The Trail We Leave — Ruben Palma

 The Trail We Leave received rave reviews in Denmark for its exploration of the lives of exiles in Scandinavia and the difficulty of living between two cultures (with sometimes comic, sometimes tragic results). These stories are told from moments of crisis as the various characters try to assimilate into a new culture-the highly intelligent Chilean schoolgirl who suffers the pressure of achieving in a difficult foreign language, the romantic young man from Bangladesh brought to ruin because he misinterprets the sexual mores of Scandinavia or the Chilean couple whose marriage crumbles under the tensions of exile.

In one way or another, we are all exiles, and these stories will appeal to the general reader because of their exploration of the consequences of miscommunication. As Michael Zangenberg wrote in Politiken, Palma "also expands the field to embrace the gap between the sexes, between two national languages and cultures, between life and death, between past and future."



"Fine short stories about a human being who is pulled up by the roots and has to try to create new ones."-Niels Lillelund, Jyllands Posten