The Others

The Others is a raw, poetic collective-novel about homelessness and the magnetism of the street. About lives ravaged by violence and shame, but which—in small moments—are also filled with light.

One day in December Bo pitches a tent on a frozen field outside of Svendborg. He’s lost contact with his daughter and owes money to the wrong people. His last fix of heroin is like shooting love straight into his body.

Some distance away in the city, The Butcher tries to understand the forces of chaos that took him to the street—meanwhile a dark childhood memory intrudes.

And then there is The Wife who’s created a home in a shipping container in which she allows other homeless people to spend the night by turns. She has psychic abilities, talks to angels, and one day she experiences a miracle.

About the author 

Mikael Josephsen, born 1961, debuted as an author in 1998 with the poetry collection Havet under huden (The Sea under the Skin). A recipient of the Danish Arts Council’s three-year working grant and the Danish Fiction Writer’s Honorary Award, he has published prose and poetry, including the critically-acclaimed poetry collection KNÆK (Crack, Gyldendal, 2016).
The Others was published in April 2021.

Text translated by Sharon Rhodes