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When death takes something from you give it back : Carl's book

Aidt, Naja Marie, 1963-2019
Books, Manuscripts
In March 2015, Naja Marie Aidt's 25-year-old son, Carl, died in a tragic accident. 'When Death Takes Something From You Give It Back' is about losing a child. It is about formulating a vocabulary to express the deepest kind of pain. And it's about finding a way to write about a reality invaded by grief, lessened by loss. Faced with the sudden emptiness of language, Naja finds solace in the anguish of Joan Didion, Nick Cave, C.S. Lewis, Mallarmé, Plato and other writers who have suffered the deadening impact of loss. This palimpsest of mourning enables Naja to turn over the pathetic, precious transience of existence and articulates her greatest fear: to forget. The insistent compulsion to reconstruct the harrowing aftermath of Carl's death keeps him painfully present, while fragmented memories, journal entries and poetry inch her closer to piecing Carl's life together.
Main title:
When death takes something from you give it back : Carl's book / Naja Marie Aidt ; translation by Denise Newman.
Imprint:
London : Quercus, 2019.
Collation:
141 pages ; 23 cm
Notes:
Translated from the Danish.
Awards:
English PEN Award
ISBN:
9781787475373 (hbk)
Dewey class:
155.937092839.81374155.937839.813
LC class:
PT8176.1.I37
Local class:
155.937092155.937
Language:
EnglishDanish
BRN:
2424132
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