There Lives a Young Girl in Me Who Will Not Die
By (Author) Tove Ditlevsen
Translated by Sophia Hersi Smith
Translated by Jennifer Russell
Introduction by Olga Ravn
Penguin Books Ltd
Penguin Classics
8th April 2025
2nd January 2025
United Kingdom
General
Non Fiction
Poetry by individual poets
Fiction in translation
839.81172
Paperback
192
Width 112mm, Height 180mm, Spine 15mm
143g
A new selection of poetry from the generation-defining author of the Copenhagen Trilogy, translated for the first time into English While Tove Ditlevsen is now famous around the world as an extraordinary prose writer, in Denmark she has also long been celebrated as a poet. She published her first collection in her early twenties, and continued writing and publishing poetry until the end of her life. This new selection offers English readers a chance to explore her brilliant, surprising verse across nearly four decades of writing. In this playful, mournful, witty collection, little girls stand tip-toe inside adult bodies, achievements in literature and lethargy are unflinchingly listed, and lovers come and go like the seasons. Gorgeously translated by Jennifer Russell and Sophia Hersi Smith, with an introduction by Olga Ravn, There Lives a Young Girl in Me Who Will Not Die cements Ditlevsen as one of the twentieth century's most creative writers.
Tove Ditlevsen was born in 1917 in a working-class neighbourhood in Copenhagen. Her first volume of poetry was published when she was in her early twenties, and was followed by many more books, including her three brilliant volumes of memoir, Childhood (1967), Youth (1967) and Dependency (1971). She married four times and struggled with alcohol and drug abuse throughout her adult life until her death by suicide in 1978.