On my way out I read the sign with the commandantÂ’s regulations. It didnÂ’t say anything about not swimming in the moat. Once in a while somebody must jump in, I thought. Wild swims are becoming increasingly popular across Europe. IÂ’ve heard of a British woman, for instance, who managed to swim her way up through a large lake system somewhere in the middle of England. Every midsummer night she was out swimming, and I imagine her fighting her way up salmon ladders and into still waters. ~ Wild Swims
I hadn’t heard of the current Instagrammable phenomenon of “Wild Swimming” (apparently, simply the act of swimming in any natural body of water) before I read this book, but having googled the title and reading the extra information that incidentally came up, I can see that this makes for a brilliant (English) title for this collection of short stories. The main pushback against the trend of Wild Swimming is that it’s mostly indulged in by wealthy, white urbanites — people so removed from the natural world that they fetishise and valorise acts that their poorer, rural neighbours enjoy as routine and accessible — and throughout the fourteen (very) short stories in Wild Swims, we meet a variety of characters (who might well all be privileged, white urbanites) who all seem to be suffering from modern forms of disconnection: from themselves, from their partners, from decency. Author Dorthe Nors frequently shocks her characters with memories bubbling up coldly, as from an underground spring, to add discomfort to their current placidity; the past and present shift seamlessly over the course of brief paragraphs and sentences, and the writing is not so much stream-of-consciousness as swirl-of-ponderence. Characters are fully fleshed with precisely captured moments, the narratives are unpredictable but credible, and the situations made me wince and snort and sigh as people attempted to, as in the title story, fight their way up salmon ladders in search of still waters. (I will note that in the original Danish, this collection was titled “Kort over Canada” — which I translated as “A Map of Canada” — and as the character from Pershing Square has a fantasy of pretending to be Canadian based on stereotypes about the country as dull and decent, I’d say, as a Canadian myself, that’s a type of disconnect from reality, too.) I don’t believe I’ve read a Danish author before, but as these stories are set all over the world, I don’t know if there’s anything pointedly Danish about them (note: the story Hygge made me quite uncomfortable, so that’s a disconnect from the stereotype that felt nicely ironic), and I would love to read more from Nors. This collection provided an enriching, if too brief, reading experience.

From here, IÂ’ll just give a flavour of the writing with unfairly out-of-context quotes. (Note: I read an ARC through NetGalley and passages quoted may not be in their final forms.)

