Suzanne Brøgger’s THE JADE CAT On Sale Today

Today we celebrate the publication of Suzanne Brogger's acclaimed novel The Jade Cat, translated from the Danish by Anne Born, and now available for the first time in U.S. bookstores. First published in 1997 in Denmark, and translated into English for the U.K. market in 2004, The Jade Cat is a gripping saga of Danish highlife and lowlife through three generations of a tormented family is as diverse and uncompromising as William Styron's Sophie's Choice and Isabel Allende's House of Spirits.

Here's a sampling of early praise for The Jade Cat:

"A brilliant novel about a brilliant family. It brings a lost world to life. A must read." - Erica Jong

"Suzanne Brogger is one of Scandinavia's greatest living writers and an iconic figure, a modern-day George Sand, who has always defied taboos, pieties, and cliches -who has written and lived fearlessly. She is a poet, an essayist, a dramatist, a memoirist, and a distinguished jazz singer and composer in addition to being one of her country's most admired and read novelists. The Jade Cat is a great family epic of love and war and a fitting introduction of Brogger to the audience her peerless gifts deserve." - Judith Thurman

"A further index of this novelist's originality and power." - The Independent

"Brøgger's lively and insightful novel chronicles the fates of the Jewish Løvin family as they endure the tragicomic events of the 20th century. . . Brøgger offers readers a powerful, personal account of rapidly changing times through the lens of a family whose comedies, tragedies and absurdities are magnified by historical context and whose contemporary descendants provide a glimpse of a more hopeful future." -Publishers Weekly

Suzanne Brøgger’s THE JADE CAT in Booklist

Coming next week is Suzanne Brogger's The Jade Cat, a remarkable new novel recently reviewed in Booklist: "Spanning continents and two world wars, this sprawling family saga follows one family and their relentless ambition. Starting on New Year’s Eve, 1940, the wealthy Lovin family is rife with drama and heartbreak. Almost oblivious to the collapsing world around them, the family continues their infighting and struggling. . . Brogger’s Tolstoy-like observations about family (“The same phenomenon that makes the family so intolerable when you are young is precisely what makes it so fascinating when you are old”) make readers want to follow the difficult, and not entirely sympathetic, characters."

Suzanne Brøgger’s THE JADE CAT in Publishers Weekly

Suzanne Brøgger's acclaimed novel The Jade Cat is reviewed in Publishers Weekly: "Brøgger’s lively and insightful novel chronicles the fates of the Jewish Løvin family as they endure the tragicomic events of the 20th century and adhere to patriarch Max’s injunction: “Thou shalt be a personality.” Forging an identity, however, becomes complicated when the family is torn apart by war and forced to abandon its religious identity and nationality. Although the novel expands its breadth by including anecdotes about even the most minor players, the narrative’s emphasis is on three generations of women—strong-willed Katze; her daughter, Li, who comes of age during WWII; and Li’s eldest daughter Zeste. Hypocrisy, particularly with regard to gender-appropriate sexual conduct, is a major issue for all three, though each fares badly in the battle of the sexes. Attitudes toward Jewish identity—animosity, denial, ambivalence—also provide a common link among the stories. Brøgger offers readers a powerful, personal account of rapidly changing times through the lens of a family whose comedies, tragedies and absurdities are magnified by historical context and whose contemporary descendants provide a glimpse of a more hopeful future."