Scandinavian literature summaries - 2023
Short summary - Ingen kender natten
Hans Christian Branner
As teenagers, Simon and Lydia were housemates in Copenhagen. The boys in the yard shouted that Lydia's mother was a whore; Lydia teased and bullied them, and they beat her, and she fought back, and once Simon, unable to stand it, rushed at the offenders, and everything disappeared, only pain, and screams, and blood remained. Then she and Lydia hid in the coal pit and sat for a long time, and when everything was quiet, she led him to the attic ... And then they lay, closely clinging to each other, and both understood that what had happened would remain with them forever and no one could change this.
Many years pass, and in the last year of the war, Simon accidentally meets Lydia. Despite the fact that Lydia has expensive cigarettes and silk outfits from nowhere, despite her drunken smile, Simon desperately wants to believe her words of love and that he is safe with her, although he is wanted by the Gestapo and care must be taken. But, apparently, Lydia nevertheless betrayed him, because on the third night the Nazis come to her apartment. Simon manages to get away on the roofs, but stumbles upon a car with policemen, who, as expected during the curfew, open fire on the fleeing man. Simon is wounded in the arm, but without stopping, he runs, runs in the rain and wind, runs away from some dogs, climbs over some fences ... His consciousness is troubled ... Suddenly he finds himself sitting in front of a fashionable mansion, from the windows of which flows music. "Farther!" he says to himself...
Get up, Thomas tells himself. “Get up and leave your home, which is not your home, away from your married life, which is no married life ...” But, as always, he remains sitting and drinking, drinking, and now the hallucinations begin again, and again he remembers his mother. She tortured Thomas with her love; he could no longer listen to confidential stories about her lovers every night. He locked himself in a room, got drunk, and she pounded on his door and screamed that she would kill herself. And once I really took a sleeping pill. She could have been saved by simply calling the doctor, but Thomas did nothing. And now ghostly analytical demons are talking to him about his guilt, and everything is spinning around, and gaps in consciousness appear ...
Simon is very tired. Lydia gave him away. He will kill her and then himself. But first we must warn our comrades. You have to ask strangers for help. Simon gets to the window of the mansion, sees dancing couples in it, and in the corner - a drunken man, who is approached by a woman who looks like Lydia and her boyfriend.
Gabrielle and Daphne approach Thomas. His father-in-law and his wife, father and daughter; and it seems to Thomas that the relationship between them is not entirely innocent ... Here, in their place, a friend of the house, Dr. Felix, appears. Daphne has been using a lot of medical terms lately. And for him, Thomas, she does not open the door when he knocks on her bedroom. But he still comes. He is not able to break this hell of unreality even with a shot to the temple, although the gun has been ready for a long time ... I want to hit Felix, but instead Thomas starts talking and drowns out the doctor with words until he leaves ... And Thomas already has a woman sitting on his knees named Sonya. She talks about how Daphne and Felix humiliate her, how she is afraid of Gabriel; Sonya confesses her love to Thomas, begs to save her... Daphne comes, takes her away, but Thomas does nothing. Gabriel sits next to him...
Two Germans from guard duty are approaching the mansion. Simon hid in the backyard. The main thing is not to be given alive. It's cold, I want to sleep, my arm hurts...
Gabriel, a successful collaborator, quickly settles the case with the Germans about the wrong blackout and continues the conversation with Thomas.
A girl who comes out of the house with a trash can stumbles upon Simon. He asks her to call someone from the adults who can be trusted. She leaves...
Carried away, Gabriel tells Thomas his beliefs: the future belongs to capital, which will create a new form of dictatorship. Let people believe that they are fighting for freedom - do not take away beautiful slogans from them, you just need to use them for your own purposes. In fact, a person needs not freedom, but fear. Weighing, money and fear.
Simon, afraid that the girl will burst into tears and fail the case, convinces himself to remain calm and sane, nevertheless, for some reason, he goes ... enters the kitchen of the mansion, ..