First she won all the battles, then he positioned himself squarely on her side. In that way, he stopped losing, and she tired of scrutinizing him. ~ In a Deer Stand
She stood there and the light went right through her, thatÂ’s the way I remember it. How the sun caused her physical form to cease. On the broad white expanse she cast a sharp shadow and I stood opposite her, not alone. ~ Sun Dogs
It was as we were sitting on the couch, me with her free hand on my trouser knee and her with her eye on the Baileys, that she said, “We’re good friends , aren’t we? I know I’m stupid,” she said, “and it can’t be easy for you with all your brains to go around with someone me,” she said. “So can’t we just be cozy ?” ~ Hygge
She’s thinking about him and what he said — that it wasn’t love. It couldn’t be, he’d said, and here she’d gone and felt precisely as if it were. ~ By Sydvest Station
When I turned off the light, it began to come over me. I lay on my back, arms a bit out to the sides, legs heavy, relaxed. My body felt good, I sank down into the soft mattress, and a short while later the bed was no longer a bed but bare earth. Thin vegetation grew up around and through me. ThatÂ’s what it felt . It was a chilly day, far from Boston, there was water nearby, and then the bird came. It perched on one of my ribs. Then it started to peck the flesh from my breastbone. It was a quiet act of devotion, and the sky above me was no longer local but some vast firmament, and I disappeared into it. ~ Between Offices
ItÂ’s dawned on her that while it lasted, she was really two people at the same time. One who was as if possessed by love, and one who walked alongside, silent and observing, and sometimes the two would have arguments that the observer always lost, because love bears all things, endures all things, but if I have not love, the lover screamed, I am clanging brass, a sounding cymbal, and the observer made a mental note that horror vacui might be what gets the countryÂ’s church bells to ring. ~ The Fairground
There was some lighthearted confusion a little while later when Anja kissed me back by the outdoor shower. It wasnÂ’t a good kiss. The yellow flowers on the sleeves of her dress seemed to be elsewhere beneath my hands. ~ Compaction Birds
The entire drive home she thought about an episode of Dr. Phil she’d once seen. It featured a woman not un herself. She sat on stage and lamented the fact that men rejected her because she was intelligent. Dr. Phil affirmed this without hesitation. Then the woman said it was wrong and unfair . Then Dr. Phil asked, “But do you want to be right, or do you want to be happy?” Whereupon the audience applauded wildly. ~ Pershing Square
Nobody else was home, but she wanted the lights off, so it was lucky it was summer. He was able to push her far enough to the left on the pillow that the light from the window struck her. There she lay a pale blotch in the midsummer night, and he removed her glasses. The stripped, absent face excited him, and while her gaze fluttered about trying to locate him, she told him sheÂ’d never done this before. Then he stroked her hair, until a faint expression of gratitude appeared on the face below. A small picture of the effect of his caress, and it made his erection so hard, he was forced to raise himself on one elbow. ~ Honeysuckle
The doctor said there was nothing they could do, that Einar should go home and make the most of his remaining time. Those were his words, according to the sister’s summary, and in the evening Alice called around the circle and said, “Now we have to hope he manages to get a hospice place.” Afterward, when she’d hung up the phone, she sat for a while staring out into the midsummer darkness, and without realizing it she hummed, “I get so happy when the sun is shining.” ~ On Narrow Paved Paths
ItÂ’d be nice if she were standing next to him now. There was a time when they always visited churches together. Ten years ago, she would have been standing at his side. In her bag sheÂ’d have juice cartons, disinfected hankies, chapstick. There was a time when she never left home without fruit in her purse. HeÂ’s given her children, and theyÂ’ve never wanted for anything. The last thing he saw outside was her biting into an almond croissant, washing it down with scalding coffee, and reaching for her phone. Who can drink coffee in this heat? he wonders, closing his eyes for a moment. ~ Inside St. PaulÂ’s
It was as if a heavy lid had slammed shut within me. That’s how I recall it, a great lid, and beneath it a frozen darkness that was all my own. While Mark held forth on my naïveté for the others, I fell back into the dark and thought of things that were impervious — cement floors, plexiglass, ice packs — and that the safest way to avoid people Mark was to seal yourself off, and then, when you were sealed off, it was about your face and getting it back in position, getting it to close over the darkness and everything you have stored inside. ~ The Freezer Chest
He can see her, a girl scout in the summer darkness with fever-white hair. HeÂ’s turned everything off in the living room, and she probably canÂ’t see him. Her face takes on an odd luminosity from her phone. He can see her chewing her lip in concentration. Now she raises her eyes. ItÂ’s the girl from the driveway. She peers at the window, eyes wide. Quickly he shoves his face against the pane, pressing, opening his mouth. His teeth touch glass and her throat muscles tense, then she bolts an animal down the bank, across the road, in her nightshirt. ~ Manitoba
2021 arc netgalley ...more19 s Abbie | ab_reads603 442

