The Danish Girl

His wife knew first. Do me a small favor? Greta called from the bedroom that first afternoon. Just help me with something for a little bit?

Of course, Einar said, his eyes on the canvas. Anything at all.

The day was cool, the chill blowing in from the Baltic. They were in their apartment in the Widow House, Einar, small and not yet thirty-five, painting from memory a winter scene of the Kattegat Sea. The black water was white-capped and cruel, the grave of hundreds of fishermen returning to Copenhagen with their salted catch. The neighbor below was a sailor, a man with a bullet-shaped head who cursed his wife. When Einar painted the gray curl of each wave, he imagined the sailor drowning, a desperate hand raised, his potato-vodka voice still calling his wife a port whore. It was how Einar knew just how dark to mix his paints: gray enough to swallow a man like that, to fold over like batter his sinking growl.

I ll be out in a minute, said Greta, younger than her husband and handsome with a wide flat face. Then we can start.

In this way as well Einar was different from his wife. He painted the land and the sea small rectangles lit by June s angled light, or dimmed by the dull January sun. Greta painted portraits, often to full scale, of mildly important people with pink lips and shine in the grain of their hair. Herr I. Glückstadt, the financier behind the Copenhagen Free Harbor. Christian Dahlgaard, furrier to the king. Ivar Knudsen, member of the shipbuilding firm Burmeister and Wain. Today was to have been Anna Fonsmark, mezzo-soprano from the Royal Danish Opera. Managing directors and industry titans commissioned Greta to paint portraits that hung in offices, above a filing cabinet, or along a corridor nicked by a worker s cart.

Greta appeared in the door frame. You sure you won t mind stopping for a bit to help me out? she said, her hair pulled back. I wouldn t have asked if it weren t important. It s just that

David Ebershoff's debut novel, The Danish Girl, was adapted into an Oscar-winning film starring Academy Award-winners Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander. It was nominated for four Academy Awards, three Golden Globes, two SAG awards, and five BAFTAs. In 2017 the New York Times named The Danish Girl one of the 25 books that has shaped LGBTQ literature over the past 20 years. Ebershoff's most recent novel is the #1 bestseller The 19th Wife, which was made into a television movie that has aired around the globe. His books have been translated into more than twenty-five languages to critical acclaim. Ebershoff has appeared twice on Out Magazine's annual Out 100 list of influential LGBT people. He teaches in the graduate writing program at Columbia University and worked for many years as Executive Editor at Random House. Originally from California, he lives in New York City and loves to hear from readers via his website www.ebershoff.com.

In 2017 the New York Times Named The Danish Girl One of the 25 Books that Have Shaped LGBTQ Literature Over the Past 20 Years

A New York Times Notable Book
Winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Fiction
Winner of the Rosenthal Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters Finalist for the New York Public Library Young Lions Award 
Finalist for the American Library Association Stonewall Book Award


Praise for The Danish Girl

The Danish Girl is an extraordinary story about extraordinary people. Eddie Redmayne

Heartbreaking and unforgettable . . . a complete triumph. The Boston Globe

An unusual and affecting love story. The New York Times

A sophisticated and searching meditation on the nature of identity. Esquire

It is nearly impossible not to be moved. The Baltimore Sun

A fascinating novel, beautiful for its strange and delicate flavor and its characters depth of heart. San Francisco Chronicle