“Waldemar spoke about his diseases and syndromes. He was a wandering textbook in rare and eerie ailments, failing a myriad of things that I would have killed to avoid being hit by them. I came to think of a documentary I had seen during one of my nightly television sessions. It was about a woman who had been struck six times by lightning. It was the same unreasonableness that prevailed here. "
Asger fools around and loses everything. He has to take a job as a disability helper for Waldemar, the sickest person in the world. Their everyday life together in the concrete ghetto Stentofte on Vestegnen is a study of hopelessness. Until they drive south to seek out Torbi el Mekki, a healer in Morocco, Waldemar's last hope.
Asger lives with his girlfriend and her daughter in Copenhagen and works for an advertising agency. It’s 2008, the credit crunch has just begun to bite, and after leading a catastrophic campaign Asger is fired. He spends his days lying on the sofa, developing problems with both his weight and alcohol. His girlfriend breaks up with him and he moves to a flat in Sydhavn, losing contact with everybody. Half a year later, he is forced to take on a job as a disabled carer in Stentofte, a dreary concrete suburb of Copenhagen, looking after a sick man called Waldemar. Their daily life together is a study in hopelessness. But Waldemar has a plan: he wants to go and see a healer in Morocco. Asger is sceptical, but nevertheless he helps Waldemar raise money for the journey, and after a while the two friends find themselves on a road trip through Europe. However, they are being followed by a person in a black Audi – and as they get closer to Morocco, the trip turns into a race with death.
The novel was awarded the European Literature Prize (2013) based on the synopsis and recommendation provided by the Danish jury.
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