místa ve světě a o ohmatávání prvních bariér dospělosti. O cestách vlakem i životem a o lidech, co cestují snámi. O myšlenkách a strachu, o bolesti i chvílích bezstarostnýho zapomnění.
“Přistoupili, prosím” jsem přečetla za dvě hodiny, během jediný cesty autem, a z tý cesty si nepamatuju nic, jen tu knížku. Budu ji číst znova, protože i když je to vlastně jen řetězec kusých vět, je to kniha ohromující svým obsahem. Nechápu, jak se autorce podařilo tolik nám toho naservírovat na těch pár řídce popsanejch stránkách.
Bylo to fakt dobrý, moc to doporučuju. Jen počítejte s tím, že to je knížka spíš na procítění než pročtení, protože těch písmenek tam fakt není moc. Že je to knížka divný formy. A že to není nijak zvlášť dějový, spíš pocitový, spíš popisný, spíš niterný.
Nevím, co víc napsat – ostatně jiní už to sepsali líp. Za mě každopádně doporučení!
Je to kniha útlá, a pro mě je většinou těžký se na útlý knihy naladit dřív, než přijde poslední strana.
Je to kniha připomínající svou formou poezii. A já poezii nečtu, děkuju pěkně, básně na mě bohužel nijak zvlášť nepůsobí.
A přesto se mě příběh dotkl hlouběji, než jsem čekala.
Je to kniha o všedním trápení nepříliš naplněný lásky. O hledání svýho místa ve světě a o ohmatávání prvních bariér dospělosti. O cestách vlakem i životem a o lidech, co cestují snámi. O myšlenkách a strachu, o bolesti i chvílích bezstarostnýho zapomnění.
“Přistoupili, prosím” jsem přečetla za dvě hodiny, během jediný cesty autem, a z tý cesty si nepamatuju nic, jen tu knížku. Budu ji číst znova, protože i když je to vlastně jen řetězec kusých vět, je to kniha ohromující svým obsahem. Nechápu, jak se autorce podařilo tolik nám toho naservírovat na těch pár řídce popsanejch stránkách.
Bylo to fakt dobrý, moc to doporučuju. Jen počítejte s tím, že to je knížka spíš na procítění než pročtení, protože těch písmenek tam fakt není moc. Že je to knížka divný formy. A že to není nijak zvlášť dějový, spíš pocitový, spíš popisný, spíš niterný.
Nevím, co víc napsat – ostatně jiní už to sepsali líp. Za mě každopádně doporučení!
January 19, 2025
Konečně normální román – tzn. servírován v překotných verších, příběh smrsknut na minimum, naopak v popředí: zlomkovité registrace, úštěpky hovorů, náhlé pohnutky, trhané retrospektivy a nutkavé představy za obzorem viděného. Neotrkaná učitelka v nevědomém paktu s žáky – ne, že by byla nějak "cool" nebo "chill", ale jakoby se ještě nedokázala oprostit od atributů dospívajících: žvýkání, úleva, že nemusí hrát na tělocviku, i úděs z toho, že by někomu omylem olikovala starou fotku. Milostná linka rytmizována pravidelnými cestami vlakem i "viděním nahoty"; v této rovině je nakonec nejvýmluvnější motto: "ty mi nepiš / já se ti ozvu" – potřeba nezanechat na sobě stopy X naprostá posedlost a vžívání se do vzdálených rolí.
(s. 77)
*
když tě vidím nahého poosmé
moje ložnice
potom stojím u okna
a sleduju jak tlačíš kolo přes dvůr
dětská sedačka je prázdná
jako by vzadu seděl malý přízrak
(s. 77)
February 22, 2021
Et solidt stykke slice-of-life litteratur stopfyldt med genkendelige dilemmaer og usikkerheder, humoristiske, sarkastiske observationer om alt hverdagspisset og folks idéer om dem selv, og så (og det er dejligt at se igen, da det var en af højdepunkterne ved Høegs nyeste bog Tour de Chambre) et hvirvlende, nervepirrende og dybfølt klimaks.
February 13, 2025
Jeg åd den råt. I to dele. Inden jeg sov. Efter jeg vågnede. Jeg blev grebet af hverdagen i bogen og har lyst til at læse meget mere Tine Høeg! Speciel stil. Minimalistisk, men enormt følelsesmæssigt realistisk. Meget smukt!
November 1, 2023
2.5🌟
If I’d known from the start that it’s written in free verse I’m not sure I would’ve bought it.
I really don’t know if I liked it, hated it or am just indifferent about it.
Meh. That’s my current feeling.
If I’d known from the start that it’s written in free verse I’m not sure I would’ve bought it.
I really don’t know if I liked it, hated it or am just indifferent about it.
Meh. That’s my current feeling.
July 24, 2025
Elsker alt ved Tine Høegs måde at skrive på. Hun formår altid at flette de små dagbogs agtige noter sammen til en fin fortælling om livet.
Fandt bogen i storskrald og til min store overraskelse var den signeret af Tine personligt til “Mie” som åbenbart har valgt at smide den ud🥹
Fandt bogen i storskrald og til min store overraskelse var den signeret af Tine personligt til “Mie” som åbenbart har valgt at smide den ud🥹
September 3, 2022
3.5
in this case, less is indeed more
in this case, less is indeed more
January 9, 2021
En fin historie i brudstykker om at være lidt fortabt, forelsket og fastlåst i en pendleraffære.
