Danish American Center Reading Circle

[close] from author website: Escaping the turmoil and heartbreak of war-torn Kabul, Raihana settles with distant relatives
in the strange, cold, damp country of Denmark. Homesick and heartbroken, Raihana
bravely attempts to start a new life, trying hard not to ponder the fate of the husband who
was taken prisoner by the Taliban and never heard from again. Soon after arriving, Raihana
finds herself in a language school, struggling to learn Danish, which she thinks sounds like
the buzzing of bees. To improve her speaking skills, Raihana apprentices herself to Gunnar,
a recent widower who is steadily withdrawing from the world around him, even neglecting
the bee colonies he worked so hard to cultivate with his late wife. Over the course of the
bee season, Raihana and Gunnar forge an unlikely relationship, despite the disapproval of
their respective friends and relatives. But when the violence Raihana thought she had left
behind in Afghanistan rears its head, she and Gunnar are both forced to confront the ghosts
of the past as they navigate the uncertain future. (Author’s website)
In the Company of Angels (first published as Greene’s Summer)
by Thomas E. Kennedy
2010
288 pages
Danish
Imprisoned for teaching political poetry to his students, Bernardo Greene has been tortured
for months by Pinochet’s henchmen when he is visited by two angels who promise that he
will survive to experience beauty and love once again. Months later, at the Torture
Rehabilitation Center in Copenhagen, the Chilean exile befriends Michela Ibsen, herself a
survivor of domestic abuse. In the longs nights of summer, the two of them struggle to heal,
to forgive those who have left them damaged, and to trust themselves to love.
(Bloomsbury catalogue)

[close] Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) is best known for the many fairy tales he wrote,
including The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling, and The Snow Queen. Andersen’s
sense of fantasy, power of description and acute sensitivity made him a master
storyteller, and these gifts are strikingly evident in his autobiography which explores his
life, travels and adventures through his own words. (Google Books). This book is a
translation of proof sheets given by Hans Christian Andersen to Mary Howitt for
translation into English in 1847. In addition to the paperback reprint, a digital copy of this book may be obtained at www.books.google.com.