Nach der Sonne
Jonas Eika | Ursel Allenstein
Jury’s comment
It’s an astonishing book, harsh to the point of cruelty, a kind of Danish Kleist of the globalized present. The world is blurred, the fantastic is often almost indistinguishable from a painfully accurate retelling of reality. Jonas Eika’s short stories are about the haves and the have-nots, about capitalism and love, money, sex and, sometimes, loyalty. Queer boys who, while making tender love in the sea, mutate into prawns after cleaning the beach and serving as escorts for women tourists. Dazzling and cool, sensual and agitating: a book about boundaries and resistance and the power of the imagination to break open spaces of freedom.
– Elisabeth Ruge, jury
Author: Jonas Eika
Jonas Eika graduated from the Danish Academy for Creative Writing (Forfatterskolen) in 2015. In October 2019 he was awarded the renowned Nordic Council Literature Prize for his book of short stories Efter solen (After the Sun).
Translator: Ursel Allenstein
Ursel Allenstein studied Scandinavian, German and English language and literature in Frankfurt and Copenhagen. She is a translator from Swedish and Danish. She has received numerous awards for her translations, including the Jane Scatcherd Prize from the Ledig Rowohlt Foundation and the Nordic Council Literature Prize and most recently the 2020 Hamburg Literature Prize.