Mirror, shoulder, signal : a novel

Title:

Author:

Nors, Dorthe, 1970- author.

Added Author:

Translation of: Nors, Dorthe, 1970- Spelj, skulder, blink. English.

Hoekstra, Misha,

Personal Author:

Nors, Dorthe, 1970- author.

ISBN:

9781555978082

Physical Description:

188 pages ; 22cm

Abstract:

A tale of one woman's journey in search of herself when there's no one to ask for directions.

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?

Subject Term:

Aging -- Fiction.

Automobile driver education -- Fiction.

Boredom -- Fiction.

Domestic fiction.

Loneliness -- Fiction.

Older women -- Fiction.

Self-actualization (Psychology) in women -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

Copenhagen (Denmark) -- Fiction.

Summary:

A tale of one woman's journey in search of herself when there's no one to ask for directions.

Holds:

Available:*

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Summary

A smart, witty novel of driving lessons and vertigo, short-listed for the Man Booker International Prize

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?

In Mirror, Shoulder, Signal , Dorthe Nors brings her distinctive blend of style, humor, and insight to a poignant journey of one woman in search of herself when there's no one to ask for directions.

Reviews (1)

Kirkus Review

In this tautly observed novel, Nors reveals a middle-age woman on the verge of disappearance and discovery.Danish writer Nors is a miniaturist; her book So Much for That Winter (2016) gathers two novellas that read like collections of epigrams, while her story collection Karate Chop (2014) brings together 15 microfictions, each imbued with an uneasy sense of loss. In this, the first of her four novels to be translated into English, she follows up on and enlarges these concerns. The story of Sonja, 40-something, a translator of Swedish crime fiction, the book unfolds in and around Copenhagen, but its true territory is the inner life. Sonja is stuck: bored of translation work, envious (but not really) of her sister who appears to have it all. She is learning to drivethe title is a reference to her instructor's admonition about changing lanes in trafficand she also suffers from positional vertigo, an inherited condition in which she can fall prey to dizziness simply by the wrong movement of her head. In part, all this is metaphor, a way to frame Sonja's displacement. She is anonymous, much like the women Nors describes in her essay "On the Invisibility of Middle-Aged Women" (2016). At the same time, Nors is after something bigger than mere symbol; she is trying to excavate the pattern of a life. "But it doesn't matter," Sonja says late in the novel. "I manage, of course." The line, in many ways, is key to the novel, which makes vivid drama out of the most mundane events. Not much happens heresome awkward interactions with her driving teachers, a couple of massages, some letters and phone calls with her familybut not much has to, for the drama Nors excavates is the most human one. What does it mean to keep on living? What does it mean to make a place for oneself, no matter how small or conditional? "A person who has her hand on the back of your heart," Sonja reminds us, "shouldn't be unsure."Nors is an exquisitely precise writer, and in rendering her heroine's small disruptions and, yes, victories, she is writing for, and of, every one of us. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.