BOB

“Out moves Bob and I with him to Vanløse”.
So begins Helle Helle’s new novel Bob published in January 2021.
Bob’s not sure what he wants to do.
His girlfriend’s wrapped up in her uni course.
She’s the ‘she’ from they.

Meanwhile, he’s got a bit of part-time at the Seamen’s Home, when he’s not doing up their new bedsit and losing himself in Copenhagen street names. Most of all he wants a future with her. She’s the novel’s narrator. But all she talks about is Bob’s life – especially the bits that don’t involve her.

“Just think, at some point we’re going to get married and have kids. He’d uttered the same sentence before, most recently last week, and afterwards he’d thought: I’m not going to say that again for a very long time. Only now he already had."

About the author 

Helle Helle is one of Scandinavia’s most original writers, with a career spanning almost three decades, from her debut "Example of Life" (1993) to her most recent novel "BOB" (2021). Helle Helle has received Denmark’s highest literary accolades, including the Golden Laurels of the Danish Booksellers’ Association, the Grand Prize of the Danish Academy, and the Holberg Medal. Her books have been translated into 22 languages.