Congratulations to Naja Marie Aidt on being announced as a finalist for the Kirkus Prize, and on being longlisted for the National Book Award for her memoir, When Death Takes Something from You Give It Back: Carl's Book, translated by Denise Newman.
In March 2015, Naja Marie Aidt’s twenty-five-year-old son, Carl, died in a tragic accident. When Death Takes Something from You Give It Back chronicles the few first years after that devastating phone call. It is at once a sober account of life after losing a child and an exploration of the language of poetry, loss, and love.
Praise for When Death Takes Something From You Give It Back
“This beautiful, exquisitely made memoir is Didion 4.0 . . . a meditation on time and the way our narration of what happens during life sieves through a slippery gear—our selves—how consciousness is the sound of trying to get it turning again.”—Literary Hub
“This book is an alchemical feat, giving shape to the most profound sense of absence. A stirring, inventive masterpiece of heartbreak.”—Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
Naja Marie Aidt was born in Greenland and raised in Copenhagen. She is the author of eleven collections of poetry, a novel, and three short story collections, including Baboon, which won the 2008 Nordic Council Literature Prize, Scandinavia’s highest literary honor. Her work has been translated into sixteen languages.
About the Translator
Denise Newman is a translator and poet who has published four collections of poetry. She has translated two books by Denmark’s Inger Christensen. Her translation of Naja Marie Aidt’s short story collection Baboon won the 2015 PEN Translation Prize.