August 10, 2026
Waist Deep, by Linea Maja Ernst, translated by Sherilyn Nicolette Hellberg
Midsummer is an idyll, a shimmering dream-scape, mirage-like, impossible to hold, and in Waist Deep, the Danish novel by by Linea Maja Ernst, translated by Sherilyn Nicolette Hellberg, it’s a moment that awakens new and wondrous possibilities. A very loose modern retelling of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Waist Deep takes place at a Danish lake house where five university friends have reconvened with their partners and children, and Karen and Esben announce that the occasion is actually their wedding. For Sylvia, however, ensconced in a monogamy with her girlfriend Charlie, the news rekindles her feelings for Esben and the paths not chosen, and she articulates her disappointment in her friends for choosing convention and mediocrity when a decade before they’d all been intent on being radicals.
Over a week of swimming, sunbathing, talking, reading, and cooking together, the friends contemplate their connection and disconnection, a slow and dreamy narrative that’s also gorgeous and profound.