(#gifted @pushkin_press) My first foray into Danish fiction and a successful one at that! Dorthe NorsÂ’s collection of short stories was right up my alley: quiet, unassuming stories that are fully fleshed out in so few pages, with just a hint of unease running through them.
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The longest of the stories in this collection tops out at 10 pages, so that should tell you that Nors takes the ‘short’ in short stories seriously. And yet so many of the 14 stories in this book felt more developed than some novels I’ve read! I don’t know how she does it, but within the first paragraph of each story I felt fully immersed in whichever character’s lives we were briefly stopping over in.
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Nors manages to fit so much detail, so much nuance, so much backstory into so few pages that it almost felt a magic trick. How can I feel I know a writer suffering from writerÂ’s block, or a young woman stung by a hurtful remark from her ex, or a woman caring for her dying friend, in seven pages? These stories suck you right in only to spit you back out just a few pages later, feeling youÂ’ve lived a tiny sliver of someoneÂ’s life.
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I did connect more with the stories in the first half of the collection, but there were some gems in the second half too. And I canÂ’t praise Misha HoekstraÂ’s translation enough! Apparently Nors is known for her sparse yet emotional prose in Denmark and I feel that was perfectly rendered in the English.
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Highly recommend if you your short stories on the slower side. There are no fireworks or twists and turns; just everyday life, a touch of everyday darkness, portrayed so meticulously you feel youÂ’re truly there.
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Out in the UK now!read-around-the-world translations-read-in-202013 s H.A. LeuschelAuthor 5 books281

A wonderful collection of short stories that felt engaging and refreshing!8 s Story882 3

I very much enjoyed these condensed, elliptical stories, each seemingly slight on the surface but carrying with them a depth of unease that lingers on after reading. I love how Nors leaves space for the reader to stitch together seemingly random bits of information that each character reveals, letting us re-arrange the pieces to create strange new whole.

This was my third book by Nors; it won't be my last.dark-humour european-lit short-stories ...more7 s John Hatley1,281 219

This is the third book by Dorthe Nors that I've read and I've d every one of them. Whether a novel or short stories, she uses words to make brilliant portaits of her characters and their lives.7 s Pernille Døssing44 6

”Kort over Canada” er en novellesamling bestående af 14 noveller. Hovedpersonen i hver novelle skifter regelmæssigt mellem at være en mand og en kvinde. Men fælles for novellerne er, at vi møder de respektive hovedpersoner i et frustrerende øjeblik. Et øjeblik, hvor deres liv er lidt hård eller svært. Et øjeblik før livet går videre. Disse øjeblikke er meget hverdagsprægede, hvilket gør dem relevante og relatér bare. De fleste af novellerne foregår om vinteren, mere præcist omkring jul. Det gør noget ved de enkelte enten sørgelige eller frustrerende fortællinger, at de også foregår på en årstid, hvor det er koldt og mørkt.

Naturen og årstiden fylder generelt meget i alle novellerne. Enten dyrelivet, planter, marker, skove og havet indgår på en eller anden måde. Og ikke kun som kulisse, men også som en medspiller til novellernes personer.

”Hun stod der og blev gennemlyst, sådan husker jeg det. At solen fik hendes fysiske form til at ophøre. På den store, hvide flade kastede hun en skinger skygge, og jeg stod over for hende, ikke alene.”

Jeg har ikke endnu læst andet af Dorthe Nors, men jeg kunne forestille mig, at den finurlige skrivestil er et gennemgående tema i hendes andre værker. Den virker i hvert fald helt naturlig og som en ekstra dimension til selve fortællingen. Og så indeholder alle novellerne et vist overraskelsesmoment, hvor man som læser ikke kan gætte, hvor historien er ved at tage én hen. Jeg er vild med sådanne litterære virkemidler og jeg synes det var så elegant, den måde nogle af novellerne var kædet sammen på.

Samtidig er sproget specielt og muligvis også en signatur fra Dorthe Nors side. Novellerne er spækkede med ord, som vi ikke bruger så meget mere, f.eks. ”… sin bedagede yngel…” ”… jeg er ingens efeb…” ”… opstår en slags traktose.”

Det var faktisk sjovt at møde ord, som jeg enten havde glemt fandtes eller som jeg reelt måtte slå op, fordi jeg ikke kendte dem.

Jeg synes, at ”Kort over Canada” er flot litteratur, hvor der er gået lige så meget op i håndværket, som i storyline. Og det kan jeg personligt rigtig godt lide.
Sammenhængskræften mellem novellerne er det der gør, at novellesamlingen kan ses som et samlet værk. Og den sammenhængskræft synes jeg, at Dorthe Nors formår at skabe.

