they

They go for a walk by the playing fields, the anemones are out. In the small Danish town of Rødby, a mother and her sixteen-year-old daughter live uneventfully, each day marked by routine and a quiet intimacy. Together, they are a family; complete, content – and fragile. When the mother begins to feel unwell, everything and nothing changes.

They go about their lives, talk about anything but the diagnosis. The daughter takes tentative steps into adulthood. Still, illness – and the possibility of loss – cast an expansive shadow over the rituals of daily life.

they is a tender and piercing exploration of a mother–daughter relationship, brought into startling focus by Helle Helle’s distinctive, immediate prose.