Henrik Pontoppidan (1857–1943) was one of Denmark’s great realist writers, a member of the Modern Breakthrough movement whose works are often compared to those of Honoré de Balzac and Émile Zola. The son of a clergyman, he studied engineering in Copenhagen but then left to become a teacher and writer. For his numerous novels and short stories, he won the 1917 Nobel Prize for Literature.
Paul Larkin is an Irish writer, translator, and critic. He worked for five years in the Danish Merchant Navy before taking a degree in Scandinavian and Celtic Studies. He later trained as a film director with the BBC and had a long career in journalism and film. He lives in the Gaeltacht area of County Donegal, Ireland, where Irish is the predominant language.
