"Tove Ditlevsen's autobiographical trilogy about her troubled life in Copenhagen"-- Childhood tells the story of a misfit child's single-minded determination to become a poet. Youth describes her early experiences of sex, work, and independence. Dependency picks up the story as the narrator embarks on the first of her four marriages and goes on to describe her horrible descent into drug addiction, enabled by her sinister, gaslighting doctor-husband....

In describing her experiences managing a coffee plantation in Kenya, the author provides insight into the nature of African life