The Endless Summer, Book Talk with Madame Nielsen

A passionate love story about a Danish woman and a much younger Portuguese artist, The Endless Summer confronts ideas of time, sexuality, and tragedy in a style reminiscent of both Proust and Lars Von Trier.

Emotional and visceral, author Madame Nielsen’s book drifts through time and space, relating the lives, loves, and dissolutions of everyone who surrounds this unexpected couple. These include the woman’s former husband, who holds the family at gunpoint; her daughter and her lovers, who include a boy who finds himself and his true sexual identity in America; and a young boy who “is perhaps a girl, but does not yet know it,” who narrates it all.

Propelled by a captivating story, the real charm of the novel resides in its impeccable style and atmosphere, which gathers a sense of longing and nostalgia for times that ache with possibility, despite knowing that even the endless summer doesn’t last forever. Translated from the Danish by Gaye Kynoch.

Following the discussion, copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing.