"Unsettling and poetic. Some pieces, like one about a four-pound tomato, are oddly beautiful; others are brilliantly disturbing." -- The New York Times Book Review "The short-stories in Danish sensation Dorthe Nors''s slim, potent collection, Karate Chop . evoke the weirdness and wonder of relating in the digital age." -- Vogue "The intricately crafted stories in Karate Chop , from popular Danish writer Dorthe Nors, focus on ordinary occurrences . and then twist them into brilliantly slanted cautionary tales about desire, romance, deception, and dread." -- ELLE "In this slim collection of stories, the Danish Nors examines everyday issues with intensity and force." -- Marie Claire "Spare and sublime.
Author Dorthe Nors knows how to capture the smallest moments and sculpt them into the unforgettable." -- Oprah.com "Dorthe Nors illuminates an ominous world of disconnected people trying to make sense of their dislocation. Nors'' affectless, matter-of-fact storytelling--crisply translated from the original Danish by Martin Aitken--is the perfect complement to the low-wattage desperation and inertia her characters feel." -- Los Angeles Times "Nors''s prose is direct . a series of uncluttered and voice-driven sentences that achieve their rhythm through careful juxtaposition and build. One hopes Nors''s novels are translated into English soon, and that they show as much promise as her short stories." -- Chicago Tribune "Not dissimilar to the melancholic interior scenes painted by Vilhelm Hammershi, numerous films by Thomas Vinterberg, and even the churning sounds of composer Niels Gade, these stories look underneath deceptively quiet surfaces, finding undercurrents that may never fully express themselves but repetitively hint at their constant presence.
Peppered with themes of memory, violence, loss, and separation, these pages quietly announce a confident and valuable new voice in translated fiction." -- The Daily Beast " Karate Chop is a collection of brittle, blackly comic, and quietly explosive stories that provide snapshots of modern Danish life and home at daring angles to highlight the quirks, agonies, and vulnerabilities of the human condition." -- Star Tribune "The stories in Karate Chop are as tremendous as they are brief. With each story weighing in at a mere four or five pages, Nors doesn''t waste any time delivering a knockout." -- Shelf Awareness for Readers, starred review "Everything by Danish author Dorthe Nors is unforgettable, but especially Karate Chop , a collection of short stories that portray points of disconnection and self-delusion in all their absurdity in contemporary life. An absolute must-read for short story fans, these are perfectly polished gems." --Literary Hub "Exceptional. Nors is adroit at offering powerful summation at the precise moment with a single cutting phrase or an unexpected observation.
These brief stories provide universal insight into an everyday, modern existence." -- The Rumpus "Precisely crafted and melancholy stories. Karate Chop displays admirable willingness to take on difficult stories, and Dorthe Nors tells these difficult stories very well." -- New York Journal of Books "These very short works . are as sharp-edged, destructive, and intentionally made as the title suggests. Nowhere here is a word out of place. Imagine Grace Paley with more than a little of Mary Gaitskill''s keen eye for the despair and violence of sex, mixed with an otherness that''s unsettlingly odd and vivid." -- Publishers Weekly, starred review "These stores are swift and unexpected and bruising.
In the span of two pages, [Nors. Nors'' affectless, matter-of-fact storytelling--crisply translated from the original Danish by Martin Aitken--is the perfect complement to the low-wattage desperation and inertia her characters feel." -- Los Angeles Times "Nors''s prose is direct . a series of uncluttered and voice-driven sentences that achieve their rhythm through careful juxtaposition and build. One hopes Nors''s novels are translated into English soon, and that they show as much promise as her short stories." -- Chicago Tribune "Not dissimilar to the melancholic interior scenes painted by Vilhelm Hammershi, numerous films by Thomas Vinterberg, and even the churning sounds of composer Niels Gade, these stories look underneath deceptively quiet surfaces, finding undercurrents that may never fully express themselves but repetitively hint at their constant presence. Peppered with themes of memory, violence, loss, and separation, these pages quietly announce a confident and valuable new voice in translated fiction." -- The Daily Beast " Karate Chop is a collection of brittle, blackly comic, and quietly explosive stories that provide snapshots of modern Danish life and home at daring angles to highlight the quirks, agonies, and vulnerabilities of the human condition.
" -- Star Tribune "The stories in Karate Chop are as tremendous as they are brief. With each story weighing in at a mere four or five pages, Nors doesn''t waste any time delivering a knockout." -- Shelf Awareness for Readers, starred review "Everything by Danish author Dorthe Nors is unforgettable, but especially Karate Chop , a collection of short stories that portray points of disconnection and self-delusion in all their absurdity in contemporary life. An absolute must-read for short story fans, these are perfectly polished gems." --Literary Hub "Exceptional. Nors is adroit at offering powerful summation at the precise moment with a single cutting phrase or an unexpected observation. These brief stories provide universal insight into an everyday, modern existence." -- The Rumpus "Precisely crafted and melancholy stories.
Karate Chop displays admirable willingness to take on difficult stories, and Dorthe Nors tells these difficult stories very well." -- New York Journal of Books "These very short works . are as sharp-edged, destructive, and intentionally made as the title suggests. Nowhere here is a word out of place. Imagine Grace Paley with more than a little of Mary Gaitskill''s keen eye for the despair and violence of sex, mixed with an otherness that''s unsettlingly odd and vivid." -- Publishers Weekly, starred review "These stores are swift and unexpected and bruising. In the span of two pages, [Norsanslated fiction." -- The Daily Beast " Karate Chop is a collection of brittle, blackly comic, and quietly explosive stories that provide snapshots of modern Danish life and home at daring angles to highlight the quirks, agonies, and vulnerabilities of the human condition.
" -- Star Tribune "The stories in Karate Chop are as tremendous as they are brief. With each story weighing in at a mere four or five pages, Nors doesn''t waste any time delivering a knockout." -- Shelf Awareness for Readers, starred review "Everything by Danish author Dorthe Nors is unforgettable, but especially Karate Chop , a collection of short stories that portray points of disconnection and self-delusion in all their absurdity in contemporary life. An absolute must-read for short story fans, these are perfectly polished gems." --Literary Hub "Exceptional. Nors is adroit at offering powerful summation at the precise moment with a single cutting phrase or an unexpected observation. These brief stories provide universal insight into an everyday, modern existence." -- The Rumpus "Precisely crafted and melancholy stories.
Karate Chop displays admirable willingness to take on difficult stories, and Dorthe Nors tells these difficult stories very well." -- New York Journal of Books "These very short works . are as sharp-edged, destructive, and intentionally made as the title suggests. Nowhere here is a word out of place. Imagine Grace Paley with more than a little of Mary Gaitskill''s keen eye for the despair and violence of sex, mixed with an otherness that''s unsettlingly odd and vivid." -- Publishers Weekly, starred review "These stores are swift and unexpected and bruising. In the span of two pages, [Nors an unexpected observation. These brief stories provide universal insight into an everyday, modern existence.
" -- The Rumpus "Precisely crafted and melancholy stories. Karate Chop displays admirable willingness to take on difficult stories, and Dorthe Nors tells these difficult stories very well." -- New York Journal of Books "These very short works . are as sharp-edged, destructive, and intentionally made as the title suggests. Nowhere here is a word out of place. Imagine Grace Paley with more than a little of Mary Gaitskill''s keen eye for the despair and violence of sex, mixed with an otherness that''s unsettlingly odd and vivid." -- Publishers Weekly, starred review "These stores are swift and unexpected and bruising. In the span of two pages, [Nors.
Nors'' affectless, matter-of-fact storytelling--crisply translated from the original Danish by Martin Aitken--is the perfect complement to the low-wattage desperation and inertia her characters feel." -- Los Angeles Times "Nors''s prose is direct . a series of uncluttered and voice-driven sentences that achieve their.