Både den meget særegne skrivestil, opbygningen af fortællingerne og temaerne gør, at man ikke er i tvivl om, hvem novellen kommer fra. Og det er rigtig fedt synes jeg. Det er en af grundene til, at ”Kort over Canada” får en så fin vurdering af mig.6 s Zuberino401 71

A very different - and very strange - kind of reading experience. I am finding it difficult to get a grip here...which is perhaps not so surprising after all. Dorthe Nors' characters are affectless, of a certain Scandinavian flatness, all blank surface and nothing beneath. Or nothing acknowledged, nothing directly faced. No situation challenged or confronted, no intense emotion admitted let alone embraced. These are detached beings, unmoored from society and even perhaps from their own selves. There's an overriding ineffability here - in the characters, in the author's prose - a certain inscrutability that hints at unspoken undercurrents, possibilities pregnant with meaning that are nonetheless never overtly stated. Now and then, a flash of irony, of morbid humour glints through, notably in the story of the death of Einar, but more often, it is about the unknowability, the essential isolation of the Nordic condition, which chases you even as far as St Paul's in London, or Pershing Square in LA, or the surprising banks of the Mississippi up in Minneapolis ("Between Offices" perhaps my favorite story in the collection).

Scandi noir has already swept the world, and where noir lurks, existentialism can never be far behind. Dorthe Nors, then, is exactly that - a Danish writer detached, dislocated from the wild country of her childhood, whose existentialist fiction channels not just her sense of isolation but the fundamental loneliness of an entire society, the emotional flatness that defines a way of life. For all the marvellous achievements of the Scandi model of the welfare state, I have sometimes wondered about the cost of all this bland easygoing prosperity - Nors' fiction appears to provide part of the answer to that question. The price of paradise is disconnect. danish-literature denmark disconnect ...more5 s jeremy1,152 273

wild swims (kort over canada) is the fourth book from danish author dorthe nors to appear in english translation — and her second collection of short fiction to do so (after karate chop). featuring fourteen stories from the international booker finalist, none of the pieces within wild swims are longer than a half-dozen pages. a quietude wafts through nors's stories, as her characters, women and men both, seem to live lives of melancholy, muted regret, private resignation, and accepted dissatisfaction. many of the entries confront failed relationships and/or memories of a bittersweet past, but together offer a certain starkness or wintriness of the soul when taken as one.

nors's smart, direct prose sometimes feels a little clinical or detached (for this reader), yet is commensurate with the unadorned uniqueness of her subjects and their air of emotional marginalization. evoking perhaps a crisp winter day where one could be mistaken for observing nothing but stillness (and thus overlooking the flittering and murmurs all around), wild swims offers thoughtful tales of the discontented and defeated. maybe she doesn't have feelings at all. she's got lots of hobbies, but it isn't clear that she has feelings.
*translated from the danish by misha hoekstra (nors's so much for that winter and mirror, shoulder, signal, hans christian andersen, christian jungersen, et al.)

3.5 starsfiction shortstories translation5 s Liina333 295

I bought this book after reading the first story, which completely blew me away. It was about a man who is in the woods, has been for at least a day, sitting in a deer stand, in someone else's property. The mist is closing in. Wolves are known to roam the area. We are told about her wife who is used to him going missing for short periods, there is also a mysterious Lisette. Who is she? A mistress? The marriage is an unhappy one and now he has seemed to really hit his limit. All this, a failed marriage, a probable mistress, is said in with only two pages. And done so powerfully that within this short space an atmosphere is formed, something sinister and melancholy and hopeless. I was actually so impressed by that first story that I reread it twice.

