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Overview
A stunning first novel that probes the mysteries of sex, gender, and love with insight and subtlety
Inspired by the true story of Danish painter Einar Wegener and his California-born wife, this tender portrait of a marriage asks: What do you do when someone you love wants to change? It starts with a question, a simple favor asked of a husband by his wife on an afternoon chilled by the Baltic wind while both are painting in their studio. Her portrait model has canceled, and would he mind slipping into a pair of women's shoes and stockings for a few moments so she can finish the painting on time. "Of course," he answers. "Anything at all." With that, one of the most passionate and unusual love stories of the twentieth century begins.
Synopsis
It starts with a question, a simple favor asked of a husband by his wife on an afternoon chilled by the Baltic wind while both are painting in their studio. Her portrait model has canceled, and would he mind slipping into women's shoes and stockings for a few moments so that she can finish the painting on time? "Of course," he answers, "Anything at all." With that, one of the most passionate and unusual love stories of the twentieth century begins." "Inspired by the true story of Danish painter Einar Wegener and his California-born wife; this tender portrait of a marriage asks: What do you do when someone you love wants to change? Einar dresses more and more as Lili - the name given to her by Greta - and what started off as a game becomes a way of life for Greta and Einar. With Lili as her muse, Greta's paintings begin to flourish. A French art dealer spots her work and the couple moves to Paris for the sake of Greta's career. In the permissive air of Paris between the wars, Lili is liberated and increasingly becomes Greta's companion on public outings. As Einar fades into memory they realize that a choice must be made: Lili or Einar. Greta finds a surgeon-psychologist at the Dresden Municipal Women's Clinic, and Einar travels to Germany to become, once and for all, Lili Elbe.
New York Daily News
A sensitive exploration of sexuality and a love story.
Editorials
Daniel Blue
The Danish Girl aspires to be work of art. Ebershoff writes in a sensuous but unaffected style, as simple and rich as colors on a canvas. His characters move with formal solemnity, and there is design to their appearances, as though they took part in a dance. Einar changes into Lili, and Greta and Einar switch places artistically. New partners enter and replace one another, and a stately progress takes place, a flowing stasis which keeps the novel balanced and graceful.— Lambda Book Report
New York Daily News
A sensitive exploration of sexuality and a love story.Publishers Weekly
Ebershoff, the publishing director at Modern Library, has taken a highly unusual subject--and a big chance--for his first novel. That it comes off triumphantly is a tribute to his taste and restraint and to the highly empathetic quality of his imagination. His book is based on the real-life story of Einar Wegener, a Danish artist who 70 years ago became the first man to be medically transformed into a woman--long before the much better-known case of Christine Jorgensen. Ebershoff has naturally changed some of the characters, giving Einar an American wife from his own native city of Pasadena, thereby introducing a New World perspective on the drama. For a very real drama it is. Einar struggles with his inclinations to become the woman he and his wife, Greta, refer to as Lili, seemingly more agonized about what the change would mean than Greta, who is deeply loving and amazingly supportive throughout Einar's long ordeal. Seldom has the delicate question of sexual identity been more subtly probed (one would have to go all the way back to Jan Morris's autobiographical Conundrum); and Ebershoff's remarkable feel for the period atmosphere and detail of 1920s Copenhagen and early-'30s Dresden, where Lili's life-transforming operation is finally performed, has been poetically and intensely rendered. The portraits of the various medical men who offer their very different solutions to the problem are brilliantly accomplished. The original story ended much more unhappily than Ebershoff's, but his poignant and visionary conclusion is a fitting one for what is, above all, and despite its sensationalist trimmings, a profound and beautifully realized love story. Eight-city author tour; rights sold in Germany, Italy, U.K., Spain, Australia, Brazil, Finland, Portugal, the Netherlands and Denmark. (Feb.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.Library Journal
Ebershoff's (www.ebershoff.com) 2000 debut novel, which is currently being adapted into a film starring Nicolas Cage and Nicole Kidman, precedes the New York Times best sellers Pasadena (2002) and The 19th Wife (LJ Audio 10/15/08). Set in 1920s Copenhagen, Dresden, and Paris, the title is loosely based on the life of Danish painter Einar Wegener, who underwent sex reassignment surgery to become Lili, and explores his/her relationship with wife Greta. As Einar and Greta struggle to learn how to live with Lili, listeners are given an intimate view of a marriage irrevocably altered. While the novel is well written overall, the multitude of flashbacks adds little. Jeff Woodman's (High Deryni) performance is superb, brimming with understated emotion. Recommended for anyone who enjoys stories outside of the mainstream.—Donna Bachowski, Orange Cty. Lib. Syst., Orlando, FLBethany Schneider
Ebershoff's grippingly plotted first novel carries us throught the 1920's, when the infant fields of psychology and sexology were beginning to inform a new vision of human partnership.—Out
Bernstein
His writing is of a highly refined kind; his story is marvelously furnished with period details, from the smell of the Danish cheese that drifted from next door into a Copenhagen art gallery to the look of the Elbe River in the early Dresden spring. Most important, Mr. Ebershoff has written an unusual and affecting love story centering on a confrontation with the mystery of the other.—The New York Times Book Review
Publishers Weekly
Ebershoff's bestseller--based on the true story of 1920s married artists Einar and Gerda Gottleib Wegener--makes a rocky transition to audio. After posing in women's clothing for his wife's portrait work, Einar explores a preference for appearing as a woman. Eventually, he undergoes sex reassignment surgery and becomes Lili Elbe. The narration switches between Lili's and Gerda's points of view, and listeners might be left wondering why the Einar/Lili characterization seems to be a split personality, with Einar and Lili thinking of the other as separate, and both Einar and Gerda viewing Lili as a third individual. It's a confusing and dry listen made more puzzling by the decision to have the audiobook narrated by a male reader, when so much of the story is told from Gerda and Lili's viewpoints. Nevertheless, Jeff Woodman turns in a solid performance. He has a smooth voice and delivery; he gives Lili with a softness and timidity that sounds fitting and has Gerda sounding more assertive and confident. A Penguin hardcover. (June)The Boston Globe
“Heartbreaking and unforgettable . . . a complete triumph.”—The Boston Globe
The New York Times
“An unusual and affecting love story.”—The New York Times
Esquire
“A sophisticated and searching meditation on the nature of identity.”—Esquire
The Baltimore Sun
“It is nearly impossible not to be moved.”—The Baltimore Sun