Greenland (Denmark) / All works
Novel
Umiarsuup tikinngilaattaani
Not translated into English
Hans Anthon Lynge · 1982
Synopsis
Just before the boat arrives: on a summer morning, in a small town in Greenland, the inhabitants prepare for the arrival of the supply ship. A man, a Dane, stays seated in his boat, motionless, waiting; people comment on his behaviour, wonder about it, and sense a drama. The story, which takes place within a single day, mixes this waiting with the ordinary life of the town, at times sordid, and with the decline of Inuit culture in the face of modernity, which drives young people to leave.
Context
Published in 1982, the novel was translated into Danish in 1997 under the title Lige før skibet kommer, then into French in 2003, from the Danish, by Inès Jorgensen, with L'Éclose. Store norske leksikon sees in Lynge's work a chronicle of the conflicts of Greenlandic society, from the Danish integration policy of the 1960s to the struggles for autonomy of the 1970s. A reader of the French edition compared its tension to that of a Nordic Chronicle of a Death Foretold; others found its rhythm slow.
Who it is for
A short novel of one hundred and fifty-seven pages, readable in French; no English translation has been found.
Prizes and reception
A reader on Critiques libres praises a sometimes funny picture of Greenlandic life, while judging the plot thin.
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