Journey in Blue: A Novel about Hans Christian Andersen

Stig Dalager is the author of Two Days in July as well as several other novels, poetry, story collections, plays, and scripts for film and television. One of Denmark's most distinguished writers, his internationally known works include the Sarajevo play and The Dream and I Count the Hours, which both premiered at the famous La Mama Theatre in New York. His play, Lord and Shadow, an interpretation of H. C. Andersen and his world, was staged at the Scena Theatre in Washington, D. C.

Hans Christian Andersen is on his deathbed. Doses of morphine cause his brain to oscillate between dreamy states and fleeting moments of clarity. The complex and elastic mind that drives his personality and his work wrestles with his own perceived fate as a stranger in the world, his longing for love, and his religiosity. To believe in his own talent to the extent that Andersen has done and to have lived so one-dimensionally has left him socially deficient and isolated. There is also torment: although internationally renowned, he was rejected in his own country until late in his life when a leading Danish literary critic discovered his fairytales and confirmed their importance to his fellow countrymen. As Andersen's death approaches, his memories grow more vivid and material, yet at the same time fairytale-like. In this remarkable novel, Stig Dalager takes the reader on a journey through the mind, body, spirit, and works of one of the truly great names in world literature.