Sunday Salon: discovering Denmark

This past week I have read two excellent Danish books, The Serbian Dane by Lief Davidsen and The Exception by Christian Jungersen. I read these because they featured on Karen Meek of Euro Crime's list of best reads of 2007, and as I have enjoyed various Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish fiction, I thought I'd give Denmark a whirl.

Both books are intelligently well-written, and both have sympathetic translations. The Serbian Dane is a very tense thriller about a visit to Denmark by an Iranian author under threat of a fatwa. The story concerns the local journalist who is covering the story, the policeman in charge of the security arrangements, and the putative assassin. Chapters switch between the viewpoints of these three characters: we learn about their domestic lives, pasts, and emotions, all of which cause sympathies to alternate and lead to an almost-unbearable level of excitement. It is really very good indeed: a book that threatens to make you to miss your stop if reading it on the bus or train.

The Exception is a strikingly original work about four women who work at the Danish Centre for Genocide Information, and their smarmy (male) boss. One of the women has previously been held hostage herself while visiting Kenya. As with The Serbian Dane, the story is told from the viewpoints of the women in turn, interspersed with articles about genocide that two of the women write -- very powerful pieces that make one despair about the world we live in. The book itself is a clever parallel, between first the very broad one of the Centre's mission of understanding what drives these regimes -- what makes a person obey orders to kill and torture? -- and second, in microcosm, an intensely claustrophobic story of the four women, one of whom is nastily oppressed by the others. But is she, or is it all in her mind? By switching viewpoints, the author has us wrong-footed right to the end as we learn perhaps more than we want to know about human cruelty on a global and a personal level, and about the intersection of the two, where political persuasions affect individuals' lives.

Although these books have quite different plots, they share in common the elements of modern crime fiction that I find so fascinating: the struggle of a society to come to terms with its diversity, not only in terms of individual variation, but on a large and rapid scale, via immigration after the end of the Cold War and, more recently, via the expansion of the European Union. (Although both these books were published in English last year, they were written 10 years ago.) In particular, Scandinavian countries, with their relatively small populations, are traditionally seen as epitomising the success of the welfare state. The books from these regions that I've been reading for the past year or two are by authors looking at their cultures with an unflinching lens, making for compulsive reading.

See these links for reviews of The Exception and The Serbian Dane. I strongly recommend these books, both of which far transcend the "crime fiction" pigeonhole.

Comments

[Ann Darnton]

I have read nothing from Scandinavia with the exception of 'Miss Smilla....' and I'm beginning to realise that I ought to be exploring what's out there. Where would you suggest that I start?

[Maxine]

These two are both good, Ann, and not part of a series (although I think there is a sequel to the Serbian Dane not out yet).
Recent favourites of mine have been Asa Larsson's Sun Storm (Sweden) and Jan Costin Wagner's Ice Moon (Finland, though the author is German). Two excellent Swedish series are Liza Marklund's about a woman journalist who investigates crime as well as dealing with sexism at work and a tempestuous personal life, including in later books the pressures of doing all this with young children; and the classic, brilliant "Martin Beck" series of Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, currently reprinted in an excellent edition by Harper Perennial, each featuring (among other things) an introduction by a modern crime writer about the series and how it influenced them. If you go to Euro Crime you can see reviews of some of these books and links to the authors' home pages. (See Petrona sidebar for link).

[Michael Walters]

I came to 'The Exception' on the back of a wonderful holiday this summer on the west coast of Denmark - I was keen to see what Danish crime fiction was out there, and came up with these two. Not got round to 'The Serbian Dane' yet but thought that 'The Exception' was, well, exceptional. I don't think it needed the more melodramatic plot developments that occur towards the end, but I thought that the parallel between political and personal cruelty was superbly presented - chilling but very recognisable. The relationship between Denmark and the UK seems an odd one - we're very close, geographically and (I think) in terms of national characteristics, but seem to have remarkably little contact (and the contact we do have seems to be largely with Copenhagen). Jutland felt to me both alien and eerily familiar - and very beautiful.

[Maxine]

Agreed, Michael: I though the melodrama at the end "over-egged the pudding" -- for me, the book was chilling enough without it.
I think you'll enjoy Serbian Dane, though again I thought the climax too unnecessarily James Bond-y and at odds with the bulk of the book. But I am certainly glad I read both of these books.

[Wendy]

Oh, these look very good. I haven't read much from the Scandinavian writers.

[Michael Walters]

Not sure why my previous comment appeared twice - sorry about that...hope this one doesn't do the same!

[Maxine]

It is odd, Michael, I think it must be a bug in Typepad or an operating system - it seems to be affect some commenters all the time and others not at all.
Easy enough to remove the duplicates (which I've just done, in case anyone is puzzled by the comment above!)

[Norm]

I am ashamed to admit have never read any Danish or Finnish crime fiction. Therefore thanks for the introduction to these books.

[Maxine]

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did, Norm. And I thank you very much for introducing me to the excellent Martin Beck series, which I am spinning out for as long as possible!

[Euro Crime (Karen M)]

My one Finnish (author) read so far - Priest of Evil by Matti Joensuu - was a big disappointment but I will give him another go when his next book comes out later this year. German author Jan Costin Wagner set his Ice Moon in Finland and that is a haunting book which I recommend (as does Maxine :-)).

[Ann Darnton]

Thanks for the recommendations. I've added them to the library list.