Linea Maja Ernst

Sherilyn Nicolette Hellberg

A perfume dream of a debut about the wild force of friendship

Waist Deep might be this literary year’s first full fledged miracle

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

Linea Maja Ernst writes about sexual desire so well that it turns her readers on... at once silly and fragile, flirtatious and sensitive

An intense, confrontational and in every sense interesting novel about the fragility and (for some) fluidity of identity

Linea Maja Ernst writing about opulent dinner parties and the heady magnetism of midsummer forests is sensory and atmospheric

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

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.

‘Waist Deep might be this literary year’s first full fledged miracle’ Berlingske 
 
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 wedding, striking a blow to Sylvia’s simmering, decades-long crush on Esben – a crush that her monogamous girlfriend Charlie would definitely not approve of. 
 
Within the rest of the group, desire and anxiety swirl in equal measure. Quince finally feels at home in his body and is ready to rave, but Gry’s kids have bedtime routines that get in the way. And Gry has also brought her husband Adam, the poster child for a heterosexual masculinity Quince can’t decide if he wants to tear down or tie down. 
 
An instant bestseller in Scandinavia and now translated into ten languages, Waist Deep is a modern midsummer night’s dream adding a sensuous, provocative flourish to the perennial question: does growing up have to mean giving up on your dreams? 
 
‘A perfume dream of a debut’ Politiken 
 
‘Linea Maja Ernst writes about sexual desire so well that it turns her readers on’ Weekendavisen

Linea Maja Ernst

Praise for Waist Deep

A perfume dream of a debut about the wild force of friendship

Waist Deep might be this literary year’s first full fledged miracle

Shamelessly entertaining

A perfume dream of a debut about the wild force of friendship

Waist Deep might be this literary year’s first full fledged miracle

Shamelessly entertaining

A perfume dream of a debut about the wild force of friendship

Waist Deep might be this literary year’s first full fledged miracle

Shamelessly entertaining

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