A Beloved of My Twenty-seven Senses Mood Board

Our mood board series continues with Karen Fastrup’s Beloved of My Twenty-seven Senses, translated from the Danish by Tara Chace. You might remember that Book*hug’s Co-publisher, Jay MillAr, sang this book’s praises last year, but if you don’t we’ll sing them again; we’re more than happy to.

Taking its title from Kurt Schwitters’s fanatical love poem “To Anna Blume,” Beloved of My Twenty-seven Senses depicts a sensory realm so advanced that our six senses simply aren’t enough to truly perceive the world. Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer, author of All the Broken Things, describes the book as “a novelistic ellipse into the Desert, into the light and dark of desire, of love, of sensuality and sexuality, of the human body against the physicality of the Libyan dunes, and, perhaps most importantly, of words and how they can perform together… In Fastrup’s artful novel, a sandstorm, a transgression, a betrayal, and a murder accrete not disaster, but further yearning.”

We’re also really excited to share that we have acquired the North American English language rights to Fastrup’s critically acclaimed book Hunger Heart, originally published in Danish as Hungerhjerte (Gyldendal, 2018). Hunger Heart—to be translated from the Danish by Marina Allemano—is an autofictional novel about anxiety, love, sex and therapy. We’re incredibly honoured to be able to share it with you. Publication is scheduled for 2023.