The powerful effect of that was probably why the rest couldn't impress me the way I expected. They didn't surpass the first impression and failed to engage my emotions. They were rather strong, compact stories still but they lacked that eerie component, evil and disaster lurking on the edges.
I will probably read some of the other stories too at some point as I felt I couldn't give the book the time and attention it deserved (it is a slim book and I was suffering from a headache whilst reading it). Perhaps some of the other stories will open up to me in the same way. An interesting author nevertheless and I actually can't remember the last time I read something by a Danish author. 2021 short-stories5 s Holly369 66

Excellent "flash" fiction - I put flash in quotations because un a flash of lightning, these stories made me think about them for hours, in spite of their ~10-page length. Nors writes successful, focused short stories, portraying a central dread undermining all of her characters' attempts to attain peace.l-danish5 s Bookmaniac70541 102

?? ?????? ????? ??????? ? ??? ????? ???????????? ??? ???, ?? ???? ?? ????????. ????????? ?????? ??? ?? ???? ?????? ???????????? ????????, ????? ????????? ??????? ???????? ????????, ??????????, ??????????. ????? ??????? ???????? ? ????? ? ?????? ??????. ???????? ? ???????. ???????????!5 s Bronwen GriffithsAuthor 4 books19

Nors's stories are slippery eels - they are hard to grasp. This is not a criticism. It's just that they have an elusive quality that is hard to describe. The stories here are sometimes melancholy, sometimes ascerbic, sometimes funny and sometimes shocking but each is also tender and memorable. Nors manages to write male characters equally well as females, old as well as young - quite a feat. She also writes wonderfully about love in all its guises - obsessional love, yearning, love lost but she also writes about friendship and families - their cruelties and loyalty. 4 s Ken Fredette1,041 55

Dorthe Nors had a simple beat to each of her stories, they were rife with the common experiences and she left things to your imagination. The stories seemed to enter into experiences that had the ability to go to something big, but they seemed to go flat and disintegrate into the common experiences. Her stories seemed to bring you into them and then left you feeling "What the heck." 4 s Translator Monkey591 12

Isn't this just the best exploration of the human condition that you'll have read in years? Listen: You've heard throughout your reading life that so-and-so doesn't waste a single word in his/her prose. This is the absolute truth for Nors - 14 tiny short stories, each a portrait or snapshot of layers of humanity we all share, have experienced, or sometimes observe in those around us. Depending on your approach to the stories, they can be open-ended puzzles or come together as a nightmare in the making based only on a few select words in the last paragraph. It's a dizzying affair, reading these stories. You know from the start that Nors knows the value of a word; I'd find my eyes galloping through the story to reach the end, to see the resolution unfold before my eyes, sometimes surreptitiously. Good lord.

If Nors knows the value of a word, the same can easily be said of this work's translator, Misha Hoekstra. Strip away the cover and front pages of the book, and you'd never known it wasn't originally written in English. That can't be said of every translation out there. Hoekstra translates with aplomb, and I look forward to reading the other pieces Nors wrote that he's translated. A winning combination, if we can base it on this book alone.

Maybe I was just in the right mood for this slim book of perversely subtle short stories, but I really enjoyed it, from cover to cover.

Sincere thanks to NetGalley and Graywolf Press for giving me the opportunity to devour this ARC. More this, please!3 s Jordan H130 3

"lingering" is the best word i can use to describe how these stories feel cause though each one is heavy with some potent emotion (loneliness, nostalgia, hurt, fear) that emotion persists after the quick 6-8pgs of story. there's no real resolutions or fizzling out of the sensations so in that way ... they stick with you. that could be unsatisfying or engaging depending on who you are and i guess i'm somewhere in the middle. would be very interested to read some of ms nors' novel length stuff

favorites: between offices, sun dogs, in a deer stand, compaction birds3 s Ailsa184 258 Read

I don't know what to make of a few of the stories in this collection. They feel the echoes of past upheavals and confrontations. 3 s paula.463 161

a wonderful collection that had some amazing highs and some unfortunate lows

favourites:
- by sydvest station
- compaction birds
- pershing square
- wild swims2 s Margarida Antunes5 1 follower

livro de contos, que ia lendo na pausa de almoço :)2 s Sarah :)433 36 Read

really interesting affect.2020-anticipated2 s AnnaLee Barclay21 3

Lovely & smart collection. “The Fairground” made me cry, which I always appreciate. short-stories2 s Céline Holmer36 6

Stilistisk magtparade. Dorthe Nors slår fast, at hun virkelig er novellens mester.2 s Trishita (TrishReviews_ByTheBook)187 30

Just when I was looking for a short read after the most gigantic book ever, a friend sent me Wild Swims, a short story collection with astoundingly similar-sized stories, all 3-4 pages long. The book came with a stunning blurb, describing the stories in the very first sentence as ‘resplendent with longing’, and indeed, they were.

