The National Danish Book Club - Olga Ravn's The Employees

Explore a selection of Danish literature in English translation with a new nationwide virtual book club! Organized as part of the new National Danish Book Club and Literary Event Series on October 12, we will discuss Olga Ravn’s The Employees (De anisette) translated by Martin Aitken.

Structured as a series of witness statements compiled by a workplace commission, The Employees follows the crew of the Six-Thousand Ship which consists of those who were born, and those who were made, those who will die, and those who will not. When the ship takes on a number of strange objects from the planet New Discovery, the crew is perplexed to find itself becoming deeply attached to them, and human and humanoid employees alike start aching for the same things: warmth and intimacy, loved ones who have passed, shopping and child-rearing, our shared, far-away Earth, which now only persists in memory.

The National Danish Book Club and Literary Event Series is brought to you by American-Scandinavian Foundation, Scan Design Foundation, Museum of Danish America, Northwest Danish Association, National Foundation for Danish America, National Nordic Museum, University of Wisconsin – Madison, and the University of Washington Scandinavian Studies Department.

Book Club Discussions will be moderated by Faculty Associate Nete Schmidt from the University of Wisconsin – Madison.