Under the Sun

Written in 1991, this is the story of Margrethe Thiede, the daughter of a lighthouse keeper in an unnamed small fishing community on the north-western coast of Denmark. We follow Margrethe through her childhood, her years as a student in the capital, her marriage to a mentally unstable man, her involvement in the peace movement, and her old age. The novel is also about a changing community where fears of violence at sea and rampant commercialism on land are strong undercurrents. The building of a naval base and the ominous presence of foreign submarines intimidates the fishermen and their families, and an accident caused by one of these intruding vessels forms the catastrophic climax of the novel. The storytelling is funny, playful and clever. "Svendsen skillfully blends the events of Margrethe's life, an exploration of the surreal world of dreams, and the process of how living and dreaming interact to realize a whole person." Booklist