Often I Am Happy

When Ellinor addresses her best friend Anna, she does not expect a reply. Anna has been dead for forty years, killed in the same skiing accident that claimed Henning: Ellinor's first husband and Anna's lover.Ellinor tells her friend that Georg has died - Georg who was once Anna's, but whom Ellinor came to love in her place, and whom she came to care for, along with Anna's two infant sons. Yet, after Georg's death, Ellinor finds herself able to cut the ties of her assumed life with surprising ease.Returning to the area of Copenhagen where she grew up, away from the adopted comfort of the home she shared with Georg, Ellinor finds herself addressing her own history: her marriage to Henning, their seemingly charmed friendship with the newlywed Anna and Georg, right back to her own mother's story - a story of loss and heart-breaking pride.Because there are some secrets - both of her own and of others - that we can only share with the dead. Secrets that nonetheless shape who we are and who we love. Wry and mellow, yet infused with emotion, this beautiful, philosophical, lyrical novel invites us to question our assumptions about love, identity and history.