We are happy to invite you to a virtual conversation between Ida Jessen and Anne Michaels in celebration of Jessen’s A Postcard for Annie, translated to English by Martin Aitken. Third Place Books and Community Bookstore will co-host the event, and it will be streamed live on Saturday, July 23rd 3PM EST. You can register here.

In six simmering stories, Ida Jessen cuts through the ordinary artifices that prop up our closest relationships, exposing the lucid truth. The voices of women and girls animate these narratives. In one, a pair of young sisters wander through their neighborhood at night, under telephone lines glazed with ice, over pavements that resemble “the darkest glass,” unaware of the violence unfolding in a nearby grocery store. In another, a mother and son improvise an elaborate choreography in order to conceal, even from themselves, an act of brutality. Desire clicks uncomfortably against reality, goading characters into desperate exploits or carrying them toward hotheaded romance. Family life shapeshifts, becoming an embittered snare or a tender, fragile mooring. Sprightly and acute, Jessen uncovers the currents of rage, love, duplicity, and courage that shape our resolutions, and change our lives.

Ida Jessen is widely considered to be the master of psychological realism in contemporary Danish fiction. Having made her debut with the short-story collection Under Sten (Under Stone) in 1989, Jessen’s breakthrough came with the trilogy: Den der lyver (The One Who’s Lying; 2011), Det første jeg tænker (The First Thing I Think Of; 2006), and Børnene (The Children; 2009). The latter earned her the Booksellers Prize, the Golden Laurel and a nomination for the Nordic Council Literature Prize. Her short story collection, Postkort til Annie (Postcard to Annie; 2013) earned her another nomination for the Nordic Council Prize. Jessen was recently awarded the 2017 Critics’ Choice Award (April 2018) for The Anagrams of Doctor Bagge. She is also a recipient of the Lifetime Award from the Danish Arts Foundation.

Anne Michaels is a novelist and poet. Her books are translated into more than fifty languages and have won dozens of international awards, including the Orange Prize, the Guardian Fiction Prize, and the Lannan Award for Fiction. Among many other honours she is a Guggenheim Fellow, has received honorary degrees, and has served as Toronto’s Poet Laureate. Her novel Fugitive Pieces was adapted as a feature film. Her most recent books include All We Saw, Infinite Gradation, and Railtracks (co-written with John Berger).