Status
Available
Genres
Publication
Minneapolis, MN : Graywolf Press, 2018.
Description
Sonja is ready to get on with her life. She's over forty now, and the Swedish crime novels she translates are losing their fascination. She sees a masseuse, tries to reconnect with her sister, and is finally learning to drive. But under the overbearing gaze of her driving instructor, Sonja is unable to shift gears for herself. And her vertigo, which she has always carefully hidden, has begun to manifest at the worst possible moments. Sonja hoped her move to Copenhagen years ago would have left rural Jutland in the rearview mirror. Yet she keeps remembering the dramatic landscapes of her childhood--the endless sky, the whooper swans, the rye fields--and longs to go back. But how can she return to a place that she no longer recognizes? And how can she escape the alienating streets of Copenhagen? A tale of one woman's journey in search of herself when there's no one to ask for directions.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member alanteder
In English translation we have grown accustomed to thinking of Danish writer Dorthe Nors as a minimalist and miniaturist with her experimental list-based novellas in "So Much for That Winter" and short-short stories in "Karate Chop.". "Mirror, Shoulder, Signal" takes a further turn with minimal
Lead character Sonja is the Danish language translator of (fictional) Swedish crime novelist Gösta Svensson (the grisly-sounding nature of his novels made me think of Lars Kepler, himself a fictional construct). Sonja is disconnected from the world and her path back is portrayed to be learning to drive in middle-age with some very quirky driving instructors.
I've very much enjoyed all of the Dorthe Nors that I have read up to now,but couldn't seem to get engaged with this latest novel. It does have a wonderful meet-cute ending with another unorthodox character and that was the point at which I actually started to become interested, but then the book was over.
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plot and drama, which presents its own challenges for the writer and reader.Lead character Sonja is the Danish language translator of (fictional) Swedish crime novelist Gösta Svensson (the grisly-sounding nature of his novels made me think of Lars Kepler, himself a fictional construct). Sonja is disconnected from the world and her path back is portrayed to be learning to drive in middle-age with some very quirky driving instructors.
I've very much enjoyed all of the Dorthe Nors that I have read up to now,but couldn't seem to get engaged with this latest novel. It does have a wonderful meet-cute ending with another unorthodox character and that was the point at which I actually started to become interested, but then the book was over.
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LibraryThing member spiralsheep
110/2020. The story is about a middle-aged woman without a future, because she doesn't want any of the futures that society has directed her towards, mostly presented as mother or corpse, and who is therefore obsessed with the past. But the past isn't a place so she can only go back there inside
The style of writing is descriptive. It presents and dissects without interpreting. The author explicitly separates this work from crime novels in which people are dismembered and then interpreted as clues, from the work of psychologists in which people's minds are broken down and interpreted, from the work of therapists (or shamans) in which people's emotions (or spirits) are anatomised and interpreted. The descriptive imagery is creative enough that it occasionally momentarily veers into bizarre or surreal disconnection. A typical pop-literary Man Booker International shortlist novel.
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her own head, except her own memories aren't enough for her and the people from her past don't want to share the insides of their heads with her. At the end of the book she embraces a future in a place and social role, as a rural spinster, that society has told her are both undesirable.The style of writing is descriptive. It presents and dissects without interpreting. The author explicitly separates this work from crime novels in which people are dismembered and then interpreted as clues, from the work of psychologists in which people's minds are broken down and interpreted, from the work of therapists (or shamans) in which people's emotions (or spirits) are anatomised and interpreted. The descriptive imagery is creative enough that it occasionally momentarily veers into bizarre or surreal disconnection. A typical pop-literary Man Booker International shortlist novel.
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LibraryThing member DubaiReader
Driving lessons.
Mirror, Shoulder, Signal was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2017, and like it's colleague, the Man Booker Prize, this seems to imply a somewhat off-the-wall read. I haven't followed the International version of the prize in the past, but it probably represents my
This is a Danish author, in translation, and if I'm honest, not a lot happens. It's a short book at under 200 pages, and centres around Sonja, a middle-aged woman, who is trying prove something to herself by learning to drive. Her driving instructor won't let her touch the gear lever and changes gear for her, which is understandably frustrating.
