Danish Northwest

A fascinating collection. The poems are precise, observant, insightful. Upon completing the book, I have looked into Danish rural life in the outskirts as keenly as if I had visited. No, more keenly, because Westergaard introduces us to a cast of characters that otherwise I would have known only superficially. Here I find people full of personality and quirkiness set in a landscape eternal as farming, but as stoical as the Danes themselves. Yet there is humor here, too, found often in the final turn of the poem. The book is organized into three sections: past, present, and future. Luckily for the reader, the past is the largest and the most descriptive. The present and future are also lovely, but in a more introspective way. One of these, "Refugee from the Homeland," has a second section that is so gorgeous I think I should copy it out by hand and doodle around it every day, letting its compression and feeling sink into my being, so that I may heed its wisdom. I highly recommend this book for all poetry lovers, There is much in it that I wish to revisit. I'm grateful to Netgalley and the publisher Matador, an imprint of Troubador, for the copy I read in exchange for a fair review.

Felt the translation was excellent. Danish Northwest has a very rural flavour throughout the collection which does cover a number of themes. Elegant and heartfelt. Liked it a lot.

A beautiful collection that's poignant, enigmatic and relatable. A doorway to the author's soul is written on these pages. Highly recommended.

Danish Northwest is a fine collection of poems that feature language, place, and people. Literary and beautiful work I would recommend for lovers of verse.

"Danish Northwest" by Peter Graarup Westergaard was a very interesting poetry collection. The collection was described as "hygge poems from the outskirts." Hygge being a word and lifestyle of the Danish that I have researched, learned about, and am currently trying to incorporate more and more in my own day to day, I was excited to read Westergaard's collection. The poetry was translated from a Danish dialect called, "thybomål." The poetry was meant to demonstrate the "hygge" lifestyle in the northwestern region of Jutland called Thy. The poetry touches on themes of God, countrylife, globalism, immigration and other modern concerns. I found some of the poems to be universally important and thought-provoking. Others didn't "land" with me. Overall, they were an interesting perspective from a distant land very different than my own. I enjoyed the unique voice.