If You Want

Helle Helle

Original title: Hvis det er
Publisher: Samleren, Denmark, 2014
Genre: Novel
Pages: 144 pages

Two lost runners meet accidently in the woods, and through force of circumstance they spend the weekend together in a shelter.

“Let me be brief. I don’t know what to do. I am lost in the woods. I do not know a lot about the woods, I am no nature boy. They told me this the day before yesterday over coffee. But here I am beneath giant Jutlandic trees wearing running shoes.” (Abstract from the novel).

Foreign rights

Estonia: Eesti Raamat
French: Société Libella
German: Dörlemann
Icelandic: Forlagid
Italian: Scrittapura
Dutch: Querido
Norwegian: Forlaget Oktober
Swedish: Norstedts
Czech: Paseka

The excellent novel by Helle Helle breaks new ground … With If You Want, Helle Helle has once more taken charge as one of contemporary literature’s most outstanding writers.”

***** Berlingske

Everything is at an end and everything has just begun.

***** Politiken

It is a true Helle Helle classic. Depth and emptiness, tenderness and presence.”

Weekendavisen, Denmark

A Helle Helle classic in the best sense of the word, maybe even better.

****** Børsen

Helle Helle

Photo by Mikkel Carl

Helle Helle (b. 1965) is a graduate of the Danish Academy of Creative Writing and the author of a number of novels as well as two collections of short fiction. She is one of Scandinavia’s most original writers, with a career spanning three decades, from her debut Example of Life (1993) to her most recent novel, Hafni Says, published to rave reviews in 2023. Her books have been translated into 24 languages.