On darkness

Shortlisted for DR’s Romanpris 2014 (The national medias prize for Literature)


Shortlisted for Læsernes Bogpris (The Readers’ Award)

Om mørke (On Darkness) is both a story of destruction and creation. There are earthquakes, avalanches, explosions, cloudbursts, horse calamities, eye accidents, a young man who loses his father, a loved one who wants to have access to the grief and to him, there is possibly a murder, at least lots of death. There’s love, pearls, beautiful presents from a family, apple pillaging in Bogens, a trip to Italy, walks on the beach, all the silver you can carry and amber.

The destruction that the book describes is not only the extraordinary dramatic destruction, it is mainly the decay that we witness each day. The daily confrontation with death that comes in pain, sickness, the changes of the body, nails that need cutting again, fruit in the bowl rotting, the autumn that eats its way in on us. Quite simply that we witness an all-consuming unwinding every day.

At the same time, the book is a protest against these fundamental premises. The book insists that it is not all that simple. That there is not an “on the one hand” and then “on the other”, but that death, decay, loss and sorrow are all part of the same life, that they all contain beauty. That the meaningless disintegration can be life affirming simply because it is life in another stage; it is all part of the same cycle. Death is a confirmation of the life, that is constant, the beauty that exists and the love that is.

Buy the Danish version of On Darkness online HERE

2014: On Darkness will be part of the exhibition Best Book Work of the Year. Read the English press release HERE

Praise for On Darkness

❤❤❤❤❤❤ „The authors unique prose reaches new heights“ – Lilian Munk Rösing, Politiken

“Once again Klougart mooves the borders for what literature can be”, Erik Skyum-Nielsen, Information

✶✶✶✶✶ „A rare artistic talent“ – Per Krogh Hansen, Berlingske

✶✶✶✶✶ – Christine Fur Fischer, Fyns Amtsavis