Rødby -Puttgarden

Helle Helle

Original title: Rødby -Puttgarden
Publisher: Samleren, Denmark, 2005
Genre: Novel
Pages: 175 pages

Since her first publication, Helle Helle has been loved by critics, but the novel, Rødby-Puttgarden became her big breakthrough.
Jane and Trine are sisters and live in the small border town Rødbyhavn. They work as shop girls in the perfumery on the ferry commuting between Denmark and Germany. People around them die one after the other; it’s just the way things are in this neck of the woods. Men walk in and out of their lives, like they did in their mother’s life and in her mother’s life before her.

Foreign rights

Catalan: Nits Blanques Edicions
Czech: Paseka
German: Dörlemann
Dutch: Contact
Norwegian: Forlaget Oktober
Polish: Slowo/Obraz Terytoria
Swedish: Lindelöws Bokförlag

Awards

Awarded The Danish Critics’ Prize 2005

Helle Helle writes crystal clear realism in a league of its own.

Politiken, Denmark

Once again, Helle Helle has shown with this family history that shebelongs among our finest authors.

Berlingske, Denmark

Rødby-Puttgarden has been crafted by an author who can pause like Hemingway, with emphasis like the Danish impressionist Herman Bang.

Ekstra Bladet

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.