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Waist Deep

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( 5,408 ratings, 555 reviews)
Brief Description
A modern midsummer night's dream about friends, lovers and friends' lovers; about sex, hope and love; and about dreaming that everything could be different. 'Clever, wry, and incredibly sexy' SUSANNAH DICKEY Five friends from university; seven summer days in a cabin in rural Denmark. A chance... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

A modern midsummer night's dream about friends, lovers and friends' lovers; about sex, hope and love; and about dreaming that everything could be different.

'Clever, wry, and incredibly sexy' SUSANNAH DICKEY

Five friends from university; seven summer days in a cabin in rural Denmark. A chance to swim, sunbathe, flirt, read and mess around like in the old days.

At least that's what Sylvia had hoped. But when her friends arrive with real jobs, kids and partners, Sylvia is left wondering what happened to the radical ways of living they embraced at university. Worse, Esben and Karen announce their wedding, striking a blow to Sylvia's simmering, decades-long crush on Esben - a crush that her monogamous girlfriend Charlie would definitely not approve of.

Within the rest of the group, desire and anxiety swirl in equal measure. Quince finally feels at home in his body and is ready to rave, but Gry's kids have bedtime routines that get in the way. And Gry has also brought her husband Adam, the poster child for a heterosexual masculinity Quince can't decide if he wants to tear down or tie down.

An instant bestseller in Scandinavia and now translated into ten languages, Waist Deep is a modern midsummer night's dream adding a sensuous, provocative flourish to the perennial question β€” does growing up have to mean giving up on your dreams?

'Sensuous and vivid, simmering with sexual tension and with an undercurrent of deep longing... A book to devour' LAURA KAY

'Waist Deep trembles and flashes with hot emotion, confusion and pangs of longing. I loved its cast of characters' AMY KEY

'Linea Maja Ernst writes about sexual desire so well that it turns her readers on' Weekendavisen

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781787335646

Publisher: Vintage Publishing

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 08 May 2025

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Jonathan Cape Ltd

Contributors:

  • Translated by Sherilyn Nicolette Hellberg

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 25.0mm

Width: 135.0mm

Height: 216.0mm

Weight: 400g

Pages: 224

About the Author

Linea Maja Ernst (Author) Linea Maja Ernst is a staff writer at the Danish newspaper Weekendavisen, where she writes about literature, pop culture and private life. Waist Deep is her debut novel and was an instant bestseller on first publication in Denmark in 2024. Sherilyn Nicolette Hellberg (Translator) Sherilyn Nicolette Hellberg is a writer and literary translator based in Copenhagen. Her work has appeared in the New Yorker and the Paris Review, among other places, and her translation of Jonas Eika's After the Sun from the Danish was longlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize. She holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Berkeley.

Also by Linea Maja Ernst

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  • Waist Deep
    Waist Deep is a modern midsummer night's dream about friends, lovers and friends' lovers; about sex, hope and love; and about dreaming that everything could be different. Five friends from university; seven summer days in a lakeside cabin in Denmark. A chance to swim, sunbathe, flirt, read and recreate the magic of their youth. At least that's what Sylvia had...
    Paperback
    $2800
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    Ships in 4-6 weeks

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