Description

This object, a novel, a letter, a self-realisation project, a final reckoning, a murder and a rebirth, a documentation, a work of art, an interactive gravestone… redemption, at last

When Glenn is five years old and his younger brother, René, is three, their father commits suicide. In the void left by this incomprehensible loss, the family is shaped by a succession of men who move in and out of their lives.

Deconstructing the enormous, destructive power unleashed by suicide, Glenn Bech attempts to find a language for a past that refuses to be remembered. Through fragments of poetry, letters, and home-video transcripts, The Fathership is a brutal and dazzling work of social realism that stretches the definitions of autofiction to breaking point; a sorrowful and furious documentation of a family in crisis and a psychological search for a father known only through his absence.

Winner of the 2022 Blixen Prize for Novel of the Year, the Munch-Christiansen Debut Award and the Danish Society of Authors’ Talent Prize

Shortlisted for Bogforum Debut Prize 2022, Weekendavisen’s Literature Prize 2021, and the Montana Literature Prize 2021.

‘An utter masterpiece, propelling its author towards the peak of literary accomplishment… The Fathership is a wild, experimental and genre-bending novel. Virtually every single page takes the reader by surprise.’ – Henriette Bacher Lind, Jyllands Posten

‘A novel that requires your immediate attention, it’s impossible to put down… Glenn Bech has managed to turn his personal tragedy into a work of art that is relevant to all of us.’ – Martin Rohr Gregersen, Kristeligt Dagblad

‘I raise my glass and toast to Glenn Bech… The Fathership is so raw, powerful and intelligent that it can be awarded nothing but top marks – unusual for a debut novel, but Glenn Bech is also unusual… This is a masterpiece.’ – Dagbladenes Bureau

‘A work of never-before-seen social realism… It gives voice to grief and repression.’ – Alexander Vesterlund, Politiken

‘Glenn Bech’s great achievement is that he has managed to convey linguistically the enormous, destructive power unleashed by his father’s decision. … This is a masterpiece.’ – Fyens Stiftstidende

‘The qualities of The Fathership are difficult to pinpoint. It’s not the kind of book you can open at random to find a neat insight or a skilfully composed transition. As a novel, it serves as a contrainer for a chaotic and painful substance that keeps pulling at your heartstrings. In this way it’s the ideal debut: you sit down to read something by a previously unpublished writer, and its way of engaging you is initially so unfamiliar it throws you off.’ – Lone Nikolajsen, Information

‘An original and wild novel… A sharp depiction of the grief and rage that can live in families. An indelible debut.’ – Børsen

‘Can an author of autofiction write honestly about their own family without hanging said family out to dry? Especially when the story in question concerns the suicide of the author’s father, his mother’s suicide attempt, his former and current stepfathers’ abuse and his little brother’s behavioural problems. Having now read The Fathership my answer to that question is: if you can write with as much love, care and poetic sensitivity about such a family as Glenn Bech does in his debut novel, then it’s not a question of hanging anyone out to dry, but a beautiful and painful attempt to heal – for everyone involved.’ – Amalie Langballe, Weekendavisen

‘The Fathership wears its vulnerability like a rare jewel: it is a gem of a debut about living and surviving as a family in the wake of a father’s suicide. […] Such a moving experience.’ – Weekendavisen

Glenn Bech is an author and practising psychologist. His debut novel, The Fathership, was published in Danish in 2021 and received both the Danish Debut Author of the Year Award and the prestigious Blixen Prize for Novel of the Year. He has since published two further books, including the poetic manifesto I No Longer Acknowledge Your Authority (2022), which earned him Politiken’s Literature Prize. The book marked his mainstream breakthrough in Denmark and has sold around 100,000 copies.

His writing explores themes of class, conflicting loyalties, marginalisation, gender and sexuality, the provinces vs. the city, and healing vs. revenge. He is known for his honest, vulnerable yet uncompromising voice, and is a prominent public speaker who frequently engages in national debate and appears on television. Bech’s books have also been published in Sweden, Norway, and Germany.

Hazel Evans is an artist, writer and translator based in Aarhus, Denmark. She translates Shekufe Tadayoni Heiberg, Sigrid Adamsson and Rasmus Daugbjerg, among others. In 2025, she received both the Inger and Jens Bruun Translation Prize and the John Dryden Translation Prize, and was shortlisted for the ALTA First Translation Prize. Prototype published her translation of Girlbeast by Cecilie Lind in 2025.

Download the press release.