On the Other Side is March

On the Other Side is March

$18.95

SÓLRÚN MICHELSEN

Translated from the Faroese by Marita Thomsen

A poignant and darkly witty portrait of aging, memory, and multigenerational caretaking from the first female Faroese writer to ever appear in English.

I’m a woman in my early sixties. Somewhere between late and never. No longer the career woman, mother, housewife, and lover doing it all… Now I’m wife, mother, grandmother and my mother’s mother. But I still have to satisfy all the demands placed on me.

So begins Sólrún Michelsen’s tender and darkly witty exploration of what she considers to be the strange, remaining leg of life’s journey. Her kids are grown and out of the house and she’s faced with a time that, for years, she always seemed to be looking toward—a time when she wasn’t needed by somebody or something. But now, with her mother’s declining health, she finds herself revisiting childhood scenes, family hymns, and folk songs—revealing a lifetime of love, duty, awe, and regret. She tends to her mother amid the stark rhythms of Faroese life, waiting for a new nursing home that never arrives, and confronts the reality of being part of the “army of women” who inherit care. In her grief and private goodbye to her mother, however, is also a gorgeous meditation about life, as translator Marita Thomsen says in her afterword, “in its ragged mundane glory.”

A lyrical portrait of caretaking and the invisible labor of motherhood, On the Other Side Is March is a tribute to caretakers across generational lines, as well as the the rich oral traditions of singing and storytelling that kept the Faroese language alive centuries before its standard written form.

This is the first work of Michelsen’s—a best-selling author of novels, short stories, poetry, and children’s literature—to be published in English.

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Praise for On The Other Side Is March:

“A spare yet powerful meditation on mortality…. The novel unfolds primarily as a series of vivid images that contain the narrator’s wistful memories and recognition of the passage of time. There is a lovely economy to Michelsen's writing, which allows the lyrical impressions to resonate.”—Publishers Weekly

“Elegiac… With poignant grace, Michelsen examines life and death through the most elemental bond between mother and child.”—Booklist, starred review

“A moving and honest portrayal of familial love and dependency.”—Kirkus Reviews

"On the Other Side Is March is a quiet story… At least until you hit one of the many crystalline brilliant moments that fill this book, sentences and images that capture memories and emotions and experiences so perfectly, so beautifully, they punch you right in the heart. It is a beacon of a novel."—Josh Cook, Porter Square Books (Cambridge, MA)

“Michelsen ties sentences together with humor and a brief but profound simplicity, a simplicity that belies an emotional depth and keen understanding of the human spirit. What a beautiful book!”—Hannah DeBree, Orinda Books (Orinda, CA)

“A beautiful, tender meditation on the middle years… causes the reader to slow their breath as the story unfolds and breaks and opens the heart.”—Cindy Dach, Changing Hands Bookstore (Tempe AZ)

“I didn't expect to cry in public while reading this—but wow, what an elegant gut-punch… Anyone with an aging loved one or an aging body themselves will appreciate the eloquence and humor in this masterful little book.”—Andrew Preston CoffeeTree Books (Morehead, KY)

“The rare type of book where every minuscule detail feels deeply cared for — each elegant passage carrying the spirit of life, each space on the page like an intake of breath… a gentle elegy for the everyday-ness of our lives when upheaval becomes the norm and our memories push in to shade the uncertainty of what's to come. A reminder that the simple can be a source for the profound.”—Bryan Seitz, Literati Bookstore (Ann Arbor, MI)