Greenland (Denmark) / All works
Novel
Bussimi naapinneq
Not translated into English
Mâliâraq Vebæk · 1981
Synopsis
Meeting on the bus: Katrine, a young Greenlandic woman, meets Erik, a Danish worker who has come to work in Greenland for the summer. When he leaves, she follows him to Denmark, and this departure changes the way she sees herself and the world. The story of a chance meeting that becomes a friendship follows the experience of a woman struggling with oppression, drawing on the cultural tensions and women's struggles that the author had noted in her surveys.
Context
Published in 1981, the book is regarded as the first novel written by a Greenlandic woman. The author translated it herself into Danish under the title Historien om Katrine, in 1982, and this version was reprinted in 1993 and in 1994; there are also translations into Russian and Sami. A sequel, Ukiut trettenit qaangiummata, published in 1992, follows the heroine's daughter. Atuakkiorfik reissued the novel in Nuuk in 1999.
Who it is for
A short novel of one hundred and forty-three pages, readable in Danish; no French or English translation has been noted.
Prizes and reception
The prize of the Greenlandic writers' association honoured it in 1982, the year after its publication.
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