When is it time to let go?

In the small Danish town of Rødby in the 1980s, a mother and sixteen-year-old daughter live uneventfully, until the mother begins to experience symptoms of terminal illness. As an act of defiance, they talk about anything and everything but the impending diagnosis, almost as if it doesn’t exist. Yet the imminent loss lingers over their every experience and conversation, infecting the humoristic and warm tone of the novel. Taking place over a year, the relationship between mother and daughter is tender and caring, fragile and raw. 

From award-winning author Helle Helle, They is a heartbreaking and compelling novel where the mother and daughter are not named: they is the two of them, which will soon disappear.

“Helle has enchanting gifts as a storyteller.” New York Times Book Review

“Helle’s prose, translated from the Danish by Martin Aitken, is at once frank in its directness and elusive in its selective ­economy.” The New York Times (about This Should be Written in the Present Tense)

“Every sentence is significant, and you have to take time to imbibe the moods and read the details and their indirect characteristics, what they reveal about the characters and their thoughts.” Nordjyske Stiftstidende

“Helle Helle’s minimalism isn’t boring; it crackles with mystery. It's the everyday, and yet it’s insistently beautiful. A book … I’d like to re-read immediately.” Weekendavisen

“You laugh and laugh, cry and cry. Not bawling or sobbing, but quiet and intense. That’s what it’s like reading Helle Helle.” Politiken, 6/6 stars

ISBN-13: 9781836750031

Width/Height: 129 x 198mm

Format: Paperback

Country of Origin (language): Denmark

Language: Danish tr. English

Pub Date: 05/02/2026

Page Extent: 226 Pages

Price: 11.99 GBP