A range of titles celebrating this hard-to-translate aspect of the country’s culture is being lined up to tap the appetite for all things Nordic
Forget the bloody crime novels of Henning Mankell and Jo Nesbø and the bleak crime television of The Bridge and The Killing. The latest Scandinavian export is the Danish concept of “hygge”, and it will be all over bookshops come Christmas.
Pronounced, approximately, hue-ga, hygge loosely translates as cosiness, but means more than that. It’s about a feeling of wellbeing, about enjoying life, whether through time spent with close friends or family, sitting by a fire with a hot chocolate, or putting on warm socks and dry clothes after a rainstorm. If that’s not clear, perhaps the flurry of books out this autumn exploring the concept will help clarify it: whether it’s The Little Book of Hygge by the chief executive of Copenhagen’s Happiness Research Institute, Meik Wiking, How to Hygge or The Art of Hygge, all out in September, it could be the biggest trend in publishing this Christmas.
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