In all these slight snippets of life and living, there is a detachment of people from other people, from love and emotional loyalty, and even from self, and in the same breath, most of them are also about a newfound attachment or a returned enchantment with nature. The landscape shifts between small towns and big cities, oscillating from Norway to Denmark to the US and Canada, but the human configuration remains the same, ‘outsiders yearn to be on the inside and the insiders are desperate to be free’.

Love is constantly caught pulling off one vanishing act after another, and comfort is all-at-once replaced with cold confrontation in fractionated lives. There’s something of the unsaid that remains intensely palpable throughout and in some stories, even sinister and suspenseful, entrapping us with a ‘melancholy that threatens to come too close’. This threat is more touch-and-go though, invading us through just a couple stories, while the others follow the theme of disconnect so overzealously, that it infuriatingly spills into the reader's trajectory. For me, most of the stories remained too cerebral to be potent enough; I feel as if almost-touched and yet, when I try to put a finger on it, I can’t figure just what I felt, or what just happened. The more I think, the more I feel that the intent was never to be indelible, but only to leave an imprint, or a fleeting hint.

The stories are, indeed, short and yet never too short, because even in these tiny glimpses, the picture comes clear. The writing, on the other hand, was spare and willowy, and maybe the reason why my intuition with the stories was strong, certain sensibilities were heightened but still we couldnÂ’t establish a strong connection. 3 stars!




reviewed short-stories3 s October Hill Magazine24 6

Review by Julia Romero, Proofreader and Book Reviewer October Hill Magazine

Wild Swims by Dorthe Nors includes 14 short stories that expand across borders—from the banks of Norway to the bustle of Los Angeles, rediscover the grandeur of Scandinavian nature and culture, and delve deep into the conditions of the human spirit, from feelings of nostalgia and loyalty to wrestling with the impact of immigration and regret. Wild Swims is a 128-page short story collection that is underwhelming in its execution but shined as a sensory exposé on our connections to the natural world so often overlooked.

This collection combines the vignettes of men and women attempting to harmonize longing with displacement. In the opening story, "In a Deer Stand," a broken man contemplates his relationships with his family when he finds himself lost and hurt in the wilderness. "Sun Dogs" follows a young man who befriends the mother of an ex-lover while away on a writing expedition. And my personal favorite of the collection, "By Sydvest Station" follows a girl reeling from the harsh words of an ex-lover as they collect fraudulent donations for the cancer society.

Originally published and translated by UKÂ’s Pushkin Press in April 2020, Wild Swims is now being published by Graywolf Press...[read the rest of the review in October Hill Magazine's Winter 2020 Issue]2 s the_wistful_reader106 12

Dorthe Nors ~ Wild Swims

Thank you @pushkinpress for the proof copy!

Danish author Norse explores different people's lives in this collection. The title story 'Wild Swims' is indeed about swimming (and loss), but throughout the book we are continuing to take little swims; dipping into your ordinary man and woman's conscience and thought.  This does not feel something written to entertain, but written in order to let you observe your neighbour through a window into his day.  I'm not sure whether I think it is unsettling that there seems to be so little joy to find and if this is indeed how most people think and feel, or whether I should just enjoy the characterisation and be pleased that it is fiction?

The thing is - it's completely realistic. I can imagine old Alice making herself important and thus feeling indispensable when Einar is diagnosed with cancer, by going over every day and giving him advice because her own father was a dentist and an educated man. Then back home to ring round to everyone in their circle to let them know how poorly Einar is and what he really ought to do with his last days.

In 'Sun Dogs', an author who goes to a retreat in Norway, muses,
"To me, the Norwegian lakes feel bottomless, the landscape unknowable. Such uncertainty must leave its mark on the locals, I thought." 