Jeg var begejstret for Tour De Chambre og tænkte denne måtte få en chance også. E-reolen havde det som lydbog i hendes egen oplæsning, som jeg dog måtte sætte op til 1 1/4 tempo for at komme fri af poesibogsoplæsningen, der ikke er min kop te. Det er en fin lille bog - og så er jeg jo glad for ting man kan høre på en tur gennem Frederiksberg Have og lidt rundt i byen sådan en vinterdag.
Jeg var begejstret for Tour De Chambre og tænkte denne måtte få en chance også. E-reolen havde det som lydbog i hendes egen oplæsning, som jeg dog måtte sætte op til 1 1/4 tempo for at komme fri af poesibogsoplæsningen, der ikke er min kop te. Det er en fin lille bog - og så er jeg jo glad for ting man kan høre på en tur gennem Frederiksberg Have og lidt rundt i byen sådan en vinterdag.
April 25, 2022
In my top 3 books ever. Gorgeous, and completely relatable as a woman - even if I’ve never been in similar circumstances - to the narrators inner thoughts, and how her mind drifts and fills the void of silence. Read like a poem, and will stick with me like a song. I urge you to read this book.
Read
November 1, 2022Sad and hot, mostly sad(„thrilling“ because you read it so fast?) And also funny! There are spooky parts where she switches character that I really liked. It seems genuine the way she is sinister and aggressive. Didn’t love the end but
Colour: light grey
Colour: light grey
June 1, 2017
Overraskende spændende, med sin finurlige form og meget direkte fortællerstil.
December 19, 2024
Jeg læste denne roman på en eftermiddag. Den er ret underholdene at læse som gymnasieelev, da man godt kan forstå hendes referencer. Men slutningen virkede lidt uforløst…
August 21, 2025
Let læselig, men jeg forstod ikke slutningen
August 26, 2020
"I know I know I say
it’s a real mess
but it’s my body
it’s like it only exists
when it touches his"
the rest of the time I’m this haze drifting about”
New Passengers was my fourth WITmonth read and it is the first verse novel I've ever read and one that I loved. I finished this in one sitting today. The book is divided into months (August-December) and follows the unnamed narrator's discovery of herself, her young feminine identity and what it means to be an adult. The novel starts with the narrator boarding the daily commute train from Copenhagen to Naestved where she's landed a new job as a teacher in a school. On the train, she meets a married man to whom she is drawn irrevocably; and what follows are events through which the narrator confronts her own identity coupled with her relationship with this man. In between all of this exists her id- which does not let her extricate herself from this man and, her ego- which reminds her of the uneasiness and the immorality of infidelity.
The book flows with such lucidness and that too with sparse words- fiction that reads and looks like poetry. The translation was beautiful and captured all the nuances. Evocative, perspicuous and fact-paced like that of a train but also reflective, New Passengers is an amalgamation of love, reflections on adulthood and feminine identity in the contemporary world. I think the design of the book speaks so much for itself with the rectangle(s) on the chapter page that somewhat resembled commuter train carriages. With each progressing month, there is an extra rectangle/ carriage and by December (the last month), it was a complete commuter train. For me, this resembled closure and the start of a new adulthood.
I loved the coming-of-age story. I'm not sure but I think if I had to fit this into a genre, it would definitely be bildungsroman. This was definitely one of my favourite books in fiction this year and from what I can tell, will continue to be a favourite for days to come!
New Passengers was first published in Danish in 2017 titled 'Nye rejsende' and later translated into English by Misha Hoekstra which will be out on 10th September 2020! The book won the Englush PEN award and also 'Bogforum’s Debutantpris', the prize awarded each year for Denmark’s best literary debut.
it’s a real mess
but it’s my body
it’s like it only exists
when it touches his"
the rest of the time I’m this haze drifting about”
New Passengers was my fourth WITmonth read and it is the first verse novel I've ever read and one that I loved. I finished this in one sitting today. The book is divided into months (August-December) and follows the unnamed narrator's discovery of herself, her young feminine identity and what it means to be an adult. The novel starts with the narrator boarding the daily commute train from Copenhagen to Naestved where she's landed a new job as a teacher in a school. On the train, she meets a married man to whom she is drawn irrevocably; and what follows are events through which the narrator confronts her own identity coupled with her relationship with this man. In between all of this exists her id- which does not let her extricate herself from this man and, her ego- which reminds her of the uneasiness and the immorality of infidelity.
The book flows with such lucidness and that too with sparse words- fiction that reads and looks like poetry. The translation was beautiful and captured all the nuances. Evocative, perspicuous and fact-paced like that of a train but also reflective, New Passengers is an amalgamation of love, reflections on adulthood and feminine identity in the contemporary world. I think the design of the book speaks so much for itself with the rectangle(s) on the chapter page that somewhat resembled commuter train carriages. With each progressing month, there is an extra rectangle/ carriage and by December (the last month), it was a complete commuter train. For me, this resembled closure and the start of a new adulthood.
I loved the coming-of-age story. I'm not sure but I think if I had to fit this into a genre, it would definitely be bildungsroman. This was definitely one of my favourite books in fiction this year and from what I can tell, will continue to be a favourite for days to come!
New Passengers was first published in Danish in 2017 titled 'Nye rejsende' and later translated into English by Misha Hoekstra which will be out on 10th September 2020! The book won the Englush PEN award and also 'Bogforum’s Debutantpris', the prize awarded each year for Denmark’s best literary debut.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 102 reviews