Jens Christian Grondahl
All Books By Jens Christian Grondahl
Often I Am Happy
- By: Jens Christian Grondahl
- Narrator: Maya Waterman
- Length: 3 hours 16 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: April 11, 2017
- Language: English
-
3.67(383 ratings)
This elegant and nuanced literary gem explores the intricacies of friendship, secrets, and two marriages, for fans of The Dinner and Dept. of Speculation.
“Often I am happy and yet I want to cry; / For no heart fully shares my joy.” — B.S. Ingemann
Ellinor is seventy. Her husband Georg has just passed away, and she is struck with the need to confide in someone. She addresses Anna, her long-dead best friend, who was also Georg’s first wife. Fully aware of the absurdity of speaking to someone who cannot hear her, Ellinor nevertheless finds it meaningful to divulge long-held secrets and burdens of her past: her mother’s heartbreaking pride; Ellinor’s courtship with her first husband; their seemingly charmed friendship with Anna and Georg; the disastrous ski trip that shattered the two couples’ lives. Wry and mellow yet infused with subdued emotion, this philosophical, lyrical novel moves in parallel narrative threads while questioning the assumptions we cherish concerning identity and love.
... Read more