Anita’s Homecoming

The warm blood trickled over her fingers. His body contracted as he stared at her, a rattling sound passing his lips. Then his knees suddenly caved in and he collapsed in front of her, letting the gun drop onto the floor. She quickly bent down to pick it up. For a moment he lay on the rug staring up at her with profound indignation. It came as no surprise to her. She knew it was a characteristic of psychopaths that for all their ruthlessness towards others, their self-pity was limitless.

On a cold and clammy day in March 1948, Anita Gerholdt lands at Copenhagen Airport. She is travelling under a false name, and in her suitcase she carries a gun. Since the war she has worked for the British intelligence services, and now she returns to cooperate with Danish Intelligence on an operation.

Opposing interests, rampant paranoia and personal conflicts are clouding the situation, and Anita’s homecoming becomes anything but a warm visit. Old memories and friends pop up – but there is also an abundance of new enemies in an infected political climate, where everybody suspects each other and is only out to save themselves. Anita’s task would seem simple, but soon her visit to Denmark becomes a struggle for her own survival.

Anita’s Homecoming is a novel about the Cold War and high politics, but also about love and the people caught up in the political gamble.

Claes Johansen (b. 1957) is one of the most prolific Danish writers of his generation. He is bilingual and has so far published 40 books in Danish and English, written several plays for the Danish and Irish State Broadcasting Corporations and carried out work for several British record labels. He has also played in record-releasing New Wave/Mod Revival bands the Squad and Route 66. Claes Johansen moved from Denmark to England in 1992 and today lives in Ireland along with his wife, with whom he has three daughters.