Mirror, Shoulder, Signal: A Novel

An intelligent single woman’s life lacks focus. She should learn to drive. How hard can it be? Very, it turns out, in Dorthe Nors’ wry, poignant tale. Translated by Misha Hoekstra.

Six months in, Sonja is still baffled by the basics and her driving instructor is still eccentric. Sonja is also struggling with an acute case of vertigo, a sister who won’t talk to her, a masseuse who is determined to solve her spiritual problems, and with being 40-something. Frenetic city life is a constant reminder that every man (and woman) is an island: she misses her rural childhood where ceilings were high and the sky was endless. Shifting gears & changing direction is not proving easy…

"However plain the prose, Nors can’t help but handle words in interesting ways and put them to original uses ... This has always been a favourite move of hers— to yoke together unrelated clauses, to bring together despair and banality ... Nors’s fiction begins at the moment of unmooring — in all its pain & possibility, as these women imagine themselves into being. It’s the foundation, too, of a harsh wit that recalls early Lorrie Moore."  -  Parul Sehgal. The New York Times

Dorthe Nors studied literature at the University of Aarhus.  Her short stories have appeared in numerous international periodicals, including the Boston Review & Harper’s, and she is the first Danish writer ever to have a story published in the New Yorker. Nors has published four novels, in addition to a collection of stories, Karate Chop, & a novella, Minna Needs Rehearsal Space, which was published together in English by Pushkin Press.