Recommend to anyone who s a bit of realism and who isn't afraid of getting dragged into the deep darkness of it.20202 s ByuraknAuthor 3 books73

Dorthe Nors is a great discovery for me. Her short stories are sharp and funny and often too close to home. I love how she's making fun of absolutely everything. Three stories that I highly recommend reading are "Ved Sydvest Station", "Ad små asfalterede stier" and "Kummerfryseren". Especially the first one is such a masterpiece of telling a break-up story in a hilariously comic and a tragic way. favorites2 s Aaron McQuiston546 21

Dorthe Nors writing is something to behold. Every one of her works is very slim, compact, and engaging. Her newest collection of short stories is fourteen stories in 124 pages, each story lasting about six or eight pages. And each story knocked me upside the head. Nors is a Danish writer who has had some buzz, mostly around her short story collection Karate Chop, and honestly any accolades and praise is well deserved.

I have never read a collection Wild Swims. All of these stories are so short, and they also feel rumors. Nors writes fantastic scenes but she doesnÂ’t tell the reader everything. For example, in the opening story, In a Deer Stand, the unnamed main character has fled his house and is hiding in a strangerÂ’s tree stand. There is no real explanation of why he is running from his house, but there are indications, his wife not being d by his family, the relationship of Lissette with the family, and if the whole running from the house has something to do with the relationship between the male character and Lissette (which could be implied, but itÂ’s the reader who is doing the implying.) With many of these stories, I can come with the interpretation of the action, that the main character is running from his wife because she found out about an affair between Lissette and him, but this is me drawing the conclusions, not something that is on the page. And this is every one of the stories in this collection. Dorthe Nors gives us whispers, and our own interpretation of these whispers is how the story is formed.

The writing and translation by Misha Hoekstra is impressive in another way as well. Nors s to switch between the softness of nature and the hardness of city life, going back and forth between the two sometimes within the same paragraph. Returning to the first story, the main characterÂ’s sitting in the tree stand as dusk is settling in. He thinks about wolves while also thinking about his home and marriage. The two do not seem connected but they are, and this connection happens throughout these stories.

I know I have talked mostly about the first story, but this story is four pages long. There are so many amazing stories throughout this collection, and all of them are so impressive that I could talk at length about any of them, making up the impressions that I received while reading them. Usually I struggle through short story collections, but Wild Swims is so spellbinding that I read it all in one sitting, wondering the whole time if I can be even more impressed with this author. The result is that every single story is masterful, and I cannot think of ever reading a single author short story collection as impressive as this one. I will be rereading stories in this collection repeatedly. Just to try to figure out how Dorthe Nors writes with so much magic.graywolf1 Nathalie (keepreadingbooks)271 46

Since this Danish short story collection has been translated into English (as Wild Swims), IÂ’m including an English as well as a Danish review:

Jeg er en af de efter alt at dømme få, der aldrig rigtigt er faldet for Dorthe Nors’ forfatterskab. Jeg har godt nok kun læst to af hendes novellesamlinger – Kantslag og nu denne, Kort over Canada – men jeg er stadig ikke overbevist. Måske skal jeg kaste mig over en af hendes romaner i stedet? Jeg ved ikke, hvad det er, men novellerne formår ikke at fange mig. Det er måske meget sigende, at jeg sidder og ikke helt kan finde på noget at sige. De føles lidt overfladiske, måske for stilistiske. Det samme virkemiddel bruges for ofte; en sætning sættes sammen af to usammenhængende hændelser, ofte af en i fortiden og en i nutiden. Det kan noget, særligt første gang, men når jeg oplever det i flere af novellerne, savner jeg måske, at det er noget nyt eller noget andet, der skal overraske mig. At hun ikke bare kopierer den samme skabelon. Det lyder hårdt, og det er faktisk slet ikke så hårdt ment, for Nors er uden tvivl en dygtig forfatter. Måske er hun bare ikke en forfatter for mig. Jeg har lyst til at nævne Velsignelser af Caroline Albertine Minor, Se en sidste gang på alt smukt af Kristin Vego og en mindre kendt samling, Erle Perle af Nanna Goul, som novellesamlinger, der virkelig rammer noget i mig, og som jeg langt hellere vil anbefale.

