A newly married woman longs, irrationally, for a silk umbrella; a husband chases away his wife's beloved cat; a betrayed mother impulsively sacks her housekeeper. Underneath the surface of these 21 precisely observed tales of marriage and family life in mid-century Copenhagen pulse currents of desire and despair, as women and men struggle to escape from the roles assigned to them. Best known in her native Denmark for her autobiographical Copenhagen Trilogy, Tove Ditlevsen (1917-76) was also a skilled composer of off-kilter short tales.

"Ditlevsen can conjure an entire world in just a few words."—Times Literary Supplement