Maren Uthaug Receives the Golden Laurel Wreath

On Thursday afternoon, the author Maren Uthaug was surprised by the Committee for the Golden Laurel Wreath at her publishing house, Lindhardt and Ringhof. The Committee was there to give her the happy news that she has received the Golden Laurel Wreath for her novel "11%." 

The novel is set in a new era where no men are left in society, except for a small group of males kept at a breeding center in Lolland. The lives of four women become unwillingly intertwined, but they are forced to cooperate when a boy suddenly appears in the wild. The question is, when will he contain enough testosterone to become a threat to them all? "Consider why there are so many words that have never been created in feminine form, like murderer and rapist, or warlord," as quoted from the book. 

"My novel isn't a manifesto for how I think society should be. I'm just playing with the structures we have today, against a backdrop where everything is about gender. But actually, the book isn't about gender. It's about the timeless problems that make us human: Loneliness, stress, and the like. And how we always group ourselves with like-minded people – in my book, the women have grouped themselves based on how they masturbate," Maren Uthaug explained in an interview with Bog.dk. 

"Of course, we are incredibly proud on behalf of the publishing house and happy for Maren," says literary director Sune de Souza Schmidt-Madsen: 

"I think it's well deserved because she has already established herself with an impressive body of work. But at the same time, I also think it's wonderfully brave of the booksellers to vote for '11%.' The novel is controversial and edgy... and completely fantastic. The readers and book buyers have thrown themselves at it, it has been number 1 on the bestseller list for months, and it's already in its 7th edition." 

This is the second year in a row that an author from Lindhardt and Ringhof has received the Golden Laurel Wreath. Last year Thomas Korsgaard was honored for his novel "Man skulle nok have været der", which was the final installment in the trilogy about Tue.