Norwegian Praise for A Line in the World by Dorthe Nors

The Norwegian edition of Dorthe Nors’s essay collection A Line in the World was recently published in Norway by Gyldendal, and Klassekampen praised the book in their review:

“It is hard to imagine a Danish writer who could have portrayed the region in a more fascinating way. The method is poetic and candid. At the same time, Nors takes on the task with an almost devout courage. She has the notebook, the thermos is filled, and she drives up and down the coast in her little Toyota. The writing task even opens up for a tiny feminist mission, as Norse points out that it is women’s turn to put the landscape into words: ‘now I have claimed the right to see and to describe.’

[…] Her unreserved love for the coastal landscape is the engine that drives the text forward. When Nors in poetic ecstasy devotes herself to her longing for the violent forces of nature it results in some of the most beautiful parts of the book: ‘I want a storm surge, I thought. I want a north-west wind, fierce and hard. I want trees so battered and beaten they’re crawling over the ground. I want beachgrass, lyme grass, crowberry stalks and heather that prick my calves until they bleed, and salt crystallizing on my skin.’ I read Nors as a modern vitalist; her attraction to nature always has a physical side, and the wildness of nature is no challenge; it is something that gives her vitality. There is a seductive intimacy at stake in these encounters with nature. Nors can summon the migratory birds, greet the seals, and feel addressed by the sea as were it a persistent lover: ‘Here you have me. Here you have my salt teeth,’ it whispers from the deep. In this sense A Line in the World is also a very poetic text about the unrealized embrace of Mother Earth.

[…] A Line in the World consists of fourteen essays, all based on a specific place along the coast. The composing touch of the prosaist is noticeable here, because even though Nors travels far, visits offshore wind turbines and locks, looks at old churches and fires, each essay has a connecting motif, a thought or a sentence that binds the story together in an elegant way. The coastal paths very often lead Nors down the tracks of a highly personal memory, which in turn makes this her most self-revelatory text thus far.”
– Klassekampen (NO)