And yet Gabriel is not sure of himself, he is unhappy, lonely and afraid of his loneliness. Suddenly, he is struck by a heart attack, and in the last minutes only Thomas, who has come out of a state of immobility, remains with him. He hears Gabriel let out that quiet cry that is heard behind the words of every person, and understands that this cry is meaningless, because a gentle touch is enough to calm him. And he also understands that the moment has come when he will get up and leave. And then there's a scream...
One of the maids in the kitchen, seeing a dirty stranger with a gun, screams loudly, and Simon, out of surprise, shoots at the ceiling ...
Thomas enters the kitchen, approaches Simon. “Hello brother,” Thomas says.
Gabriel is taken to the hospital. Everyone's attention is so busy with this event that no one paid attention to the shot, and Thomas can quietly bring the "brother" to him. He bandages Simon's hand, gives him something to eat, changes him from his dirty worker's clothes into his own expensive suit, noting in passing that they are the same size, and in general they look like twins. Then Thomas takes Simon to the city, thanks to Gabriel's ausweiss, bypassing the German posts. He was tired, but he had never been so happy in his life.
Simon is not completely sure if Thomas can be trusted. And yet, when it's time to part, he breaks out: "You are fit for better than a senseless death ... you should be with us." He refuses, but when Simon leaves, he becomes so lonely ... so empty ... as if in oblivion, he carefully follows the “brother” ... enters the door of the tavern, climbs the stairs ... Then he is beaten on the head and he loses consciousness.
For Kuznets, the leader of the underground group, it was a complete surprise that Simon vouched for a man who had come for some unknown reason (probably an informer), whom he himself did not really know. However, for now, he just locks Thomas in the attic. Kuznets has so many problems: a group of people persecuted by the Germans, who are now hiding in a tavern, must be transported to Sweden; yesterday they failed to send, and no new instructions were received ... But even he has less trouble than Magdalena, the owner of the tavern - she needs to wash the dishes, prepare food for visitors, feed the underground and also take care of her stepfather who has fallen into childhood . And so long, so long ago she didn't have a man...
It's cold in the attic. The morning bells are ringing. Now Thomas is really drunk, he is on the verge of insanity... Vision? No, it's his brother... “We have to go, Thomas. It's about your life." Of course, he is delirious, but he must obey his brother... The body does not obey him, he cannot walk... Simon tries to carry him in his arms, but nothing happens, he is wounded and tired...
When Thomas wakes up again, there is a woman nearby - big, maybe too big - the exact opposite of Daphne. She leaves the food and, leaving, does not lock the attic door - obviously on purpose so that he can leave - because they want to kill him as an informer. But Thomas doesn't leave... though she won't come back, of course... but...
Magdalena runs back and forth, stopping for a minute to say something, to answer, to pick up and give back; there are still a lot of things to do, and there is some kind of heaviness in her whole body ... But at last evening comes, and she again goes to the attic ...
Thomas suddenly sees Magdalena next to him, touches her shoulders, hair, chest...
Then they lie, intertwined bodies, and everyone has such a feeling as if this is the first time. Thomas talks about his mother, and Magdalena talks about how her stepfather was a pimp and used her, half a child, despite resistance and tears. "And you look after him?" Thomas is surprised. “I have to, for my own sake,” she replies. "That's the only way to overcome." And then she falls asleep in his arms.
Magdalena's stepfather, left unattended, finds the keys, sneaks into the tavern hall, turns on the lights everywhere, drinks and talks to himself. Two - disguised policemen - break open the door and, having deceived the crazy old man, force him to show where the refugees are hiding.
Appearing with Magdalena at the door of the room where the group ready to go is hiding, Thomas sees the giant, who has already managed to put everyone against the wall. Thomas is not armed, but he rushes at a stranger and takes his gun from him. But he managed to shoot - Magdalena was killed.
The blacksmith quickly leads the refugees up another staircase. Thomas remains to cover the retreat. Simon joins him. In a shootout, Simon is wounded. “Just not alive…” he says, and Thomas, realizing, kills him. And then it's Thomas' turn. At the very last moment, when his body is already pierced by a dozen bullets, he has time to think that the tower bells are about to start playing their melody - “The light of life forever shines” ...