She holds down a job translating a crime writer's novels from Swedish to Danish, and as he seems to be quite a well known author, this job gives Sonja some degree of respect. Meanwhile she goes for regular massage with Ellen, a somewhat forward masseuse who reads all sorts if importance into every ache and pain that Sonja confesses to.
Living in Copenhagen, Sonja frequently thinks with nostalgia of her childhood in the wilds of Denmark, where her sister, Kate, still lives. Kate avoids answering the phone and Sonja is progressively more frustrated by her inability to contact her sister.
"Sonja knows this much about love: there's not much of it in practice, but it's always thrived on people's tongues." (loc 777).
The translation was good and I guess I learned a little about life in Denmark, a place I've never been, but this is not a book I'll be encouraging everyone to buy.
Mirror, Shoulder, Signal was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2017, and like it's colleague, the Man Booker Prize, this seems to imply a somewhat off-the-wall read. I haven't followed the International version of the prize in the past, but it probably represents my
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taste more than the English version.This is a Danish author, in translation, and if I'm honest, not a lot happens. It's a short book at under 200 pages, and centres around Sonja, a middle-aged woman, who is trying prove something to herself by learning to drive. Her driving instructor won't let her touch the gear lever and changes gear for her, which is understandably frustrating.
She holds down a job translating a crime writer's novels from Swedish to Danish, and as he seems to be quite a well known author, this job gives Sonja some degree of respect. Meanwhile she goes for regular massage with Ellen, a somewhat forward masseuse who reads all sorts if importance into every ache and pain that Sonja confesses to.
Living in Copenhagen, Sonja frequently thinks with nostalgia of her childhood in the wilds of Denmark, where her sister, Kate, still lives. Kate avoids answering the phone and Sonja is progressively more frustrated by her inability to contact her sister.
"Sonja knows this much about love: there's not much of it in practice, but it's always thrived on people's tongues." (loc 777).
The translation was good and I guess I learned a little about life in Denmark, a place I've never been, but this is not a book I'll be encouraging everyone to buy.
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LibraryThing member thorold
As the title rather suggests, Mirror, shoulder, signal is about learning to drive - the central character, Sonja, is a fortyish single woman from the depths of rural Jutland who feels somewhat adrift in the urban rush of Copenhagen. She earns her living as the Danish translator of the popular but
This should be a grim and miserable sort of novel, but it's actually very funny, and the ending is delightfully offbeat. Maybe there isn't quite enough story to support a full-scale novel (even a relatively short one like this), but that doesn't really matter, as Sonja is such an endearing character. And there are plenty of engaging jokes about the clichés of Nordic Noir...
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appallingly violent Swedish crime novels of Gösta Svensson, which are starting to disgust her; the driving lessons with gossipy, motherly instructor Jytte are getting her nowhere; she doesn't want to reveal that she may be unfit to drive anyway as she suffers from dizzy spells as a result of a hereditary balance problem. And she misses the contact she used to have with her sister Kate. This should be a grim and miserable sort of novel, but it's actually very funny, and the ending is delightfully offbeat. Maybe there isn't quite enough story to support a full-scale novel (even a relatively short one like this), but that doesn't really matter, as Sonja is such an endearing character. And there are plenty of engaging jokes about the clichés of Nordic Noir...
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LibraryThing member boredgames
rambling with flashes of brilliance. full of deadpan humour and assurance of its own intelligence and unique perspective. not a model for plot but one of characterisation and point of view.
Awards
Dublin Literary Award (Longlist — 2019)
Warwick Prize for Women in Translation (Longlist — 2017)
The International Booker Prize (Shortlist — 2017)
The New York Times Notable Books of the Year (Fiction — 2018)
Language
Original publication date
2016
2017 (English translation)
ISBN
9781555978082
Local notes
fiction