A midsummer evening. A dip in the lake. A stolen glance at your best friend’s partner. Waist Deep by Linea Maja Ernst is the story of five friends from university who spend a week together in a rural cabin in Denmark. All seems idyllic on the surface, but long-buried desires and secrets soon come to light, disrupting the peace. Published in Danish in 2024, this sun-soaked novel now appears in English in Sherilyn Nicolette Hellberg’s lush translation.
In spite of its contemporary setting, with its iPhones and Instagram posts, Waist Deep thrums with something more timeless and folkloric, recalling many stories of hidden longing unfolding in the forest, from A Midsummer Night’s Dream to the Brothers Grimm. Partners switch, children vanish then reappear, secret encounters are spotted through the trees by those who were not meant to see them.
Ernst’s narrative glides seamlessly between the friends in the close third person, often giving multiple perspectives on the same small encounter, sometimes within the space of a page. This gives the writing a fluidity that not only reflects the easy, fast-paced repartee among the group, but crackles with intimacy and eroticism.
As well as a story of yearning, this is a story of friendship and the trials of evolving relationships as the people within them grow. Not all of the characters are likeable – in fact, few of them are – and the ever-changing point of view allows us subtly to explore the politics of the group. Sylvia is battling her unrequited feelings for Esben (soon to be married to Karen) and her wider disappointment that her counterparts have conformed to more traditional ways of life – child-rearing, monogamy – while she would prefer to lounge among the trees and read Sylvia Plath. Her vision is romantic, and to the rest of the ensemble it proves to be more than slightly grating, particularly when it disrupts their perfectly curated, immaculately laid-out evening meals.
While some members of the party are better developed than others – Karen, for example, is glimpsed only in brief snapshots, through the eyes of others – the tableau as a whole coheres into a credibly messy portrait of clashing personal histories, as the characters self-indulgently hold on to past hopes and to their outdated ideas of who their friends really are. As they bicker, flirt and snark – the dialogue filled with sharp and witty observations – we see how they struggle to cling to each other, even as the world and their own instincts urge them to give up on the undying radicalism and community they once sought.
Emily Goulding is a freelance reviewer based in London, and the creator of the Instagram page @thingsthativeread
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