The Copenhagen Trilogy is recognized today as the masterpiece of Tove Ditlevsen, one of the most significant voices in 20th-century Danish literature and a pioneer of confessional writing.

Childhood (1967) tells the story of a "misfit" child growing up in a working-class neighborhood of Copenhagen who decides, at all costs, to write poems. Youth (1967) describes the first experiences of a young woman in the uncharted territories of sexuality, work, and autonomy.

In Dependency (1971), Ditlevsen continues to be autobiographical, speaking of her four marriages. Her first husband, a well-known literary figure, helped her publish her poems, while her third, a deceitful and manipulative doctor, encouraged her to plunge into the nightmare of drug addiction.

The narrator, with humor and melancholy, constantly struggles in her tumultuous life to reconcile her writing gift with sequential and conflicting roles: daughter, wife, mother, addict... Ditlevsen writes about the female experience and identity with vibrancy and an exceptionally modern approach that resonates with the feminist inquiries of the 21st century.

She compellingly presents a woman's journey toward adulthood in a world of complex friendships, passionate loves, and difficult family ties – and, in this sense, she is Copenhagen's answer to Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan novels. She is also considered a precursor to autobiographical writers like Annie Ernaux, Rachel Cusk, and Deborah Levy.

The trilogy is nourished by her own experiences but reads like the most captivating form of fiction.

"A moving book about how a person becomes marginalized." Patti Smith

"A familiar world that is both tragic and funny, with a voice so direct that you will want to read it aloud." NPR

"Both The Copenhagen Trilogy and Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Quartet boldly depict inspired girls growing up in working-class neighborhoods, whether in 1930s Copenhagen or 1950s Naples. And Ditlevsen does something even more: she confronts everything repulsive and unbearable head-on." The Times Literary Supplement

"The experience of reading the Trilogy is overwhelming – it feels as if Ditlevsen has entered our minds and rearranged all the furniture, not necessarily in order for us to feel comfortable. The book is read in one breath, like a well-written thriller: even when you want to put it down, it sticks to your fingers." The New York Review of Books

"Some writers' sentences numb us as if cold water has been running over us for a long time, while others' prose feels pleasantly warm as it gradually increases the temperature. Tove Ditlevsen manages to do both..." The Boston Globe

"The Copenhagen Trilogy is a masterpiece that speaks of a working-class woman's struggle against bosses, obstacles, and her personal demons." The Guardian