Rachel Cusk, Karl Ove Knausgård, Jon McGregor, Hernan Diaz, Chetna Maroo: all are big fans of On the Calculation of Volume, the cycle of novels by Danish author Solvej Balle about a woman who has fallen out of time and wakes up every day on 18 November. Everyone around her experiences this day for the first and only time, but for Tara Selter, everything is the same every time. The only variable is herself.

a long-term project

Solvej Balle came up with the concept for this seven-volume cycle in 1987 and began writing it in 1999. The first three volumes drew more and more readers in Denmark and in 2022 Balle was awarded the Nordic Council Literature Prize, the highest literary honour in Scandinavia after the Nobel Prize. The rights to the series have since been sold to twenty-five countries. In English, the first two volumes have been translated by Barbara J. Haveland and published by New Directions. This year, Solvej Balle will spend a month as our writer-in-residence in Brussels – the birthplace of the main character, Tara Selter! – where she will continue working on volume six of her still unfinished cycle.

the endless eighteenth of november

Balle imagines the bizarre fate of her protagonist down to the last detail, describing how Tara tries to reconcile herself practically and philosophically with her chronic and chronological imprisonment. Together, the books in this series form a fascinating reflection on loneliness, happiness, love and friendship that makes you think about what really matters. Tara Selter does her best not to succumb to the accumulation of hundreds of 18 Novembers, and thanks to the author’s ingenious inventiveness, that one day remains endlessly fascinating. After reading these books, you will inevitably look at your own everyday life differently.

about the author

Solvej Balle (b. 1962) studied literature and philosophy. She made her debut at the age of 24 and established her name as a writer in the 1990s. She has published several novels, poems and short prose works. The author’s breakthrough, According to the Law, was published in 1993. The novel was clearly inspired by such great storytellers as Franz Kafka and Jorge Luis Borges and was soon listed among the best books of the century by Danish newspaper Politiken. Her work has been compared to that of Peter Seeberg and Villy Sørensen, two heavyweights of Danish literature. She lives on the small island of Ærø, where she runs her own publishing company with her son.