Naga
The author presents his great magical climate novel
Nana is afraid of snakes. Nana is afraid of the sea, of birds and of losing herself. Also, Nana has a limp on the ground. Her legs stick and peel and won't go straight, why she has ended up in a sanatorium somewhere in the Wadden Sea. Here she is haunted by memories of a head coach's journey from Moscow through Siberia, Mongolia, China and Southeast Asia on the heels of the charismatic winged circus artist Gabriel. Here she is consumed by longing, while voices and experiences from the journey grind around in her head.
The novel unrolls a diverse character gallery of hybrids, outcasts, freaks, sectarian leaders and ancient wives. Nana is thrown around the arena via train, horse-drawn carriage and ship. She experiences attempts at alternative social structures, finds secret communities, and forms friendships with e.g. the dwarf Pyotr, the eunuch Cheng, the captain Piet and the Fisherman. They all fill her with their stories and myths about snakes, sea monsters and mermaids, and not least about the apocalyptic flood of the globe.
About Kira's critically acclaimed Shipwrecked and other tales of immortality :
"She is bold in her imagination, supreme in her genre mastery and traveled in the human shadow sides... Messell is a ready-to-fly and God-given storyteller who dabbles effortlessly with both literary classics and existential heavyweights."
Dag Heede, Standard
"a fabulously beautiful debut with quirky, magical and very alluring short stories... It's breathtaking and brand new." Britta Riis Langdahl, Literature page
"follows the line from Karen Blixen's fantastic stories..." Lilian Munk Rösing, Politiken
"Dreyer Messell not only writes incredibly well, her debut work is even a gifted collection of small folkloric reflection pieces that challenge Western perception of reality; which will give much-needed space for life's biggest themes." Kathrine Maria Amann, Kristeligt Dagblad
“These are fantastic stories ... which take place in a recognizable world, but where magical things can happen. And they are also quite fantastic stories in the sense that many of them are really good.” Kristin Vego, Information
“it is very elegantly done.” Mother of culture
“ Shipwrecked consists of fantastically fine and over -the-top stories. The book is unlike anything else in Danish literature right now... Out of Messel's pen flows a wild, fabulous, magical, monstrous and magnificent prose.” from the nomination for BogForum's Debutante prize
Learn more about Kira Dreyer Messell