Often I Am Happy
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
"A compassionate and often edifying commentary on the elasticity of love, the strength it takes to move forward after a death, and the power of forgiveness" Publishers Weekly
When Ellinor addresses her best friend Anna, she does not expect a reply. Anna has been dead for forty years, killed in the same skiing accident that claimed Henning: Ellinor's first husband and Anna's lover.
Ellinor instead tells her that Georg has died - Georg who was once Anna's, but whom Ellinor came to love in her place, and whom she came to care for, along with Anna's two infant sons. Yet with Georg's death Ellinor finds herself able to cut the ties of her assumed life with surprising ease.
Returning to the area of Copenhagen where she grew up, away from the adopted comfort of the home she shared with Georg, Ellinor finds herself addressing her own history: her marriage to Henning, their seemingly charmed friendship with the newly-wed Anna and Georg, right back to her own mother's story - a story of heartbreaking pride.
Because there are some secrets - both our own and of others - that we can only share with the dead. Secrets that nonetheless shape who we are and who we love.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Danish novelist Grondahl's stunning latest, a recently widowed 70-year-old woman reexamines her life and past decisions with sagacity and aplomb. The novel is written in the form of a letter from Ellinor to her long-deceased best friend, Anna, whose husband Ellinor married after Anna died. In it, Ellinor shares her feelings about their close-knit bond, the challenge of taking Anna's place after her death as a mother to her twin boys, growing accustomed to being Georg's new wife, and the decision to sell the house after he died. Some of Ellinor's complaints are par for the course; the boys are miffed she got a new apartment so quickly after Georg's death, for example. But a number of weightier matters are also addressed, including Ellinor's botched abortion and Anna's secret affair with Ellinor's first husband, Henning, just before she died. Toward the second half of the book, parallel narratives seamlessly emerge that add depth and an extra layer of sorrow to Ellinor's story, including the truth about her absentee father the German soldier her mother fell in love with during World War II and details about her ill-matched relationship with Henning. Despite the book's gloomy subject matter, Ellinor comes off like a beacon of strength with a firm grasp on reality. Plus, Grondahl has full command over his prose it's more frank than maudlin. What results is a compassionate and often edifying commentary on the elasticity of love, the strength it takes to move forward after a death, and the power of forgiveness.
