Back to Life

Vanja committed suicide two years ago by throwing herself into the sea, but she’s now forced to come back to life, along with six other youths who had also done themselves in. Vanja and the rest of the group try to reinsert themselves into to the world they left behind. They have to face family, friends and all the troubles and traumas of their former lives – but how to do that?

“Back to Life” is a modern YA novel with connections to the old Faroese myth of the seal-folk. According to the myth, seals are actually people that have committed suicide by drowning. Every year on ‘Thirteenth Night’ seals shed their skin and walk onto land as normal people for just one night.

In the book seven young people become human again, but it’s not just for one night. It’s up to them: will they stay alive and try to restart their lives, or will they return to the briny depths once again? One of the major themes in the book is the schism between death’s fatal attraction and the wish to avoid hurting family and friends.

About the author 

Nicole Boyle Rødtnes (b. 1985) started writing as a 13-year-old schoolgirl. She has sworn to herself and her readers that she will never ever write a boring book - engaging and fast-moving plots, complex and relatable characters, cliffhangers and dramatic plot twists are her stock-in-trade. Rødtnes published her first book in 2010, Dødsbørn (Children of Death), which was the beginning of her first series Skeletter i skabet (Closet Skeletons). Today Rødtnes is a successful and well-established writer in both Danish YA and children’s literature.

Text translated by Paul Larkin