I am one of the (it seems) very few who hasn’t really fallen in love with Dorthe Nors’ writing. Granted, I’ve only read two of her short story collections so far – Karate Chop and now Wild Swims – but I’m not convinced. Maybe I need to give her novels a try instead? I don’t know what it is, but her stories don’t draw me in. It seems telling that I can’t think of much to say, now that I’m trying to review the collection. The stories often feel superficial to me, perhaps too stylistic, and I noticed the same literary device used across several stories, which always puts me off. But I think I’m in the minority, and I suspect it’s just a case of personal preference. It almost feels a betrayal, as she is one of very few internationally known and celebrated Danish authors, but preferences can’t be forced! I have read a number of other excellent Danish short story collections that I would love to recommend, but unfortunately, they haven’t been translated (at least not yet).
1 Kateri Kramer19 Read

IÂ’m always interested in a book of great translated literature, particularly if itÂ’s about a current obsession, in this case, Nordic countries. Wild Swims written by Dorthe Nors and translated from the Danish by Misha Hoekstra sucked me in right away. Nors, author of Mirror, Shoulder, Signal, a finalist for the Man Booker International prize (as was Wild Swims by the way), So Much for That Winter; Karate Chop, and four other novels.

Her new collection of short stories, Wild Swims, published by Graywolf Press, is a gorgeous assortment of wild snowy places and fraught relationships and restlessness. ItÂ’s a mere 128 pages but it packs a punch. As the reader meanders through the 14 stories presented in the book, we get a sense of nordic philosophy and emotional realness.

Nors artfully captures moments into very, short stories, typically around four pages each, with nuance, humor, and some darkness thrown in for good measure. Her ability to create such a full, whole moment in such a condensed time frame, is one of the greatest strengths and joys of reading this collection.

The book spans borders with stories in Copenhagen, London, LA, and Minneapolis among others. In a favorite story of mine, a writer ends up in a remote cabin in the woods. With all the goodness of a restless, difficult creative person, the writer eventually befriends the mother of an ex-lover. Together they go on walks and horseback rides through the snowy landscape. There is a constant undertone of paranoia that works in contrast to the quietness of the woods the cabin is settled in.

In another story, a man and woman must contend with the strangeness of their relationship, and what seems distaste for one another. In each story, there is a theme or idea that is in disagreement with the narrative arc (although these arenÂ’t plot-driven stories in the least). Hygee is just one example of this. As the couple wrestles with a recent disagreement, and an unconventional way of meeting, they are trying to have a cosy evening together with coffee and cakes.

In Compaction Birds, a conservationist and bird lover visits a love interest only to find that she had forgotten about a party for an aunt she must attend. He is eventually pulled along in all its humor. The disastrous nature of this story lends itself perfectly for the tone that Nors uses, always managing to bring it back to the birds that the narrator loves.

Wild Swims is expansive despite its short page count. The restlessness that characters feel is paralleled for the reader in Nors craft choices. The back cover really says it best; “Nors offers a master class in concision and restraint in Wild Swims and a path to living life without either.
1 Caroline10

Wild Swims is a collection of short stories centered on odd occurrences of everyday longing and dissatisfaction: the opening story presents an accusatory stream of consciousness of a man hiding out on a deer stand after an argument with his wife; in “honeysuckle” a man fixates on a young blind woman, experiencing a strange face blindness of his own; in the title story, a woman’s recollection of the delights and trepidation of a childhood friendship brings her to the local pool. Nors’ style is spare and direct, most stories starting mid-action and cutting off without much resolution. There’s nonetheless a conversational warmth to these stories, which feature moments of perceptive and striking imagery. While certain stories offer levity, an unsettling foreboding hangs over much of the collection. These stories are tightly coiled, offering no easy resolutions, but encounters that trouble the mind well past reading.1 Cherise WolasAuthor 4 books280

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