Karate Chop

Description: In these glittering, very funny stories, the acclaimed Danish writer Dorthe Nors sketches ordinary lives taking unexpected turns: a son's love for his father is tested when he suddenly discovers its fragility; a woman in an abusive relationship seeks to better understand the choices she has made; a man with dreams of self improvement is haunted by deceit; and a daughter watches on silently as her mother's search for meaning ends in madness. Blending compassion with dark delight, Nors conjures up a flawed, unsettlingly familiar world with each cautionary glance - as fresh moments of wonder, romance and frail beauty are unexpectedly infiltrated by depravity, isolation and despair.

Review: Beautiful, faceted, haunting stories ... Dorthe Nors is fantastic! -- Junot Diaz Darkly funny and incisive... In these literary body-blows, Nors takes merciless aim at families, relationships and egos FT Unsettling and poetic... Some pieces, like one about a four-pound tomato, are oddly beautiful; others are brilliantly disturbing New York Times Book Review Dorthe Nors's story collection, Karate Chop, also blew me away ... these are some of the best five-page stories I've ever read. -- Thomas Morris Irish Times Dorthe Nors is a writer of moments-quiet, raw portraits of existential meditation, at times dyspeptic, but never unsympathetic Paris Review 'What We're Loving' The short-short stories in Danish sensation Nors's slim, potent collection, Karate Chop ... Evoke the weirdness and wonder of relating in the digital age Vogue Nors has found her own space away from Copenhagen's literati... Her words whip along, each idea cascading into the next: it's like having a window into someone's thoughts and makes for a stimulating... read Independent Nors illuminates an ominous world of disconnected people trying to make sense of their dislocation...Nors' affectless, matter-of-fact storytelling...is the perfect complement to the low-wattage desperation and inertia her characters feel...Karate Chop is just like that: It loves you and wants to teach you, but it also wants to harm you Los Angeles Times The intricately crafted stories in Karate Chop, from popular Danish writer Dorthe Nors, focus on ordinary occurrences ... and then twist them into brilliantly slanted cautionary tales about desire, romance, deception, and dread Elle In this collection of stories, Danish fiction comes off a little like Danish furniture, spare and sublime. Author Dorthe Nors knows how to capture the smallest moments and sculpt them into the unforgettable Oprah In the span of two pages, she is able to both build and unmake a character, achieving the same complexity that other writers require entire novels to establish. (...) Karate Chop is the first of Nors' books to be translated to English but certainly won't be the last. Lovers of the art of literary fiction, students of psychology, and everyone looking for a quick, thought- provoking read should all indulge themselves in the subversive delight of this short story collection Booklist Unpredictable, poetic and powerful, with comedy, hope and surrealism alongside mental illness, violence and tragedy Curious Animal Magazine Spare, poetic, ominously disturbing Bookanista One of Denmark's most inventive and acclaimed contemporary writers Bookanista Short, sharp stories... oblique and precise... Very striking David Hebblethwaite's Blog Pushkin Press presents a stunningly original new voice from Denmark... Dorthe Nors has the fabulous talent (...) of restraint... The stories (...) will stay with readers far beyond the page... A major new voice in European literature Booktrust [A] unique book... a fresh, brave voice... Nors creates an incredibly direct and forceful short story. Stick with her, it's worth it We Love This Book Nors is the Danish doyenne of the genre... [She] presents a hauntingly familiar world, which presents unpredicted turns that are at once astoundingly disturbing and curiously beautiful The Lady Nors has a great knack... for portraying the voids and fault lines in an unbalanced mind... crisp, quirky, jarringly funny TLS

Author Biography: Dorthe Nors was born in 1970 and studied literature at the University of Aarhus. She is one of the most original voices in contemporary Danish literature. Her short stories have appeared in numerous international periodicals including The Boston Review and Harpers, and she is the first Danish writer ever to have a story published in the New Yorker. Nors has published four novels so far, including Mirror, Shoulder, Signal - shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize - and a novella Minna needs rehearsal space, also published by Pushkin Press. Karate Chop won the prestigious P. O. Enquist Literary Prize in 2014. She lives in rural Jutland, Denmark.