A modern midsummer night’s dream about friends, lovers and friends’ lovers; about sex, hope and love; and about dreaming that everything could be different.
A luscious summer novel about friends, lovers, and friends' lovers
‘Clever, wry, and incredibly sexy’ SUSANNAH DICKEY
Five friends from university; seven summer days in a cabin in rural Denmark. A chance to swim, sunbathe, flirt, read and mess around like in the old days.
At least that’s what Sylvia had hoped. But when her friends arrive with real jobs, kids and partners, Sylvia is left wondering what happened to the radical ways of living they embraced at university. Worse, Esben and Karen announce their plan to get married at the end of the week, striking a blow to Sylvia’s simmering, decades-long crush on Esben – a crush that her monogamous girlfriend Charlie would definitely not approve of.
Whilst the group swim, sunbathe, cook and flirt their way to midsummer night, desire and anxiety swirl in equal measure. As the wedding day approaches, will they achieve their arcadian dreams or will everything come tumbling down?
'Delicious, and provocative' ESTHER FREUD
‘Sensuous and vivid, simmering with sexual tension and with an undercurrent of deep longing... A book to devour' LAURA KAY
'Trembles and flashes with hot emotion, confusion and pangs of longing. I loved its cast of characters' AMY KEY
‘Linea Maja Ernst writes about sexual desire so well that it turns her readers on’ Weekendavisen
Waist Deep is such an enjoyable read: clever, wry, and incredibly sexy. In Linea Maja Ernst's gorgeous prose, translated superbly by Sherilyn Hellberg, the clotty intersections of desire, ideology, and ennui are explored in the most vividly luxuriant surroundings. I was totally besotted with these characters, and desperate for a dip in a lake by the end. -- Susannah Dickey Sensuous and vivid. Simmering with sexual tension and with an undercurrent of deep longing - for a different life, for each other - there is something here that every adult with a group of friends will recognise (even if they won't admit it). A book to devour and enjoy every minute of -- Laura Kay Waist Deep trembles and flashes with hot emotion, confusion and pangs of longing. I loved its cast of characters and their reaching towards what their lives might be together, and alone -- Amy Key I devoured it in a day and absolutely adored ... I loved spending time by the lake with these characters watching them fall in and out of love with each other -- Brydie Lee-Kennedy A perfume dream of a debut about the wild force of friendship Politiken Waist Deep might be this literary year’s first full fledged miracle Berlingske Shamelessly entertaining Kristeligt Dagblad A completely superb and playful contemporary novel … Its pages ooze life lived, the gallery of characters is razor-sharp, the dialogue is flawless and the spry cultural references tie it all neatly together into a drama worthy of Virginia Woolf Euroman Linea Maja Ernst writes about sexual desire so well that it turns her readers on... at once silly and fragile, flirtatious and sensitive Weekendavisen An intense, confrontational and in every sense interesting novel about the fragility and (for some) fluidity of identity Information Linea Maja Ernst writing about opulent dinner parties and the heady magnetism of midsummer forests is sensory and atmospheric Soundvenue
Linea Maja Ernst (Author)Linea Maja Ernst is a staff writer at the Danish newspaper Weekendavisen, where she writes about literature, pop culture and private life. Waist Deep is her debut novel and was an instant bestseller on first publication in Denmark in 2024.Sherilyn Nicolette Hellberg (Translator)Sherilyn Nicolette Hellberg is a writer and literary translator based in Copenhagen. Her work has appeared in the New Yorker and the Paris Review, among other places, and her translation of Jonas Eika's After the Sun from the Danish was longlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize. She holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Berkeley.
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